Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Monday, August 11, 2014

Join the WeChat and Easy Taxi Selfie Promo to Win 8K Worth of Prizes

Wazzup Pilipinas!
Calling all WeChat users! Take a selfie with your Easy Taxi driver and get a chance to win exciting prices from Easy Taxi's partner brands!

What are the mechanics, you ask?

Here’s all you have to do:

1. Follow Easy Taxi on WeChat: EasyTaxi_PH
2. Take a selfie in an Easy Taxi cab with your driver
3. Send to Easy Taxi your picture on their WeChat account

The 3 most unique selfies will win Php 8,000 worth of Gift Certificates from their partner brands!

It’s that EASY!

#EasyTaxi, your taxi one touch away! #EasySelfie

Why Facebook is Today’s Marketplace

Wazzup Pilipinas!

How often do you browse your Facebook account? Aside from getting the latest buzz from your friends and cyber-stalking your crush, what else do you do online? What other pages do you visit?

Though going to Aling Nena’s sari-sari store to buy a bottle of soft drinks is still done today, anyone with a phone or PC connected to the internet can easily know the latest promos and events of their favorite brands. Want your name on that bottle? Check out your friends’ selfie with theirs! Through the news feed and hashtags galore, you are easily tempted to go to the nearest store and quench your thirst.

Okay, you may be too lazy to stand up and go the mall. Just let your eyes and fingers move to the search bar to look for the trendiest clothes and gadgets. Or you can just spot your product preference for the day by simply glancing on the sidebar of your account.

As you can see, giving a trigger and even selling are possible in Facebook. With more than 30 million Filipino users registered and an average of 21.5 hours weekly browsing history, the said data even surpass a person’s time spent in stores and establishments.

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Traveling always fascinates me. Whether it be for just a short while or for a number days. The mobility of it gives me brief glimpses of the variety of culture and traditions that people have kept throughout their existence contributing to the identity of the place itself. These unique attributes gives us a representation, a title for a place which began without an identity. Manila was one vague place for me. It is the capital city of the Philippines which is probably the reason why it is a melting pot for a lot of cultures. These culture (dominantly Spanish) somehow clashes in tastes when it comes to their architecture but is harmonious in one way or another.

Manila, huge as it is, is home to different worlds. One turn and you may find yourself in another era from another country. This aspect of the place intrigues me because there’s not much variety from the places I am familiar with. Rizal’s provinces are not much different from each other. So walking around and introducing myself to these new sights was a pleasurable surprise for me.

I took part in the Royal Postal Heritage Tour. It was not the typical “Fort Santiago-Intramuros tour” that is so common in Manila. This was different, I can tell because I did not know the places that we’ll be going to. And its unfamiliarity determined my curiosity. The tour said that the meet up will be at the Liwasang Bonifacio around 11:30 on a Sunday. Mind you, although I was a student in Taft during the time of the tour, I was still a newbie to manila itself. In fact I even needed to ask directions on where Liwasang Bonifacio is.

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Now, Bloggers’ voice can be heard on air and not just in the cyberspace, Ross Flores Del Rosario’s Wazzup Pilipinas, ang pambansang blog ng Pilipinas collaborates with Vigattin of Radyo Inquirer DZIQ 990AM.

Many Thanks to Mr. Den Macaranas, Arnie Barcelo and Elison “Vigattin” Barcelo , Vigattin Anchors , for making bloggers feel at home and comfortable in the studio that lessen our tension being first timers on air.

It was a welcome news for bloggers for having another avenue to discuss about social media, digital media as a platform for advocacy, marketing or simply sharing personal issues. Wazzup Pilipinas bloggers established themselves as digital media influencers and what a great way to share their stories and advocacy over the radio through the program: e-Blog mo na yan!

The Wazzup Pilipinas community is grateful for the opportunity given by Vigattin Radio, Mr. Elison B. Barcelo, also of Vigattin.com , Vigattintrade.com, Vigattindeals.com and Vigattintourism.com.

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Philippines is a country blessed with so many waterfalls. Most of the provinces has its own unique and beautiful waterfalls to be proud and to be taking cared of. Its either promoted as a tourist destination or used for irrigation and electrification. Everytime I planned a trip to a certain place, I always look for any waterfalls existing and make it a part of my itinerary. I have been in different places in the country, particularly in Mindanao and seen different waterfalls, each one is unique and has its own beauty.

Here’s some of my list of waterfalls in Mindanao that I visited and probably among the best waterfalls in the country.

Maria Cristina Falls, Iligan City, Lanao Del Norte

MARIA CRISTINA FALLS, Iligan City, Lanao Del Norte

During my elementary years, every time my teacher asked me to give an example of waterfalls, I quickly answered the Maria Cristina Falls. Famous for being beautiful and majestic, this 320 ft feet waterfalls is among the highest waterfalls in the Philippines. Can be found in Iligan City, Lanao Del Norte, its cascading water is also a source of electricity in Mindanao, through a hydroelectric plant. You can get a best view of the falls in a viewing deck of the National Power Corporation (NPC) building in Iligan City.

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Masskara, one of the most colorful and upbeat festival in the Philippines. Celebrated on October 19, during the charter day of Bacolod City . “Mass” meaning crowd and “cara” for face, originally coined by painter Ely Santiago. Masskara Festival was initially created to uplift the spirit of the people during the tragic times in the 1980’s.

Since then it becomes one of the most highly anticipated festival of the year because it is a month long celebration. The highlight of the festival is the street dancing competition and parade. Each team that represents a dance group wears a mask and costume originally designed for their specific dance moves.

A beaming face with a smile and laughing gesture is a must in every mask worn by performers as well as colorful and exquisite costume.

I was lucky enough to be invited to witness the festival up close. Armed with our cameras and gears, we followed, danced and took photos of the happiest festival.

Juan Big Idea: Taking Marketing Thoughts into Flight (South Luzon Edition)

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Junior marketers, your next destination in this amazing marketing journey is finally revealed!

Next stop, NAGA CITY!

The Philippine Junior Marketing Association is officially inviting you to the first of four Chapter events this academic year...

Juan Big Idea: Taking Marketing Thoughts into Flight(South Luzon Edition) on August 16, 2014 at the Ateneo de Naga University Gymnasium.

Meet and learn from three notable speakers who will talk about the three stages of Content Marketing, be involved in different fun-filled undertakings and revel in what we have in-store just for you!

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Ever since we were kids we would know Manila as two things, the Capital City and the location of the historic Intramuros. When I started College, I saw more of Manila in my everyday journeys to and from my house to my school. From the train you can see the old glorious architectures and its faded beauty. One would marvel at the intricate and detailed designs seen in almost every house, building, and store that lined the streets of Doroteo Jose to Vito Cruz, where my stop was. There was this one particular building that caught my eye. It was “The Pink” building, as I used to refer to it. Every time I would see its majestic façade and unique architecture, I would always hope for a chance to get a glimpse of its interior, and how it would feel like to be part of the MET experience.

It was during my senior year in College when I found out about a tour inside the MET and its surrounding historic buildings. I jumped on the opportunity for 2 reasons, one because (honestly) it was free and two because I rarely back out on an adventure. During that time (Around 2012), I was becoming quite emotional about Taft and the views I saw on my everyday commute. I would surely miss its vintage appeal and its quaint – hispanic feel.

I got in touch with the tour guide, Mr. Rence Chan who was a contact of my old highschool classmate. He is part of the Royal Heritage group. When I arrived at Liwasang Bonifacio (our assembly area), I didn’t know exactly what to expect from the tour, I was repeatedly thinking that this might have no difference from those old fieldtrips I saw as a kid. I was alone, so obviously I didn’t know anybody from the number of people who were starting to gather in front of the Post office. When the tour began, it was Sir Rence Chan who stood as host, detailing to us all the “fun-facts” of each building we passed by or we went into. As I moved with the crowd from building to building, I was intrigued by how so little of our history is taught in schools. What we read as kids is just a gist of what really happened from a perspective of a number of scholars. I would say I was listening, but I shall admit, that I was listening half-focused because the other half of my mind was anticipating the final stop, which was the Metropolitan Theatre.

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Catch the most anticipated jejemusical of the season, Badjao Rebolution!

Badjao Rebolution is a story about making dreams and making steps to make it happen. The musical is about three children who have taken wing under the care of a syndicate go on a journey from being orphan, to beggars, to beggars with stolen identity, to wishful thinkers, to rebels then to liberated thinkers.

It is inspired by an everyday occurrence along the highways in Taytay where “Badjao” children hitching jeepneys, give out dirty envelopes asking for money to buy food while hitting a make-shift drum out of empty milk can or carrying month-old babies on a blanket wrapped around their chests.

More than reaching for their dreams, it is a story of hope. As Netnet says it, “Balang araw maririnig nila ako”. As Menggay says it, “Tingnan nyo, baling araw makikita niyo”. Hope. Hope that we could chase bigger dreams for ourselves. Hope that we could always do better if not best. Hope that we could reach and become our yesterday’s dreams. Hope that one day we can also say “I did it!”

If you’re tired of maturity lectures from the elderly, let Wayang, Netnet, Menggay, Monchi and Anching teach you how “...dapat ganito ang mga bata” and lecture you on life with their brutal honesty from their point of views yet unobstructed by norms and yet dictated by social construct.

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Philippine hotels and resorts in key island destinations are ready to compete in the global marketplace, according to the initial findings of a team of International Accommodation Assessors (IAAs) who joined the Department of Tourism (DOT) in conducting a national review of accommodation standards last month.

The team of IAAs composed of ten experts from different countries said Philippine hotels and resorts including the small players have 'very high standards' in keeping the unique Filipino hospitality, one of the country's competitive advantages.

“The warmth of welcome for guests in all types of accommodation is almost unique among international destinations. There is a real potential for the Philippine tourism industry. Some hotels and resorts need to invest to improve, but the new rating system can help identify where to focus that investment,” the initial report noted.

New standards under the Hotel and Resorts Quality Assurance and Accreditation System aim to assist visitors in terms of the quality, service and comfort provided by accommodation businesses of all sizes and types in the Philippines.

Wazzup Pilipinas!

AMD FirePro S9150 server card delivers up to 2.53 TFLOPS of peak double-precision floating point performance for intense compute workloads, and 10.8 GFLOPS double precision-per-watt, up to 77% more performance/watt than the competition.

AMD announced the AMD FirePro S9150 server card – the most powerful server Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) ever built for High Performance Computing. Based on the AMD Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture, the first AMD architecture designed specifically with compute workloads in mind, the AMD FirePro S9150 server card is the first server card to support enhanced double precision and break the 2.0 TFLOPS double precision barrier¹,². With 16GB of GDDR5 memory – 33 percent more than the competition3 – and maximum power consumption of 235 watts, AMD FirePro S9150 server GPUs provide supercomputers with massive compute performance while maximizing available power budgets.

“Today’s supercomputers feature an increasing mix of GPUs, CPUs and co-processors to achieve great performance, and many of them are being implemented in an environmentally responsible manner to help reduce power and water consumption,” said David Cummings, senior director and general manager, professional graphics, AMD. “Designed for large scale multi-GPU support and unmatched compute performance, AMD FirePro S9150 ushers in a new era of supercomputing. Its memory configuration, compute capabilities and performance per watt are unmatched in its class, and can help take supercomputers to the next level of performance and energy efficiency.”

Wazzup Pilipinas!

After the worldwide success of Ice Age Village, Gameloft, a leading global publisher of digital and social games, and Fox Digital Entertainment, a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox Filmed Entertainment, have extended their partnership to create Ice Age Adventures, a new game inspired by the wildly popular Ice Age animated film franchise. Ice Age Adventures delivers hours of entertainment with its immersive gameplay and unique storyline, which features the official voices of Manny (Ray Romano), Sid (Denis Leary) and Diego (John Leguizamo).

Scrat's nutty pursuit of his beloved acorn once again has world-changing consequences. It’s up to players to help Sid rescue Manny and Diego, and then save the remaining members of the herd. Players will embark on an epic adventure, exploring uncharted worlds, battling iconic adversaries, solving puzzles, looking for treasures and taking on exciting challenges.

Players will meet all of the beloved Ice Age characters on their journey through Ice Age Adventures. In addition to familiar faces, look forward to the innovative and captivating gameplay, vibrant environments, beautiful graphics and a variety of fun mini games.

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The literary and youth volunteer group Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo (LIRA), will hold the 33rd edition of its nationwide seminar-workshop series, the "Pambansang Edukasyong Pampanitikan" (National Literary Education) at De La Salle University-Manila (Multipurpose Room, 2/F Enrique M. Razon Sports Complex) on October 3 – 4, 2014, Friday – Saturday, 8 am – 5 pm.

TO REGISTER:

(1) Log on to: http://bit.do/registerPEPmalate
(2) Fill out the online form.
(3) An email will be sent confirming your registration.

Registration is on a first come, first served basis and is free of charge. Priority will be given to teachers in the Malate district and adjacent areas. Lunch and snacks will be served.

Deadline of registration is on August 12, 2014, 5:00 PM. Only those duly registered can enter the university premises and will be given signed certificates.

Titled "PEP Malate, Manila," this leg is co-presented by the DLSU College of Computer Studies, in partnership with the DLSU Student Media Office, Malate Literary Folio (official arts and literary publication of DLSU), and Ang Pahayagang Plaridel (official newspaper in Filipino of DLSU); and with support from the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, JP Anthony D. Cuñada Law Office, Fringe Manila Arts Festival, ABS-CBN’s Choose Philippines, Kalatas magazine, and the Pulong ng Kabataan. Other media partners are Tomasino Web, Wazzup Pilipinas, and Astig.ph.

Government should do the right thing with MRT3

image taken from Philstar

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The government is now working to take over the MRT which is the train that runs along EDSA. There are a lot of people that ride this train every day of the week and there are a lot of problems they need to address. One problem they need to address is the lack of security in the train stations during rush hour. There are a lot of shoving, pushing and mangling going on usually during 8 AM in the morning and 5 PM in the afternoon. Those are the times where it would be difficult to ride the train due to the fact that there are a lot of people there. More security guards should be put there in order to prevent everyone from riding the train. The government surely has enough budget to hire more people with low salaries.

Of course, it won’t hurt to add more trains but all of them don’t necessarily need to be used all the time. They just need to be on the move during rush hour in order to accommodate all the people who want to go to their destination right away. The lines on each door should be fixed before the train arrives so each guard should make sure that nobody would suddenly barge in to the door and assert himself even if there is a line. That is very rude and it would be unfair to the other passengers who fell in line for a long time. Only time will tell if the government buying the MRT3 is a good thing or not. Since the government has a lot of budget then it is expected to be a good thing. However, they might not use it for the right purpose so they better be careful where they spend their money on.

SONA 2014 – P-Noy forgets to mention Binay?

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The President’s latest SONA came and went but he forgot to mention one person and that’s Vice President Jojomar Binay. It is no surprise he did that since Binay is expected to be the main competitor on the next elections against the election’s presidential candidate Mar Roxas. Binay uplifted the plight of the OFWs since he is the presidential assistant for Overseas Worker’s Affairs. However, that did not happen but that does not mean the president and the vice president of the country are at odds against each other. It just means the president had a lot of other people he thought that he should mention instead of his second in command. Whether they deserve to be mentioned on top of the vice president is another issue. Aquino obviously wants his best friend Mar Roxas to win the 2016 elections so the current projects of the government would be continued. However, he is not really sure if the public wants the same since his trust rate has gone down recently.

Nobody knows if Binay and Aquino really got along with each other during the President’s term. Now that there are only two years left on the current term of Aquino, that won’t really matter as it would be time to pass the torch in just a couple of years. If the elections would happen now, he would be touring Binay at the Malacanang palace. Some say the only way Binay loses is if massive cheating happens. That already happened in the past so it won’t be a surprised if it happens again. It won’t be fair though since the people should get who they want as the leader of the country. At least some lesser known cabinet members got mentions in the speech of the President. However, the person voted to be his second in command did not.