Videos: Harte Hanks MOA Launch

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Opening ceremonies including a small program, a ribbon-cutting and a media tour were held at the Harte Hanks’ BPO facility located at the Mall of Asia (MOA) Complex in Pasay City, Present at the event were Pasay Mayor Calixto’s representative, Atty. Ray Glenn Agranzamendez, Acie Arroyo-Cruz of IBPAP, Nikki Gilladoga, AVP of SM Prime, Butch Valenzuela of CCAP, Benjamin Chacko, Harte Hanks’ Head of BPO Operations and Jonathan Bondoc, Site Director ofHarte Hanks Philippines.

Moderator during the short discussion was ANC Anchor Ron Cruz.

The Pasay facility, situated at Five E-Com Center, consolidates both of Harte Hanks Philippines’ former primary and secondary locations and creates seats for hundreds of additional new employees.

The US-based firm’s Manila affiliate employs about 2,000 IT-BPO workers, majority of whom are assigned at its primary location in Fort Bonifacio, Global City.

Jonathan Bondoc, Site Director for Harte Hanks Philippines, said the company prides itself as a BPO with a low-attrition rate, or turnover of employees, focusing on in-house programs that engage, enable and retain personnel.

“Our employees generally stay for the culture and work environment we provide,” Bondoc stressed. “We pride ourselves in a culture that is inclusive and embraces diversity.”

Below are videos from the event:

Videos: Book Museum cum Ethnology Center Tour

Wazzup Pilipinas!

We were fortunate to be among the few selected to be part of the Book Museum cum Ethnology Center tour. This awesome underrated attraction is located in Marikina Heights and is hardly noticeable unless you take a closer peek of the insides of this establishment.

From the name itself, they offer not just a broad collection of rare books but also a great number of artifacts from both local and foreign sources which comprise their "ethnology center" part. They have three buildings of which two are sort of dedicated for the ethnology part, aside from the ladies dormitory at one building which they use as a source of income to maintain their collection.

You'd be surprised to find out that the owner, Atty. Dominador Buhain, of the Book Museum cum Ethnology Center is the same owner of the Rex Bookstore. But the bookstore came first, and the collection is a result of the owner's numerous travel in and out of the country which earned him the recognition as among the most traveled individuals in the world.

We decided to take videos so our readers would get an actual walk-through of the Book Museum cum Ethnology Center  so they could somehow experience the same amazement.

Of course, nothing beats being there in person so I encourage everyone to visit this place. Details can be found at their Facebook page or you can refer to our previous blog post about them.

The big bonus about the tour is that they packaged it with some lunch and snacks from two different restaurants. The organizers sure know how to pamper their guests.

Videos: Microtel by Wyndham's Quezon City Experience Tour

Wazzup Pilipinas!

During our stay at the Microtel by Wyndham Up Technohub branch, the organizers toured us around the tourist spots near the vicinity of the hotel. The first day afternoon was spent biking with the UP Bike Share founders within the grounds of the University of the Philippines (UP), but the following morning was a tour which included the Quezon City Memorial Circle where you can find the Quezon Memorial shrine with a 66-meter trylon monument at the heart of Quezon City's most important park, and the QCX, an interactive 'social history museum' also called as the Quezon City Experience.

Below is a series of videos which starts at a tour of the Microtel by Wyndham UP Technohub hotel and includes the walk-through of the destinations we mentioned. Though this is not how the tour exactly happened but I felt it was but right to begin the tour at our point of origin.

We used a GoPro Hero4 Silver as our action camera so the shots will be different from the usual video coverage we make.

Thank you to Microtel by Wyndham for organizing this fabulous tour which was just part 1 of our Quezon City hotels media familiarization tour. The second part was a tour of the Microtel Acropolis, their newest hotel branch just opposite Eastwood city, and boasts of being a "green" establishment. We will tell you more about that particular hotel on our next blogs. Sorry if it has taken too long to release the videos. We again encountered problems with our Internet Service Provider or telco so hoping that when the new president of the country finally sits in Malacanang, he will stand up and take action against these erring telcos tat could not provide satisfactory services.