NPC Pushes Data Privacy Compliance in Banking Sector in Upcoming DPO2

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The National Privacy Commission (NPC) is set to convene the Data Protection Officers (DPOs) of the financial services sector on 31 May 2017. Dubbed as “DPO2: The 2nd Data Protection Officers’ Assembly,” the event will be held in cooperation with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP). It aims to gather data protection officers of different banks who will perform vital duties to ensure their organization’s compliance with the provisions of the Data Privacy Act (DPA) of 2012.

The event is expected to draw more than a hundred DPO delegates from BSP-Supervised Financial Institutions (BSFIs) at the BSP Assembly Hall A, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Mabini Street, Manila.

The BSP and the BAP have earlier agreed to team up with the NPC for organizing the DPO2 in order to help facilitate prompt and efficient compliance by BSFIs with the privacy law. Thus, aside from being a venue for compliance assistance, the DPO2 shall function as the first step in developing a roadmap for addressing the distinct concerns of the financial sector with the DPA.

The BSP, BAP and the NPC shall also explore ways of harmonizing data privacy compliance obligations under the law with existing BSP regulations already being observed by banks.

“The NPC consider banks a critical sector when it comes to protecting personal data and so far, the level of cooperation we are getting from the sector has been encouraging”, said Privacy Commissioner and Chairman Raymund E. Liboro.

“Customers trust banks not just with their hard-earned money, but also with their personal information. Trust comes with high expectations, and data protection officers within banks play an important role in maintaining this trust, and meeting customers’ expectations,” Commissioner Liboro added. He further explains, “they expect you to work hard at protecting their money and also their privacy. Violating this trust can lead to brand depreciation, revenue loss, or worse — customer exit. DPO2 is an investment in data privacy protection, and it shall go a long way not just in preserving our people’s trust in the financial system, but also in building a strong foundation for data privacy compliance in the private sector.”

DPO2 shall be the first DPO assembly to be conducted by the NPC for the private sector. Commissioner Liboro said plans are also underway to conduct similar events for the health services sector, the academe, and the business process outsourcing industry, among others.

Last April 5, the NPC conducted DPO1 for government data protection officers at the Landbank Plaza in Malate, Manila.

The NPC is a regulatory body created by virtue of RA 10173, otherwise known as the Data Privacy Act of 2012. It is an attached agency of the Department of Information and Communication Technology.

Fashion Design Graduate Crowned the Winner of Sony Channel’s The Apartment: Rising Stars Edition

Wazzup Pilipinas!


Aleksandra Flasz out-designed her competitors to walk away with the grand prize of $100,000.


Without any professional background in interior design, Aleksandra Flasz, a Polish fashion design graduate and model was crowned the winner of Sony Channel’s first original production, The Apartment: Rising Stars Edition.

In a grueling 40-hour design challenge, Aleksandra faced off with Malaysian architect, Winston See, to fight for the Rising Star crown and the grand prize of $100,000. It was a dramatic and close race to the finish, but ultimately Aleksandra won the winning vote against Winston, leaving him wondering where he went wrong.

“The Apartment: Rising Stars Edition was created to inspire young designers and Sony Channel’s viewers to enhance their living spaces using tips from the experts.

The series featured some of the world’s top designers including Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Genevieve Gordor and Jamie Durie, who provided incredible insights and design advice in each episode, and all against a backdrop of gripping drama,” said Ms. Virginia Lim, Senior Vice President and Head of Content, Production and Marketing, Sony Pictures Television Networks, Asia.

“I would like to congratulate Aleksandra and Winston for making it to the finish and I hope that The Apartment: Rising Stars Edition will help further launch their careers on a global scale.”

The ultimate and deciding challenge for the two finalists was to design and furnish an apartment from scratch with only the help of two previous contestants, Ally and Andres.

At the finale design court, Aleksandra and Winston had to defend their designs in front of a judging panel of nine, with esteemed members including Andrea Savage, Jeremy Rowe from Dulux and Genie Tay from UMLand.

While there was praise for both finalists, there were some questionable design choices that displeased the judges. Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen described Aleksandra’s bedroom as “Hugh Hefner, done atrociously.” To Winston, he said that the floor design looked like it had “been hit by an earthquake.”

Despite the criticism, the judges commented that both of them had shown vast improvement from their first challenge, and applauded them for their effort and hard work. In a tense reveal, Aleksandra won the 5-4 vote against Winston to take the title of The Apartment: Rising Stars Edition.

The intense 10-episode journey drew Sony Channel viewers into the cut-throat world of interior design where 12 up-and-coming designers competed to become the next style superstar.

The Apartment: Rising Stars Edition featured a formidable and glamorous judging panel, including world-renowned interior designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen as the head judge and Jamie Durie, the award-winning designer and author, who doubled as series host and mentor. Vivacious media personality and home product designer, Genevieve Gorder also joined the judging panel this season, injecting her clever wit and colorful commentary into the series.



For more information, visit SonyChannel.com/TheApartment or @TheApartmentTV on Facebook and Twitter.

Cover photo: L to R :The Apartment: Rising Stars Edition winner.Aleksandra Flasz and first runner up Winston See.

Recto/Verso: New Collages and Paintings by Gerardo Tan

Wazzup Pilipinas!

ARCHIVO 1984 GALLERY proudly presents RECTO/VERSO: New Collages And Paintings by Gerardo Tan, opening at 5 PM on Friday, June 2, 2017.

Gerardo Tan (born 1960) works across media from painting, collage and artist books to video and found objects in room-sized installations. His materials range from traditional ones like oil, acrylic to commonplace ones found like found photographs, dust, mirrors, and bundy clocks. Tan’s works deals with issues of representation and conceptual plays. He recreates images culled from the world of art and mass media using a variety of mediums. Gerardo Tan has had one solo exhibit with Archivo 1984 titled “Nothing Is More Real Than Nothing”.

In Recto/Verso: New Collages and Paintings, Gerardo Tan continues his ongoing series of constructed pictures consisting of images mined from the world of art and the commonplace. In doing so, Tan recontextualizes and empties them of their erstwhile significance while infusing them with new itinerant meanings. In these new series, Tan takes a look at the back of collages and paints them, revealing what is normally hidden. This objective treatment of the collage considers it as an object and anthropological specimen, and implying that the gallery is an archive of assembled relics.

ARCHIVO 1984 GALLERY is located at Level 2, Warehouse 1, #2135 Chino Roces Avenue, Makati City, Philippines.

STI to Build New Academic Centers in Sta. Mesa and San Jose del Monte

Wazzup Pilipinas!
 

The STI Education Services Group, Inc. (STI ESG) gears up for the influx of college freshmen in school year 2018-19 by continuing the network’s expansion plan of putting up new campuses in key locations nationwide.  

Adding to the roster of soon-to-rise prime hubs for academic excellence, STI broke ground for two Academic Centers in Sta. Mesa, Manila and San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan on May 23, 2017 in its goal to make real life education more accessible to the Filipino youth.

With an estimated value of P655M, the 10-storey STI Academic Center Sta. Mesa will stand on a 4,252-square-meter property along P. Sanchez Street, Sta. Mesa in Metro Manila and can accommodate 10,000 senior high school and college students.   

On the other hand, the nine-storey STI Academic Center San Jose del Monte can house 6,000 students and has an allotted budget of P518M. It will rise on a 4,178-square-meter lot area at the Altaraza Town Center, a 109-hectare master planned urban community of the Ayala Land, located in Quirino Highway, San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan.

“Our expansion strategy reflects our strong commitment to education. Just like what we have done in the past, we are building new academic centers to transfer existing schools to bigger and better facilities as part of our approach to holistic education,” said STI President and COO Peter K. Fernandez.       

Customers Are Embracing Hitachi Content Platform Anywhere To Create a Protected Digital Workplace

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Hitachi Content Platform Anywhere extends its enterprise capabilities to target security-conscious customers of Box and Dropbox


Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501), today announced that the latest version of Hitachi Content Platform (HCP) Anywhere puts the right tools in the hands of employees to make them more engaged, productive and efficient. Expanding on the platform’s heritage in enterprise-class features and security, HCP Anywhere adds more collaboration, usability and data protection capabilities with a refined user experience, allowing organizations to transform to a digital workplace that is virtual, mobile and highly collaborative.

Hitachi Content Platform Anywhere is the industry’s only private enterprise mobility solution that allows employees to collaborate with co-workers and external parties to share files or folders anytime, anywhere, on any device, without compromising security or control of corporate information. Hitachi Data Systems’ enterprise expertise and superior information security over consumer-class offerings give IT managers greater visibility, control and governance over company data in corporate issued PCs and virtual desktop environments as well as bring-your-own-device (BYOD) tablets and smartphones.

“With this latest release, Hitachi Content Platform Anywhere is more than a simple sync and share tool. With enhancements to collaboration, content mobilization and user data protection, it has become an enterprise mobility solution and a foundation for transforming to a digital workplace.”— Scott Sinclair, Senior Analyst, ESG


Key features and benefits include:

· Anytime, anywhere, any device access mobilizes data with cloud home directories and protects enterprise file sync and share.

· Optimized group collaboration simplifies workflows and optimizes workgroup productivity.

· End-user and enterprise data protection mitigate new threats such as ransomware, and the enhanced security of company data.

· Robust security, search and governance provide superior visibility, control and compliance for critical data assets.

· Modern, intuitive, customized user experience adapts to new devices.

· API customization options tune the solution for different user types, customize workflows and develop new applications.


The combination of HCP Anywhere and the rest of the HCP portfolio of object storage, cloud file gateway, content intelligence and search is an easy first step for organizations pursuing digital transformation. By modernizing file services with cloud home directories, enterprise mobility and content analytics, IT departments can become more relevant than ever before. They can offer new, compelling IT services to the rest of the organization, serve as a cloud broker to other functional groups, and give developers new in-house tools to create new applications to better serve employees and customers.

Hitachi’s content platform Anywhere exploits squarely the opportunities, benefits and advantages of the coming digital transformation of the Philippine economy.

In its top predictions for the Philippine ICT industry for 2017 and beyond, IDC Philippines foresees digital transformation (DX) will attain macroeconomic scale over the next three to four years. In the next four years, revenue growth from information-based products will be double that of the rest of the product/service portfolio for a quarter of the top 1,000 Philippine companies. By 2020, about 25% of the country’s top 1,000 companies will see majority of their business depend on their ability to create digitally enhanced products, services and experiences.

“HCP Anywhere has been a success for Hitachi Data Systems. Customers recognize the power HCP Anywhere has to transform not just the way they deliver user file services, but the way the HCP portfolio can transform their business. As a result, we are approaching one million paid enterprise users and realized 2X revenue growth over the previous fiscal year. Our strong compliance and security heritage coupled with our expertise in understanding and integrating into some of the most complex enterprise IT environments are just a few of the reasons we are seeing security conscious customers choose our solution over consumer oriented Dropbox or Box.” – Bob Primmer, Vice President, Content, Mobility and Analytics, Hitachi Data Systems

Batangas is First Beneficiary of Smart-initiated Operation Smile App

Wazzup Pilipinas!

An Operation Smile volunteer takes a photo of a 7-month-old cleft patient using the Operation Smile app during a medical mission in Batangas City.

For the first time, Operation Smile Philippines used its patient-mapping mobile application to record and track cleft patients’ medical information in a recent medical mission conducted in Batangas City.

The Operation Smile app was conceptualized by PLDT wireless subsidiary Smart Communications to help digitize and store medical information, monitor patients’ treatment, and locate areas with high population of cleft patients to maximize efficiency of medical missions.

After screening patients and gathering their information through the app, Operation Smile performed cleft repair surgery on them at Jesus of Nazareth Hospital in Batangas City.

Norma Decipeda, 37, was thankful her 7-month-old son was among the patients treated by Operation Smile. Residents of Isla Verde, the Decipeda family had to travel by boat to get to Batangas City. She said the surgery would definitely help her son achieve a better quality of life.

Her son is one of the patients now being documented and monitored through the Operation Smile app. The app, which is available as a free download for Apple and Android devices, can be installed and used by anyone. Operation Smile encourages everyone to download the app, create an account and follow the instructions on how to upload details of a potential patient for inclusion in succeeding medical missions.

One Women's Atomweight World Champion Angela Lee Finishes Istela Nunes with Anaconda Choke

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The largest sports media property in Asian history, ONE Championship (ONE), once again electrified the Singapore Indoor Stadium as the organization played host to yet another evening of authentic martial arts action. ONE: DYNASTY OF CHAMPIONS showcased the absolute best in local and international martial arts talent, featuring a packed card of compelling bouts that left the crowd on the edge of their seats. In the main event, ONE Women’s Atomweight World Champion Angela Lee of Singapore retained her title with a spectacular submission finish over top contender Istela Nunes of Brazil. In the co-main event of the evening, ONE Welterweight World Champion Ben Askren made quick work of Malaysia’s Agilan Thani to win via arm triangle choke.

In an exciting main event showdown between two talented females, reigning ONE Women’s Atomweight World Champion “Unstoppable” Angela Lee overcame a spirited performance from challenger Istela Nunes to win by submission in the second round. After catching Nunes with a twister in the first stanza, the bout appeared all but over. However, through sheer willpower and determination, Nunes was able to power through the situation and survive. In the second round, Lee went right back to work on the ground, finishing Nunes with an anaconda choke to retain her title.

“I really love you guys and it’s an honor to fighter here (in Singapore) as your champion. To everyone who is watching from all around the world, thank you guys so much, it means the world to me,” said Lee in the post-fight interview. “The anaconda choke is one of our favorites, so I was really happy to win with that submission tonight.”

In the co-main event, reigning ONE Welterweight World Champion and one of the best fighters in the world pound-for-pound, Ben “Funky” Askren of the United States easily took care of previously unbeaten Agilan “Alligator” Thani of Malaysia, taking his younger foe down to the mat at will with his world-class wrestling and finishing him with an arm triangle choke. On the mat, the former US Olympian caught Thani in a mounted crucifix and pounded on the Malaysian before locking in the fight-ending submission just past the two-minute mark of the first round.

Explosive Action Starts off Season 8 of NCIS: Los Angeles this June on AXN

Wazzup Pilipinas!

All-new season premieres June 6, Tuesdays at 9:45pm

The elite team of undercover operatives is back in the latest season of the action drama NCIS: Los Angeles which premieres on AXN this June.

Special agents G. Callen (Chris O’Donnell) and Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) from the Office of Special Projects of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service team up with the rest of their crew to fight the most dangerous criminals as they continue to investigate complex crimes, prevent terrorist attacks, and protect the interests of the state.

In the new season, the entire OSP staff is undergoing investigation by the Department of Defense to identify the mole among their ranks while the team travels to Syria in search of a high value target.

But the mission goes awry when an unfortunate incident occurs and one of the team members suffers serious injuries.

NCIS: Los Angeles Season 8 premieres on June 6, every Tuesday at 9:45pm.


AXN is available on SKYCable Channel 49, Destiny Cable Channel 61, Cignal Channel 121, Dream Satellite TV Channel 20, G Sat Channel 51, and Cablelink Channel 38. AXN HD is available on SKYCable Channel 247.

DOE Wants Better Energy Facilities for Mindanao

Wazzup Pilipinas!

With the improving peace and order situation in Marawi City, Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi in coordination with the Inter-Agency Task Force on Securing Energy Facilities (IATFSEF) wants to map out a plan to secure all energy facilities in Mindanao.

​At the same time, Cusi said the Department of Energy and other concerned agencies should look into the opportunities offered by the present situation to work closely to build a better energy infrastructure and a more resilient energy system in Mindanao.

The IATFSEF continues to push for quality and reliable delivery of basic energy services to Marawi and the province of Lanao del Sur amid ongoing military operations against remnants of the Maute group.

The National Power Corporation-Mindanao Generation (NPC MinGen) declared that the operations of Power Plants in Marawi City and the Lanao area are back to normal.

​As of 8:38 a.m. Sunday (29 May), NPC MinGen reported that Agus 1 Hydroelectric Power Plant (HEPP) with 2 units generated a total 33 megawatt (MW); Agus 2 HEPP with 2 units generated a total of 79 MW; Agus 4 HEPP with 3 units generated a total of 77 MW; Agus 5 HEPP with 2 units generated a total 32 MW; Agus 6 HEPP with 2 units generated a total 40 MW; 6. Agus 7 HEPP with 2 units generated a total of 25 MW; and Pulangi 4 HEPP with 2 units generated a total 37 MW.

​NPC MinGen also reported that it continues to monitor the other engineering aspects, including the Lake Lanao elevation and the discharge of water to efficiently run the Agus-Pulangi Hydro Electric Power Plant Complex.

​The Lanao del Sur Electric Cooperative, Inc. (LASURECO) likewise submitted to the IATFSEF the current power supply situation in its franchise area.

​As 10:20 a.m. Saturday (28 May) LASURECO reported that the 1st District of Lanao del Sur comprising 15 municipalities and the 2nd District comprising 16 municipalities are already 100% energized.

​The power facility also said Marawi City is 40% energized and the 3 municipalities in Lanao del Norte are 100% energized.

An Independence Day Weekend At ÄRT MÖD Fair 2017

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The first ÄRT MÖD Fair 2017 is opening its doors on Independence Day weekend from 10 AM - 7 PM on Friday, June 9 to Sunday, June 11, 2017 at the Megatrade Hall 2, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City.

Envisioned to bring the world of Philippine Modern Art to a wider audience, ÄRT MÖD Fair 2017 gathers a host of both established and upcoming visual artists like Philipp Badon, Boysie Villavicencio, Ali Alejandro, Joe Datuin, Toym Imao, Michelline Syjuco, Ronnie Lim, Andy Malluche, Luna Arguelles, Alfred Gallura, Elaine Herbosa, Miguel Buhay, Pilar Quiros, JV Calanoc, Noemi Concepcion, Sky de Leon, Ralph William Villaluz, Emmanuel Mendoza, Allan Sison, Norlie Meimban, Maia Magpantay with the collections of William Borja and Myla Roque and participating galleries like Larc En Ciel; Arte Pintura; Transwing; Happy Art; Saturday Group headed by Buds Convocar; FDAP and FEATI University together under one roof.

ÄRT MÖD Fair 2017 provides art enthusiasts, students, mall shoppers and the general public a convenient and comfortable venue to experience and appreciate modern art like paintings, prints, photography, sculpture, mixed media and digital art. A rare opportunity for serious collectors and first time buyers alike to find the artwork that match their styles and tastes.

Visitors are treated to a variety of activities during this 3-day event that inspires creativity and spurs understanding of art and its processes. Listen and learn through talks by renowned artists like Inka Madera, Liz Lanuzo, John Paul “Lakan” Oliveros and Toym Imao, as they convey priceless insight and new ideas in their fields. Take part in various demos; drawing and painting sessions; and learn Nude Sketching from professionals.

ÄRT MÖD Fair 2017 is produced and organized by ArtisteSpace with the invaluable support of its major sponsor, SM Megamall, and media partners, When In Manila, Art+ Magazine, Fringe Magazine, and prominent influencers of the blogosphere like Wazzup Pilipinas.