Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Friday, January 10, 2014

DOT Backs LGU Capacity-Building Initiatives

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The Department of Tourism (DOT) recently partnered with the Provincial Government of Oriental Mindoro in an effort to help the local government units (LGU) in crafting their individual tourism master plans.

In a simple ceremony held on 20 December 2013, the DOT-Region IV awarded to the Municipal Governments of Mansalay and Roxas, together with the Provincial Government of Oriental Mindoro, their remaining and last cash tranches amounting to an aggregate of over one million pesos.

DOT Region IV Director Rebecca Villanueva-Labit personally handed over the check to the LGU representatives at the DOT-Calamba office in Laguna, which was witnessed by Oriental Mindoro 2nd District Representative Rey V. Umali.

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MetisEtrade held the Happy Trading Hours December 2013 Finals at their head office in Fort Bonifacio Global City. The defending top trader, Gabriel Vergara (5.27% gains), was able to keep his title, securing him a spot for the finals on October 2014.

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 forex trading.

The 13 teams that participated can only trade Gold, USDJPY, EURUSD, and GBPUSD where each member of the team can trade at least 3 times with only one instrument out of the four. Team Gabriel was only ahead by $1 against his closest competitor, Mariestelle who finished second. Mariestelle was the best trader in trading Gold (25.4%) while Team Louie Ngo excelled in trading the British Pound (9.82%) and the Euro (7.93%). Team Gabriel dominated in trading the Yen (3.24%).

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Filipinos are truly creative....even in naming their children.

Last December, when the University of the Philippines released their UP College Admission Test (UPCAT) results, we saw one name that was quite odd and thought it was some sort of clerical error. Later we found out that it was confirmed correct as per Facebook post of Sincerely Yours 98 herself.

Yes! You've read it right! Sincerely Yours 98 it is! Truly for short!

Sincerely Yours 98 Pascual or Sincerely Pascual on her Facebook page is actually the third among three siblings with very unusual names given to them by their parents. Their father was the one responsible in giving the "yummy" food names to them composed of his kuya names Macaroni 85 and her ate Spaghetti 88.

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We all know how the saying goes right? ‘Magasawa ka kapag may trabaho ka na!’ or simply put, get a job then get married. But in reality, this isn’t the exact case.

Here in the Philippines, we all know for a fact that the numbers of jobless people are far greater than those with proper jobs who earn enough for their families. Now, let’s start with that thought; A large number of jobless people are married and have a lot of kids. Just the thought of providing for a large family with around P500 worth of everyday budget isn’t enough. That alone could say that we should get a career first, or get a decent paying job, before ever thinking of marriage. A blunter way of saying it is ‘Make yourself useful and productive before claiming your girlfriend/boyfriend in the altar’. Kinda harsh in my opinion, but that’s how some would put it. Of course, there are even more reasons to this.

Let’s look at a futuristic sense, shall we?

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Anne Curtis Smith is Dyesebel, along with leading men Sam Milby and Gerald Anderson to star in ABS-CBN's newest "fantaserye" television series.

Dyesebel is the dream role of Anne since she was a child. She was very grateful that she was chosen by ABS-CBN inspite of the controversy she was involved in last 2013 where the famous line "I can buy you, your friend and this club". Now it seems it will be more like ""I can buy Ursula, her friends and this kingdom"

Biboy Arboleda said that on the process of choosing Dyesebel, ABS-CBN ran a marketing survey among different platforms including social media and Anne topped the list. Thus she was finally given the role of the Philippines' most popular mermaid character.

From Dyosa to Sirena, Anne as Dyesebel this 2014 will be an interesting watch on TV.

Social Media Revolution: Influencing Bloggers to Social Responsibility

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The Social Media Revolution seminar is organized by Benita & Catalino Yap Foundation (BCYF) Technology Institute. In this event, you will learn more about digital marketing and also meet bloggers whose hearts are for social responsibility.

This will be on January 25, 2014 1 pm to 5:30 pm at the Amphitheatre of iAcademy, Makati.

The Social Media workshop this year was created specifically for bloggers to empower them to become socially responsible using social media as a tool. The organizers would like to make bloggers more active in writing blogs that would also benefit other people thru their own theme (ex. fashion, lifestyle, travel, film).

At the end of this event the bloggers would have a social media campaign using their own theme of blogging to apply/ implement right after the workshop.

The speakers are Ms. Janette Toral, Mr. Khoa Bui and Mr. Mark Delgado.

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"Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone. Marvel is proud to announce Original Sin, the eight-part blockbuster comic event of the summer, from writer Jason Aaron and artist Mike Deodato Jr.!" - Marvel.com

The dead body of all-seeing, all-knowing Uatu, the Watcher, is discovered on the Moon. His lunar lair destroyed and looted of its valuable alien technology. The biggest heroes of the Marvel Universe including Captain America, Iron Man, Wolverine, Black Widow and more are on the hunt for his murderer.

This will be Marvel Comics' annual major crossover event called Original Sin, launching in May.

"It's all the skeletons, all the dark things that you never know, all the interesting and intriguing information — not all of it even bad," says Marvel executive editor Tom Brevoort. "And it will all expand out into dozens of stories that will cut to the core of who these characters are."

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LINE, the world’s leading mobile platform with 320 million users worldwide, today announced the release of LINE whoscall, a free call-filtering and number management app for Android developed by Gogolook Co., Ltd., a world leading caller ID service company.

LINE whoscall for Android devices will allow users to identify the source of incoming numbers and filter out unwanted calls and messages. The app is a reworked interface for LINE users based on whoscall, which has been downloaded more than 5 million times worldwide, and was selected for the Google Best Innovation Award of 2013 in eight regions, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

LINE whoscall utilizes a database of over 600 million numbers, including businesses and shops, sourced from the Yellow Pages and other public data resources to automatically identify and display the source of incoming calls and messages as they arrive. This allows users to filter out suspicious numbers before they answer a call or message.

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“The Black Nazarene is an ironic pornographic celebration of violence—the overt violence of the past and the more subtle violence of the present.....The familiarity of the Jesus story has anesthetized us from what is at the heart of the ritual. Millions of men, women, and children are parading around with a wooden statue of a bloodied victim of torture, capital punishment, and God-sanctioned human sacrifice. The Black Nazarene is an ironic pornographic celebration of violence—the overt violence of the past and the more subtle violence of the present.” - Filipino Freethinkers.org

January 9, the annual Feast of the Black Nazarene once again drew millions of devotees as expected. It is also expected that around 60,000 devotees are to attend the procession in Cagayan De Oro City. The statue is over 400 years old and has survived fires, earthquakes, and the devastation of the 2nd World War. It is paraded around the city until its way back to the Basilica in what is known as the Traslacion.

The Nazarene devotion is the most successful example of what the church wants to accomplish. The dream that drew the founders of the Church of the Nazarene together is still the same dream that guides it today. Some may vehemently resent the eventual circumstances just to meet the objectives, but a great number probably just want to test and follow their faith blindly. A sacrifice in exchange of favors.

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"Following criticisms that the government's standards were far below international standards, Palace spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said on Wednesday, January 8, that the Philippines doesn't have to follow world standards. ...."We are following our standards. We don’t necessarily have to follow the international standards," he said." - Rappler

The Philippines rarely follow international standards. We don't realize that it is one of the reasons why we cannot successfully compete globally.

This is clearly a case of "Pwede na yan" or "Bahala na yan" which is very common with people in the Philippine government.

The bunkhouses or temporary shelters for typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) victims were also reported overpriced and substandard. It was quoted that P959,360 for a 12 unit bunkhouse (which boils down to about P80,000 per unit) which is to serve as temporary shelter. Gawad Kalinga only spends around P 125,000 per unit for a permanent shelter. Clearly there is a problem here.

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"On Wednesday morning, a seemingly more positive Chiu posted a photo on her Instagram account with the caption: "People will hate you, rate you, shake you and break you. but how strong you stand is what makes you." good morning!!!:) today is another day!:) God bless everyone!:) #goodvibes #spreadthelove #thankful #grateful brideforrent jan 15 na!:)" - ABS-CBN News.com

This was posted on Kim Chiu's Instagram account after she apparently was losing sleep due to her previous statement to the members of the press during a pres conference for their movie Bride for Rent where she said ""We don't owe you any of our personal lives" when asked about the about the real score between her and on screen partner Xian Lim.

To which she tweeted in her official Twitter account " Cant sleep.... :(

She received both positive and negative reactions in social media where one tells her that she owes her popularity from the press.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

DTSI Group Wins Philippine Avaya Business Partner of the Year for the 6th Consecutive Year

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Diversified Technology Solutions International (DTSI) Group recently bagged the coveted Avaya Business Partner (BP) of the Year Award in the Philippines for 2013. This is the 6th consecutive year that Avaya recognized the DTSI Group as a leading Platinum Business Partner.

The DTSI Group has been consistently recognized for its overall exemplary business performance in terms of value selling and revenue among all its partners in the Philippines.

As a global provider of business communication systems, Avaya Philippines has worked closely with the DTSI Group in delivering cutting-edge communications technology solutions since May 2000. “From a business and sales support standpoint, I commend the DTSI Group particularly their proactive sales and pre-sales teams for delivering the Avaya message to our customers and helping us validate in the market the positive Avaya customer experience in a more personal and relevant manner,” said Ed Doctolero, Avaya Philippines Senior Country Manager

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ASUS today announced Transformer Book Duet (TD300), the world’s first quad-mode, dual-OS laptop and tablet convertible that allows users to switch between Windows and Android in either laptop or tablet modes in just four seconds — and with just a single push of the Instant Switch button or a virtual key on the tablet. With a powerful Intel Core i7 processor at its heart, Transformer Book Duet runs up to twice as fast as existing tablets based on ARM processors. ASUS SonicMaster technology and two speakers ensure that Transformer Book Duet delivers incredible audio for immersive entertainment.

Quad-mode, dual-OS laptop and tablet with Instant Switch

ASUS Transformer Book Duet (TD300) is an extremely capable device that is able to function as an Android or Windows 8.1 tablet or notebook. Users can simply switch operating systems with a single push of the Instant Switch button or a virtual key on the tablet.

Transformer Book Duet features a powerful Intel Core i7 processor with Intel HD graphics and 4G DDR3L 1600 RAM, giving it performance that’s twice as fast as existing tablets powered by ARM® processors.

The patented ASUS technology that powers Instant Switch offers many performance and productivity benefits over other dual-OS solutions, such as fast, smooth and seamless switching and the ability to resume each OS from where the user left off. As it does not use OS virtualization, Instant Switch also allows each OS to harness the full power of the Intel processor.

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Avril Lavigne is a very popular pop singer worldwide. She first appeared in summer 2002, touting an addictive debut single (the spunky pop/rock gem "Complicated") matched with a skatepunk image. She now has a lot of songs that are the favorites of our fellow Filipinos both here and abroad many of which are topping the music and video charts. I bet everyone would appreciate seeing her perform live here in the country.

This is your chance to get the opportunity to see Avril Lavigne live in person just by participating in Proactiv's promotional offer. You don't only get to be acne-free but also starstruck when you finally see her perform songs like "Girlfriend", "Wish You Were Here", "Rock n Roll", and "Let Me Go".

All customers who purchase Proactiv 30 day or 60 day kits from participating outlets within December 5, 2013 to February 4, 2014 will get a chance to join the electronic raffle to Win Patron Tickets to Avril Lavigne’s Concert on February 17, 2014 in Smart Araneta Coliseum.

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"As the famous saying goes: live every day like it's your last -- with passion, vigour and enthusiasm. If you could spend one day living with no regrets, no reservations, no limits -- what would you do?"

I love to travel. To see new places, meet new people, learn new traditions, taste new dishes, and witness the various cultures everywhere I go. Indeed we are a curious race. All wanting to explore and experience new things, and wonder for the very first time in amazement when everything unfolds right before our very eyes.

I know that when given the opportunity, we would all love to see the world. We would enjoy going to many places possible as long as our feet can take us there. We will climb the highest mountains, swim the deepest seas, ....and do everything in our power...just for an awesome adventure.

I want to live my life to the fullest like it's my last days on Earth so I will not have regrets at the end.

Contiki has just released a new video last December named “Live One Day with Absolutely #NOREGRETS” which tells us to become more aggressive in our decisions to travel the world while we can, especially while we are young and able. Round up our friends and invite them over to explore the world together.