Celebrating Filipino Christmas at the 18th Global Pinoy Bazaar

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Many people in most parts of the world say that Christmas season in the Philippines is the longest to celebrate. As early as September, most Filipinos plan ahead on various things--- the gifts to purchase for the Christmas parties, the things to buy for their godchildren and their relatives, new clothes to sport at the Misa de Gallo, and even foods to prepare for Noche Buena. Most often than not, we feel that Christmas is almost near when he hear yuletide songs everywhere and we see the holiday rush from different malls and trade centers.

Yabang Pinoy believes that Christmas is the most perfect occasion to splurge on the things that we wanted to share to our friends and loved ones. On December 7-11 (Wednesday to Sunday), Yabang Pinoy will once again step into the spotlight for the 18th Global PInoy Bazaar at Glorietta Activity Center, Makati City with the theme “Celebrating Filipino Chritmas”. It will be a fete of Filipino creativity and ingenuity for the Christmas season as we feature the different iconic brands and upbeat startups.

This event will be the biggest bazaar of Yabang Pinoy this year as we stage almost one hundred and fifty (150) different brands that will perfectly fit your Christmas wishlist. Aside from the regular clothing, footwear and accessories mix, there will be specialized zones in the bazaar that will help the shoppers to decide on their retail options. Such zones are the DISTRICT ZONE that caters to the art and design brands, FOODSOURCE ZONE which is a collection of food and beverage brands, and HOMEBRAND ZONE that houses the brands developed by the volunteers of Yabang Pinoy.

Come and see Filipino Christmas in full color and experience retail adventure with love and pride.

Wazzup Pilipinas is a proud media partner!

Please visit www.yabangpinoy.com or e-mail globalpinoy2016@gmail.com for more information.

Hontiveros to LGUs: Respect and Fully Implement RH Law

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Senator Risa Hontiveros and Rep. Emmeline Aglipay-Villar vows to defend the RH law budget in a press conference last September.

Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros called on the local government of Sorsogon City to respect the full implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act (Republic Act 10354), also known as the RH Law, after a Commission on Human Rights (CHR) report indicated that it withheld artificial contraceptives from women residents in the last four years.

“Sorsogon City Mayor Sally Lee, who is otherwise known as an advocate of women's participation in societal affairs, should immediately answer the serious allegations made by the CHR. Withholding artificial contraceptives from women is an insult to the hard work of Filipino women’s movement who waited 13 long years for the passage of the RH Law," Hontiveros said.

Hontiveros, who is the Chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, said that the RH Law is a landmark piece of legislation that solidified reproductive health rights and choices.

"The government must provide free access to family planning commodities to poor women nationwide to help address the country’s high maternal mortality rate. Our women should be given the widest array of options on how to plan and manage their families. Withholding access to contraceptives is a clear violation of the law,” Sen. Hontiveros said.

It was reported that the CHR has documented reports that women in far-flung barangays in Sorsogon City were denied reproductive health products and services. The documentation likewise reported of unwanted pregnancies and instances that women gave up their babies for adoption as a result of the denial of RH services.

“We want the Sorsogon City government to explain and be accountable to these alleged violations. It is our moral and civil obligation to ensure that we continue to respect, protect and uphold women’s rights. The refusal to implement the RH Law is an utmost disrespect to the choices of women regarding family planning methods in accordance with the law. Kailangan may sumagot at may managot sa mga paglabag na ito,” she added.

Hontiveros vowed to ensure the full funding of the RH Law in the proposed 2017 National Budget

Lazada Philippines Sweeps the Christmas Season with More Than 400,000 Items in 24 Hours

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Lazada Philippines has set a new record on the first day of its highly-anticipated shopping event. On November 11, Filipino shoppers checked out more than 400,000 items on the website and mobile app.

“Online Revolution is the biggest online shopping event in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.” said Inanc Balci, CEO of Lazada Philippines. “We created Online Revolution in 2012 to encourage more consumers to experience the benefits of shopping online. Every year we see a larger pool of online shoppers, with growing diversity across generations and geographical locations. This was once again confirmed this year, as we saw consumers ordering from places as far as Bongao, Tawi-Tawi to purchase international and local brands not previously available to them. This makes us very excited about the future”

The operations team was in full swing as items shipped from the warehouse were 22x more than an average day. The shortest lead time from checkout to delivery was a record-breaking 8 hours, a feat worth celebrating at the Lazada warehouse. The first 11.11 delivery was received by a customer at 10:29am.

Filipinos were truly in a Christmas shopping frenzy. With deals starting from midnight, shoppers spent about seven minutes on the Lazada’s website and fourteen minutes on the Lazada mobile app. In the first minute of the sale alone, a total of 241 items were checked out, ending the day with more than 400,000 items.

11.11 is only the beginning of a month long sales event. During the next 4 weeks, Lazada will tailor its offering to all its customers’ interests with a weekly curated selection of items for beauty fans, supermoms and families, techies and fashionistas. The deals extend over 17 product categories including Fashion, Health & Beauty, Home & Living, and Electronics.

Customers also get a chance to win an Isuzu D-Max and Turkish Airlines international roundtrip tickets with a minimum purchase. Join the Christmas shopping craze by visiting www.lazada.com.ph or downloading the Lazada Mobile App for free.

The Power of Pen Food Writing Forum Visayas Tour Speakers

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Food has gone out of the confines of the kitchen. For many years now, its emergence in art has influenced our experience with cookery. Aside from the act of preparing a dish; our contemporary culture has opened to many other subjects of interest such as food blogging, food styling, and food writing in general.

In fact, the vast surfacing of blogs and social media platforms have instituted food blogging as a career path for those who would like to establish themselves in the culinary world.

Food writing and critiquing however are not merely made of personal commentaries of one’s experience of a specific dish or restaurant. Its arising demand for discourse and discussion have initiated The Power of Pen, a food writing forum workshop that aims to instruct both amateur and professional writers and culinary practitioners as to how they should utilize writing in their chosen fields of either exploration or expertise.

 On its 5th year, The Power of Pen is touring Visayas with the University of Cebu as its co-­‐presentor and official venue. The forum will be studded by highly commendable personalities from our culinary and cultural threshold from chefs and restaurateurs to authors and publishers.

Sharon Cuneta Rants About Slow Wi-Fi (Internet), Netizens React Harshly

Wazzup PIlipinas!

Sharon Cuneta, like most everyone else, posted on Facebook her frustration about the slow "Wi-Fi" of which she is most probably referring to her Internet connection.

She is not alone on that particular fact since it is actually a nationwide dilemma where people have been complaining to the telco companies providing Internet services that are rather slow compared to the rest of the world. Several studies have shown that we have relatively one of the slowest, if not the slowest, Internet aside from being very expensive.

But netizens reacted to Sharon Cuneta's post and proceeded to blame mostly her husband, Kiko Pangilinan whom they say had several years as a Senator but was powerless to do anything about it.

"I cannot believe (or take) how super SLOW wi-fi still is in the Philippines. How can I expect my country to progress a little faster if it doesn't even have the very basics necessary in this new techie world we move in? So beyond frustrating. Imagine if something like a document was very, very urgent, bound to affect a whole bunch of people, and you couldn't get it across because e-mail (or something as simple as a video upload) just wouldn't fly? Oh, please Lord, let them fix this never-ending problem. It's bad enough that we have to deal with the traffic situation and would rather stay home. Now we can't even expect to get things done ASAP sitting on our butts. Grrrrr!" - Sharon Cuneta

Globe Telecom Acquires New Way to Market Your Brand Via Video Push Notifications

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Globe Telecom, through its Digital Ventures division and subsidiary company AdSpark, recently announced its partnership with Incoming Media for its mediaphoneX solution to power video notifications within selected mobile applications. First to integrate are SEATS, the restaurant booking app, and Mynt, the financial services app.

“The Philippines is one of the most dynamic mobile and digital countries in the world, and Globe and the AdSpark team are the perfect partners to take us into this market. We are excited about their level of innovation and hope to take what we learn in the Philippines to other markets in the Asia Pacific region.” said Mark Adams, CEO of Incoming Media.

Incoming Media is the leading mobile video engagement and advertising platform for brands and operators. The mediaphoneX solution uses predictive data analytics and intelligent content pre-loading to enable the creation of personalized, flawless mobile video experiences. Through the use of on-device, energy-efficient machine learning and context-based predictive data analytics, the Incoming platform learns and understands how each viewer consumes video on their device.

Alongside AdSpark, a Globe subsidiary that is data driven mobile first and digital marketing agency that delivers highly profiled campaigns depending on the need of its clients may it be location based or customized to consumers’ spending behavior, interests and others, have acquired mediaphoneX which is being used by SEATS, a multi-channel restaurant reservation platform that is available on both web and mobile.

SEATS aims to enhance the dining experience by providing diners an easy way to make table reservations 24/7 right on the mobile phone and by providing restaurants with the right tools to manage reservations more efficiently, improve in-house productivity and overall, provide their customers with better service. SEATS provides free, instant and guaranteed reservations at the top restaurants in the metro.

“Globe chose to partner with Incoming based on their unique technology. Their team has spent many years developing a mobile video notification that puts a quality user experience at the center of their solution. We are looking forward to seeing an increase in engagement and additional monetization opportunities for both SEATS and MYNT, and other applications to come.” said Glenn Estrella, Vice President of Globe Telecom’s Digital Ventures and President of AdSpark.

“Globe is always out looking for new innovations to help businesses flourish. Through this new acquisition of mediaphoneX, we have redefined push notifications from as simple as SMS to videos that direct you to the website,” Estrella stressed.

This video push notification technology is available through AdSpark and is currently being offered to Globe Telecom clients.

Si Maria Isabella at ang Guryon ng mga Tala Mula sa Artistang Artlets ng UST

Wazzup Pilipinas!

“Isang kwento ng pag-ibig at pagsusumikap ng isang dalagita at ng isang batang matadero para sa tunay na kaligayahan ng buhay.”

Inihahandog ng Artistang Artlets, ang Opisyal na Samahang Pang-teatro ng Pakultad ng Sining at Panitik ng Unibersidad ng Santo Tomas, sa pakikipagtulungan sa Cecilo Apostol Elementary School, ang isa na namang natatanging pagtatanghal para sa kanilang ika-36 na taon.

Si Maria Isabella at ang Guryon ng mga Tala ay hango mula sa maikling kwentong The Kite of Stars ni Dean Francis Alfar. Sa panulat ni Eljay Castro Deldoc, isa ito sa mga natatanging dula na naipalabas sa Virgin Labfest 2015 at 2016 sa Sentrong Pangkultura ng Pilipinas. Ang pagtatanghal ng Artistang Artlets ay sa ilalim ng direksyon ni John Michael Peña at sa pamamahala ni Mary Claire Aquino.

Ito ang mga sumusunod na araw at oras ng pagtatanghal:
November 15- 11 AM | 1 PM | 4 PM | 6 PM

November 16- 10 AM | 1 PM | 3 PM | 5 PM

November 17- 2PM | 4PM

Lugar ng pagtatanghal:

Tan Yan Kee Audio Visual Room,
Tan Yan Kee Student Center, UST

Ang dula na ito ay LIBRE para sa lahat.

Para sa mga katanungan, tawagan o i-text si Mary Claire Aquino sa 0915-117-3255.

Maaari din kaming i-like o i-follow sa aming mga sumusunod na social media accounts:
Facebook page: fb.com/ArtistangArtletsUST
Twitter: @artstngartlts
Instagram: @artistangartlets

Website: artistangartlets.wordpress.com

#SMIGTLilipdNa #CREATExDESTROY

SAP Launches the SAP Digital Boardroom in the Philippines

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Customers to Have “Single Source of Truth” of Key Business Performance Metrics for Succeeding in Today’s Digital Economy

SAP SE today announced the launch of the SAP Digital Boardroom at its Philippines office in Taguig. The SAP Digital Boardroom is a planned breakthrough digital approach that aims to contextualize and simplify performance reporting across areas of business in real time. Built on the SAP BusinessObjects Cloud solution, SAP Digital Boardroom is expected to utilize line-of-business data from the SAP S/4HANA suite and SAP HANA Cloud Platform to provide a single source of truth about a company’s critical business metrics. This approach aims to help companies monitor and drive change in the digital economy.

“SAP Digital Boardroom gives senior management and C-Suite executives access to business data and analytics, allowing them to gauge their company’s standing in the market as compared to their competitors. Personal business information such as financial performance, customer count, supplier system and more can be viewed almost immediately with real-time content, which are needed for faster and better decision-making.,” said Ryan Poggi, Managing Director, SAP Philippines.

He continued, “The essential business intelligence has already been embedded in the system for better and faster reporting as it provides a holistic 360 degree view on the company’s business position in the market. Using the Digital Boardroom to address challenges in the digital economy, company executives can obtain comprehensive data-driven insights answering ad hoc questions and simulate the impact of “what-if” scenarios to financials and operations. Overall, it simplifies the boardroom process in terms of time and effort, leveraging real-time analytics to allow companies to effect decisions and Run Live across their value chain.”

Suspension of Writ of Habeas Corpus will Lead to More Abuses, Add to the Growing Climate of Impunity

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros on Monday said that President Rodrigo Duterte’s plan to suspend the privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus as a response to the country's worsening drug problem and lawlessness would lead to more abuses.

Hontiveros also said that the suspension of the writ would contribute to the growing climate of impunity brought about by the thousands of unresolved extrajudicial killings.

The Senator explained that the privilege of the writ grants a person the right to report or question an unlawful detention or imprisonment before a court. She said that during the Marcos regime, the suspension of the privilege of the writ led to arbitrary arrests of members of the political opposition and citizens.

"Dangerous idea"

"The president's suggestion to suspend the privilege of the writ, despite the explanation of his spokespersons that it was merely an 'idea', is dangerous in itself. It is the seed of undemocratic rule similar to the Marcos dictatorship," Hontiveros said.

Hontiveros also said that the President, under the 1987 constitution, can only suspend the privilege of the writ in cases of invasion or rebellion and when public safety requires it.

"The government kept on saying that the country is safer now. However, the President's plan to suspend the privilege of the writ negates this narrative. It only adds to the fear and anxiety of the public," Hontiveros said.



"Learn to trust democracy"

The senator urged President Duterte to maximize the government's democratic institutions in promoting his public order and safety agenda.

"The President must learn to trust our democratic processes. Proper law enforcement and standing behind the protection of human rights and observance of the rule of law are the best methods to ensure public safety," Hontiveros concluded.

NBA Store Philippines Marks NBA Cares 10th Anniversary with Donation to Knowledge Channel Foundation

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The National Basketball Association (NBA) and NBA Store Philippines, managed by International Athletic Trading Company, Inc. (IATC), donated Php 235,000 to Knowledge Channel Foundation, Inc. (KCFI) for the benefit of students of Yapak, Talaga, and Roman Tantiangco Elementary Schools, mountain communities in Morong, Rizal. 

NBA Store Philippines staged a retail promotion that donates a portion of NBA Name and Number T-shirt sales proceeds from Aug. 10 to Sept. 13 to KCFI to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of NBA Cares. The donation will fund multimedia learning resources and teacher workshops for the three public schools. 

Last Nov. 11, NBA Philippines Managing Director Carlo Singson and IATC Vice President of Marketing Bea Lim presented the cheque donation to KCFI Head of Access Doris Nuval at the NBA Store in Glorietta 3.