CHED Welcomes Passage of UniFAST Law

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) welcomes the passage of the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST) through Republic Act No. 106871 which was signed on October 15 by President Benigno S. Aquino III. The Commission hails it as a Landmark Social Legislation of the Administration benefiting Filipino youth.

Designed to unify all modalities of publicly-funded Student Financial Assistance Programs (StuFAPs)—Scholarships, Grants-in-Aid and Student Loans—for Tertiary Education, the UniFAST rationalizes the allocation, utilization and client-targeting of government resources and improves access to quality higher and technical education for those who need it. It shall also serve as the ultimate national human resource development mechanism and strategy that will direct beneficiaries to priority courses needed for economic growth and development. Further, it insulates any StuFAPs modality from political labeling or partisan affiliation.

The idea of a harmonized financial assistance program emerged more than five years ago as a proposal of the NEDA-Social Development Committee, but the real work took place in 2013 after a comprehensive study was conducted by the Philippine Institute of Development Studies. CHED’s current Higher Education Reform Agenda, which deemed UniFAST a priority strategy for access, gave the necessary impetus. The Commission provided continuous technical assistance to both the Lower and Upper Houses of Congress in the formulation and eventual enactment of the Law.

The UniFAST will be governed by a Board composed of the heads of CHED, DOST and TESDA as co-chairs, with the head of DepEd and representatives from DOLE, NEDA and NYC as members. The Board, with the support of a technical secretariat, will ensure program sustainability and safeguard student welfare. It will see to it that standard-setting, client- targeting, fund allocation and prioritization are based on supply/demand situations, prices and inflationary factors, the government human resources development plan and current trends in internationally-shared human resources.

Issued this 21st day of October 2015 at the Higher Education Center Building, C.P. Garcia Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City.

(signed)
Patricia B. Licuanan, Ph.D.
Chairperson

IPR Week to Focus on Cross Border Challenges, Cooperation

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Amid the rise of cross border issues in intellectual property (IP), the program line-up for this year’s IP Week Celebration, to run from 26 to 30 October, puts focus on the regional and international challenges and cooperation relating to IP protection, enforcement and adjudication.

To open this year’s IP Week celebration is the 5th Philippine Anti-Counterfeiting and Piracy Summit on 26 October at the Marriot Hotel in Pasay City. With the theme “Building Cooperation Across Borders,” the Summit is organized by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) and the National Committee on IP Rights (NCIPR), the multi-agency taskforce on IP enforcement.

To supplement the presentations and discussions on the latest issues and developments in the Philippine IP enforcement, the organizers have invited foreign speakers to discuss the pressing issues in global IP enforcement and share their respective country experience on the topic. They are Mr. Hideyuki Morooka of the Japan Patent Office; Mr. Nam Ngo Thien, IPR Attaché for South-East Asia of the Embassy of France in Singapore; Mr. Louis Bonnier and Atty. Jean-Pierre Maeder of the Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP); Mr. Cha Tae-won of the Korean Copyright Commission; Mr. Etienne Sanz de Acedo of the International Trademark Association; Mr. Man F. Tse of the National Intellectual Property Rights Center, USA; Mr. Ignacio de Medrano Caballero of the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market; and Mr. Maysa Razavi of the International Trademark Association.

The Summit will also feature the awarding of this year’s IP Champions, a recognition given to the partner individuals and institutions in IP enforcement of the NCIPR and the oath-taking of the newest batch of the Young IP Advocates, an annual IP workshop for students from selected secondary schools.

Jewelmer 2015 Annual Gala: A Journey to the Extraordinary

Wazzup Pilipinas!

We were invited to attend the annual gala night of Jewelmer, a Filipino jeweler brand whose pieces are sold in mainstream stores worldwide, and supplies golden pearls to many international designer brands.

The Jewelmer brand name, put together by Filipino scion Manuel Cojuangco and French pilot and pearl entrepreneur Jacques Branellec, was coined from the English word "jewel" and French word "mer" which means "sea" in English. It is a partnership made several years ago that could be called a divine providence of which eventually resulted to another widely-recognized brand every Filipino should be proud of.

The annual gala was held at the Manila Peninsula Hotel on October 20, 2015 dubbed as "A Journey to the Extraordinary" where the company flaunted new priced pieces of their jewelry collection and new video presentations featuring how Jewelmer came to be.

The celebration was hosted by the adorably stunning Issa Litton, who introduced the two main men behind the brand. Both Cojuangco and Branellec gave their respective messages to the delight of the elite crowd.