Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Friday, August 28, 2015

State Universities and Colleges' Budget at All-Time High

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Acknowledging the vital role of education in nation-building and economic development, the education budget has grown tremendously under the Aquino Administration. The budget of State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) actually doubled from PhP23.8B in 2010 to an all-time high of PhP46B in 2016. Comparing the 2016 against the 2015 budget, there is an increase of PhP1.6B or 3.6%.

In the 2016 budget hearing at the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson Dr. Patricia B. Licuanan defended the agency’s and the SUCs’ budgets. Reports on that hearing have been inaccurate. In response to reports that more than 50 SUCs received budget cuts for next year, it must be pointed out that in truth, only 10 SUCs will sustain net decreases in funding with Philippine Normal University (PNU) getting the largest reduction of 19%, University of the Philippines System (UP System) 16%, and the rest single-digit decreases ranging from 0.59 to 7%.

In the case of PNU whose 2016 budget of PhP558M is lower by PhP132M from its 2015 budget of PhP690M, the decrease is due to a one-time congressional insertion in 2015 of PhP100M and its low utilization rate.

On the other hand, the 2.2B decrease in the 2016 budget of the UP System, from its 2015 budget of PhP13.7B is due to a one-time allotment provided for medical equipment of the UP-Philippine General Hospital amounting to PhP3.1B. Without this one-time allocation in 2015, UP’s 2016 budget actually increased by almost PhP1B.

GOAB Organizer Says Launch of Startup Roadmap is Just the Beginning

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The Philippine Startup Roadmap, launched at the just concluded third Geeks on a Beach (GOAB) in Boracay, looks forward to spawning some 500 startups with an estimated cumulative valuation of $2 billion by 2020.

Deputy Executive Director Mon Ibrahim of the Department of Science ande Technology-Information Communication Technology Office (DOST-ICTO) led the launch of the roadmap which he described as a list of what the Philippine startup community needs to do.

The roadmap declares that its “main goal is to produce the next billion dollar tech startup from the Philippines.”

“The launch of the roadmap is just the beginning,” said Tina Amper of TechTalks.ph, the community that organized the annual Geeks on a Beach conference.

“The next steps of implementing, funding and constant collaborating are critical to positive impact to the Philippine economy,” she said adding that GOAB 2015 generated inquiries to take GOAB to other parts of the country.

“We are open to partnering with like-minded companies who can bring this happiness business to other parts of the world,” Amper said.

According to Amper, “Year 3 produced lots of positive feedback from participants about connections made, lessons learned, dreams re-discovered, and passions stirred.”

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The Junior Achievement Marketing Society, the official national student marketing organization of the Junior Achievement of the Philippines Inc. which is an international organization under JA Worldwide, will hold its first event for the Academic Year 2015-2016. The event is entitled “Association Management Training.” It will be on August 29, 2015 at Accenture Philippines, Edsa corner, Pioneer St., Mandaluyong City. The Philippine Council for Advance Association Executive (PCAAE) formed two years ago by the best association management trainers who prepare young leaders in the world of work and professional association management is the official partner of JAMS for this program.

“Association Management Training,” is a one-day workshop about effective association management and handling responsibilities. This will cater business student leaders from different recognized junior associations/councils. One of the main goals of this is for the junior associations to create networks among members and fosters learning within their choice of discipline; this is also an opportunity to prepare this young people to manage their professional organization in the future.

The program is divided into two sessions that will be led by two of the best association management trainers from the PCAAE. The first session is about the right foundation for junior management association and governance by the PCAAE Chair, Ms. Corazon D. Conde; while the second session will be headed by a Certified Sustainability Assurance Practitioner, Mr. Enrique I. Florencio who will talk on designing successful membership and services for Junior Association.

Executives of different Junior Management/Marketing Organizations from 26 universities and colleges in the Philippines affiliated in JAMS will join the workshop. The event will not be possible without the collaboration of HOOQ Philippines and Hawk Back; co-presenters—Nescafe Smoovlatte, Asian Secrets, pH Care, Post-it, Scotch, Oracare, Glutaphos, John Robert Powers, Matchimi; the partnership of Boardwalk; and the media partners—Mint Magazine, Adobo Magazine, WazzupPilipinas.com, Boracay Beach Radio, and Amplify PH.

Globe Fires Up Portal to Serve Early Customers of Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+

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As the leader in the digital lifestyle, Globe Telecom is gearing up to welcome the newest Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge+ to Philippine shores with an online portal to serve early customers. The portal accepts registration of interest among customers purchasing the latest devices from Samsung with the myLifestyle Plan from Globe.

New and existing postpaid customers can visit the registration of interest portal available on the Globe website via www.globe.com.ph/postpaid/samsung/register to register and indicate their preferred Samsung handset model in advance, along with their name, mobile number, and e-mail address. The customer database will be used to update registered customers with postpaid plan offers and pricing details. A reference number will be provided to customers so they can track status of their application.

“With our registration of interest portal, customers get first dibs on our offers as well as exclusive privileges which they can avail when they get the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge+ from Globe,” says Erli Valdez, Vice President for Postpaid Business at Globe. “As the leader in postpaid and preferred telco carrier of the latest smartphones and "phablets", we are poised to take one's device experience to the next level with our innovative myLifestyle Plan offerings, which gives customers access to their digital lifestyle while enjoying the amazing features of the devices.”

Valdez adds, “Over the next few days, customers will find out why it’s best to get the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6+edge from Globe with our unbeatable offers.”

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Curiosity buzzed as inquisitive media reps gathered at the recent event for OLX Philippines, the country’s leading online classifieds platform. It was an intimate event between OLX and the media to talk about the changes since the rebranding and their plans moving forward.

RJ David, Co-founder and Managing Director of OLX Philippines and one of the most successful online entrepreneurs in the country, talked lengthily about these changes. “We want to provide win-win exchanges for everyone by giving consumers equal buying and selling opportunities. We also want them to become more madiskarte in buying and selling 2nd hand items online.”

David added that they have expanded to Cebu and merged with another online classified ads platform to encourage more Filipinos to get into the habit of online buying and selling. Add to these, the improved look and feel of OLX Philippines: faster loading pages, more simplified sell form and an improved report button for keeping spam and scam ads at bay. To provide a fair selling venue and to promote high quality ads, OLX has removed the feedback system and minimized the number of free ad slots.

OLX has also taken a big step by releasing and managing their own content platform called OLX Yaman. Jean Magboo, OLX Philippines Content Marketing Manager, explains, “We’re now more than just a buy and sell platform, OLX is a service that provides an opportunity for Filipinos to make smart and practical choices that can lead to an improved life.”

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Andrew Stotz, CFA, an award-winning financial analyst with more than two decades of experience in Asia, came to Philippines March and conducted a seminar on his new book “You Won’t Get Rich in the Stock Market Until You Change the Way You Think about It” at the Ugnayang La Salle, De La Salle University – Dasmariñas, Dasmariñas City, Cavite. The seminar was lively, retentive, exciting and the game “Coin Flipping” as an analogy in Stocks Picking was especially memorable to the attendees. To become an expert Stock Picker or Coin Flipper, one needs to have long experience and have the skill developed. All winners received a hardcopy of the book.

The game received a great amount of positive feedbacks with great audience engagement and interaction; perhaps the Grand Prize was what motivated the audience the most: An All Expense Free Trip to Bangkok and Experience Working with Andrew for 48 Hours. Three months later, Sharmaine Franco, the winner, arrived in Bangkok and experienced working with Andrew for 48 Hours. She witnessed Andrew’s life as a CEO, lecturer, entrepreneur, CFA Society President, an athlete and Yoga aficionado.

Today we are pleased to release a short documentary about Sharmaine's visit, to share with our audience in Philippines. Follow Sharmaine on her journey through the day with Andrew and see what she has learned from seeing Andrew manage multiple businesses while keeping time for study, exercise and having a good, balanced life. Watch the documentary here: http://andrewstotz.com/how-to-manage-your-day-spend-48h-with-andrew/

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From sending invites to making sure you have food and drinks enough for everyone, planning a party can be quite an arduous task, no matter how much you enjoy having people over. And although having one ‘pot luck’ style is a good hack, your guests would much rather prefer that you, as the host, took care of everything.

The ‘boodle fight’ is a great way to check at least one of your party preparations off your list—setting the tables—because a boodle fight only requires a single long table and a lot of food.

Few know that we have the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) to thank for the concept, as the boodle fight originated from the military’s practice of members of the army, regardless of rank, gathering around a long table and eating food spread over banana leaves with their bare hands.

As primal as it sounds (‘boodle’ fight is military jargon for ‘attack the food’ after all), a boodle fight need not be so messy. Just follow these tips to make your boodle fight the talk of your barkada:

Above photo is a typical boodle fight layout. Photo was taken from angsarap.net.

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The Land Transportation Office (LTO) today launches its new service improvement program involving the creation of Driver’s License Renewal Offices (DLROs) at various shopping malls nationwide, marked by the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with its first DLRO partner, the Gokongwei family-owned Robinsons Malls.

“We congratulate the LTO for its initiative to bring its services closer to the people and to make license renewal more convenient for them. With various reform and modernization programs being implemented, we can look forward to much-improved services at the LTO,” remarked Department of Transportation and Communications Secretary Jun Abaya.

Pursuant to this service improvement program, the agency aims to open DLROs at all major malls nationwide in order to provide applicants with more convenient alternatives in renewing their licenses.

“We also thank Robinsons Malls for being the government’s first DLRO partner, which entails waiving valuable rental fees for the use of their mall space,” he added.

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Sining-lahi Polyrepertory, the resident student theater group of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, will be staging Yoji Sakate's "A Contemporary Noh Play: Three Sisters" on September 1-2, 2 and 5 PM, at the PUP Theater, COC Bldg. Anonas St., Sta. Mesa Manila.

Translated by Rody Vera, Directed by Rommel Iquin and Produced by Mary Ann Fate Erni, this will serve as the group's laboratory production "DULARALAN", on their 35th season of staging quality plays throughout the PUP Community. Unlike any other productions, DULARALAN, is the group's training grounds for beginners especially to the new members of the organization. It has a question and answer portion at the end of the play that will give the audience a chance to ask the director and the staff anything about the said production.

A story about war, love and passion, Yoji Sakate's "Three Sisters" is about the encounter of actors and soldiers at the unexpected situation. During war, retreating soldiers who were looking for camp site barge in to a ruins of a theatre thinking that it's the perfect place for them to stay. Later on they notice the presence of actors and started to converse with them. Few conversations leads to another which makes them discover that the actos we're actually holding a memorial service honoring the souls of the dead lying on the theatre. This is a Free Admission play for PUP Community and guests.

For inquiries, please contact 0906-830-2413 or like and visit our official Facebook page: www.facebook.com/sininglahi. You can also follow us on instagram and twitter, @polyrepofficial.

Musikaramay: Music for a Cause

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Music is very powerful tool that can touch people's lives. Last August 10, STI Caloocan was introduced to a non-profit organization, MUSIKARAMAY : MUSIKA (Music) + KARAMAY (EMPATHIZE ) which aims to BUIILD A LEAGUE OF REAL LIFE SUPERHEROES THRU STREET MUSIC. This advocacy was founded by the band CLIMAX, which basically plays in the streets around Metro Manila (namamalimos) to raise funds for different charitable institutions.

They've raised funds for the Bohol earthquake victims, typhoon Rubi and typhoon Yolanda survivors, Aeta communities in Tarlac and Subic, kids with cancer at PCMC and NCH and currently has 10 scholars at Blessed Ville Special School in Cavite. Partnering with Musikaramay, AOC Monitors, Philips LED TV, Philips Monitors, Globe, Jollibee, Chowking and Yoshinoya, STI CALOOCAN'S mission was to touch the hearts of the students, through Music, and participate in raising money for our less fortunate brothers and sisters living at Sangandaan-Tugatog cemetery.

With powerful renditions of popular songs from Bruno Mars, Maroon 5, Ed Sheeran, etc.., STIers began gathering at the covered court area, started dancing and singing. Some even jammed and sang with them on stage. The whole experience made everyone ecstatic. But the most important thing is it made the students aware that the act of giving can make a difference our the society. One by one the students started giving from their hearts and shared their blessings. Before the event ended, the box where the donations were kept was already full. BeSTI at it’s finest. REAL LIFE SUPERHEROES indeed!!