Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Thursday, December 12, 2013

LRT-MRT Fare Hike to Bring Better Train Services and Allow More Projects Outside Metro Manila

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The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA), and Metro Rail Transit III (MRT-3) today presented a proposal to increase fares for the LRT and MRT lines, at the one-time public consultation conducted at the LRT-2 Depot in Santolan, Pasig City.

As a background to the proposal, the transport agencies explained that the LRTA and the MRT-3 are both operating at a loss, requiring the national government to subsidize much of their expenses. These include daily operating expenses such as overhead, power supply, and salaries. They also include costs for repairs and replacement of train and rail parts, and for the payment of existing debts.

Based on their 2012 financial records, the LRTA had a deficit of P 4.704 Billion, while MRT-3’s deficit was at P 7.250 Billion.

The average cost per passenger for LRT 1 and 2 was at P 34.74. 59% of this, or P 20.46, was shouldered by the government, and only 41%, or P 14.28, was actually paid by the commuter. In the case of MRT 3, the average cost per passenger was P 53.96. 77% or P41.46 was subsidized by government, while only 23% or P12.40 was paid by the passenger.

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Following the Department of Transportation and Communications’ (DOTC) successful auction of the common ticketing system for the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Metro Rail Transit (MRT) lines yesterday, the transport agency has scheduled the opening of financial proposals for the first airport Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project on Thursday, 12 December 2013.

Like the Automatic Fare Collection System (AFCS) bid, the tendering process for the P 17.5 Billion Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) Project has been fast-tracked by the transport agency to speed up the government’s infrastructure program.

“We are expediting work on our PPPs. Especially now that we are re-bidding the LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension (LRT-1 Cavex) project and preparing to bid out the Integrated Transport System (ITS) project later this month,” said DOTC Spokesperson Michael Arthur Sagcal.

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Getting five movie tickets to the Special Blocked Screening of "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" was not the only thing spectacular. It was also having your blog logo printed prominently on the movie ticket itself. Being an online media partner of the event truly has its perks and privileges, and Wazzup Pilipinas, along with its team of bloggers, are enjoying every single one of them.

Though the three hour lengthy movie was reward enough especially for us fans of the The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) movie franchise, the mention of our blog name among the moviegoers was also an awesome recognition that make us truly proud to be partly responsible in promoting the event.

Our readers who learned about the special blocked screening through our blogs are obviously glad they were among the first to watch such a grand blockbuster.

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"Whether it be coming from Canada, USA, Dubai, Europe, Australia, other Asian countries, or elsewhere, we Filipinos love to receive a Balikbayan Box from our loved ones abroad!"

If this doesn't put you into tears because of laughing out loud uncontrollably, then you must be a zombie.

Mikey Bustos is at it again with another humorous video based from Miley Cyrus's controversial Wrecking Ball MTV.

Incidentally MTV recognized the formerly wholesome teenage pop star gone whoresome with the Artist of the Year award. Now, that's an accomplishment that was probably due to her no holds barred video that shocked the whole world.

Mikey Bustos is not going to let himself be left behind with another sure hit video that shows what he does best: poking fun on Filipino idiosyncrasies.

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From our first meeting one special night at Makati's newest hotel-like serviced residence they call One Pacific Place Serviced Residences, I knew the wedding would be very special.

I met with Miss Rhoda and Miss Mimi a few weeks ago and was told that they organized a surprise wedding proposal for their children. I was so excited to be part of this momentous event between two lovers so I didn't hesitate to jump in headfirst and let my camera take shots while I witness what seems like a fairy tale story done in real life.

The proposal was something out of a romantic movie or maybe from out of our favorite tele-serye. What was so real that night was the excitement that surrounded the venue. Everyone wanted the best for the couple.

The organizers also told me that they were gearing up to have the wedding sometime in April – less than six months away. They had their grand vision and plans to make it truly special. Now, after a few weeks, I received a call inviting me to once again continue my coverage of a fabulous bonding taken into insurmountable heights.

It was off to The Lakeshore, that prime real-estate haven located in Mexico, Pampanga - to plan for a dream island wedding that is soon to unfold and make our hearts beat as one with the couple.

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Almost every girl dreamed to be a beauty queen someday. Girls were likely done everything just to achieve a pretty but simple look. ‘Beauty queen’ is not just having a pretty face it includes traits, talents and intelligence. If you possessed all of that, you’re worthy to be called a ‘beauty queen.’

Last August 18, 2013, the Miss World coronation night was held at Indonesia. There are 127 contestants who competed for the said title. And proudly to say, Miss Philippines, Megan Young got the crown last. This is the first time, our country Philippines got the title since 1951.

During the preliminaries, she gave her best to win some awards; she won the ‘Top Model’ award, placed fourth in the ‘Multimedia Contest’ and fifth in the ‘Beach Beauty’ contest. She also received the title, ‘Miss World Asia’ the highest rank among Asian countries.

As the new Miss World, she has to travel around the world to visit and have a charity work there.

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MetisEtrade held the Happy Trading Hours November Finals at their head office in Fort Bonifacio Global City. The new defending top trader was announced to be Gabriel Vergara (14.8% gains), dethroning Robert Escano who was the monthly champion in October.

Happy Trading Hours is a weekly financial event conceptualized to cater for trading enthusiasts. HTH happens every Friday, during the hours when the financial market moves the most. This infotainment (information with entertainment) is a combination of a seminar and a demo competition - to educate the basics of volatile fx trading.

The 12 teams that participated can only trade Gold, Oil, EURUSD, and SPX500 where each member of the team can trade at least 3 times with only one instrument out of the four. Ryan Basa’s team (14.9% gains) was disqualified from winning the title due to a minor mistake in trading SPX.

United in Laughter: Breaking the Highly Miscontrued Stand-Up Comedy Barrier

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The Cinema 5 of Greenbelt 3 was a venue to a stand-up comedy revolution.

Indeed, with an almost full house, United in Laughter was undoubtedly phenomenal. Though the cinema is just a 200 seating capacity, it is quite incredible that Comedy Manila, the organizers of the event, were able to attract quite a number of guests that were close to a standing room.

I thought I was not able to get a seat because I came in late, but I was glad there were a few seats left somewhere at the 4th row. The amazing thing was that most of the people inside the cinema were young lads not above 30. It seems the youth has finally gained an interest to this brand of comedy that seems to catch the attention more of our older generation.

With six comedians sharing the spotlight (literally), I have to admit it was supposed to be kinda easy. The variety will not bore the audience. Instead of listening to just one comic in an hour of humorous stories, the audience were treated with six witty personalities of different nationalities.

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One Fighting Championship, Asia’s largest mixed martial arts organization with a 90% market share, has capped off the year with a series of high-profile signings, highlighted by the acquisition of undefeated Welterweight kingpin Ben Askren. He joins a list of top mixed martial artists like Dae Hwan Kim, Chris Lokteff, Harris Sarmiento and Aung La Nsang, to recently agree to exclusive contracts.

Ben Askren is a legend in collegiate wrestling with four All-American awards. He finished his wrestling career at the University of Missouri with a record of 153-8. 91 of those victories came by way of pins, which are third most in NCAA Division I history. He also wrestled in the US Olympics team in 2008 before transitioning to mixed martial arts. Since his debut in 2009, he has won twelve bouts in a row in dominating fashion, winning multiple championships and earning a spot as one of the best Welterweights in the world.

A veteran of the MMA scene in South Korea, Dae Hwan Kim will compete on Asia's largest stage for the first time. The 26 year-old is still undefeated in his mixed martial arts career with eight wins on his record. Kim has fluid boxing and an aggressive fighting style that has served him well. Kim is looking to make waves in ONE FC and with the Bantamweight division arguably the most loaded with talent; it will be interesting to see how Kim compares to fellow contenders Kevin Belingon, Soo Chul Kim and Maskatsu Ueda. He made a successful ONE FC debut, submitting Australian submission grappler Thanh Vu in an exciting contest that displayed Kim’s exciting fighting style.

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Michael "Myke" Celis is an advertising executive cum blogger turned book author with the release of his book entitled 100 Life Lessons for Success. The content of the book were from his regular Facebook shout-outs and apparently some people found it amusing and worthy enough to be reproduced in book format.

My first impression is that it will be just another thought of the day or a shorter version of "Soup for the Soul" as the contents may just be some rewording of ordinary and common thoughts rephrased and restructured to look spanking brand new.

But who gives a damn about original or copy-pasted thoughts as long as it helps inspire people and we get to share our thoughts regardless if its dirty or wholesome.

It is an extreme honor to be able to publish a book, and quite a tedious task to get others to buy and read it especially if you are no famous celebrity who has an already established name (or a ghost writer that's really good).

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The Tomorrow People works on the premise that there's a possibility for some humans to evolve into a generation with special powers. Those powers they call the three Ts - teleportation, telekinesis and telepathy. But as the TV series reveals, some may even have the power to do a fourth T - time travel.

With the advancement of technology where we can send voice and data over the Internet, and where social media has kept us connected with our loved ones, and now there's technology where music or sound can be sent via wireless, I guess powers like that can be reproduced using technology.

If ever we get to the point of manifesting superhuman abilities, it will surely be a blast!

Speaking of blasts, what makes it more interesting to watch great sci-fi TV series is the presence of multimedia speakers that allow us to experience realism in our video watching. The sounds coming from blasts like explosions and sudden car stops and crashes are better appreciated if they could be clearly heard and identified.

I got my hands on the Braven 440 HD Wireless speakers to use while watching The Tomorrow People and it was a great experience to be able to hear crisp and clear sounds from the show.

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Their branch in Tacloban was completely wiped out by super typhoon Yolanda and their stocks and cash register looted in the aftermath of the world’s strongest typhoon in recent history.

But that did not stop global beauty brand The Body Shop from doing its own share in helping out the survivors of this tragedy.

“The Body Shop Philippines and our sister company Marithe Francois Gerbaud lost nearly P10 million in the floods and the looting that followed. Still, our customers, our employees and the company as a whole believe that we could still help those who are in desperate need for aid. And that’s when we came up with the idea of putting donation boxes in our shops,” explained Joanie Gajes, marketing officer of The Body Shop Philippines.

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I received a special treat when I got home from a whole day of event hopping since December has kept me busy with lots of invites from different brands.

They were all cute and colorful making them perfect for the holidays!

I first learned about them during the Halloween season because of their creatively designed cupcakes especially the ones with green themed designs containing the usual Halloween images. So I was deeply glad when they sent me a tweet asking me to try their adorable cupcakes. I immediately replied and accepted their invitation.

However, due to some personal emergencies, we had to postpone the delivery of the cupcakes to another time. ...and so it's nearing Christmas already that is why they opted sending in Christmas-themed "Cuppy Keyks!

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So he claims he has it all figured out. Yeah, maybe it's true.With the stunning babes all wanting a piece of him (as what the photo posted above this article seems to represent ), Stanley Chi probably knows the secrets to how to catch the attention of the opposite sex.

No wonder the book signing of his latest book "Men are from QC, Women are from Alabang" were flocked by a number of great looking babes.

The guy hasn't lost his touch. Subtle yet alarming jokes that are not appropriate for the kids but tolerable for the adults. Well, we like to think its harmless for us, but in reality, we get really horny when he talks about how to please the women.

In real life, Stanley has caught a very desirable fish in the sea with his lovely partner that we can hide under the name of Steph. You see! Both of their names starts with the letter S - the same letter that starts my favorite three letter word.

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Run side by side with your favorite celebrities and get a chance to meet and greet Gizmo in the first-ever Superbook Fun Run, “READY…GIZMO…GO!” on Saturday, December 14, 4:30 a.m. at the 34th Street, Bonifacio Global City (beside Mercato).

Superbook Agents and Kapuso stars Sheena Halili, Bettinna Carlos with daughter Gummy and Benjamin Alves plus popular ventriloquist Ruther Urquia of Pilipinas Got Talent fame will join families and friends who have eagerly registered for the Superbook fun run for the benefit of the CBN Asia Family of Ministries which includes Operation Blessing, CBN Asia Prayer Center, the Asian Center for Missions and CBN Asia Media (The 700 Club Asia, Superbook and Tanikala).