Pinoy Musical Caredivas Launches Photo Contest to Our OFW Heroes

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Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) in partnership with Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) shall present the special run of CAREDIVAS – AN ORIGINAL PINOY MUSICAL to pay tribute to all overseas Filipino workers as the present-day heroes of our country with performances beginning June 24 until July 30, 2017 at The PETA Theater Center.

CAREDIVAS is a disarmingly funny and candid musical drama about five transgender Overseas Filipino Workers in Israel who work as care givers in the morning and transform into glamorous drag queen performers at night. While desperate to make ends meet, they also struggle to search for acceptance in a foreign land.

CAREDIVAS was produced and premiered in 2011. The musical dominated the 2011 Philstage Gawad Buhay! Awards, bagging seven trophies including Outstanding Musical Direction, Outstanding Musical Production and Outstanding Ensemble Performance for a Musical.

To encourage our OFW heroes to get the chance to watch CAREDIVAS, PETA has launched “ANONG KWENTONG OFW MO? PHOTO CONTEST.” Open to all OFWs and their families and friends, the mechanics are as follows:

1. Go to PETA Facebook page and ‘Like’ facebook.com/petatheater.

2. Post your personal OFW photo and story. Tag the PETA page by using the hashtags: #KwentongOFW #CareDivas

3. Make sure that the post is made ‘PUBLIC’.

4. The top five (5) entries with the most number of likes will win five (5) complimentary tickets to watch CAREDIVAS Pinoy musical plus special gift packs!

5. Winners will be announced on PETA’s Facebook page on June 24.

Renaissance Art Gallery Celebrates “XIV” Years With Group Show on June 8 - 20

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Renaissance Art Gallery, a leading purveyor of non-representational art in the country, celebrates its fourteenth anniversary with a show titled “XIV.” Founded in 2003 by Noli and Agnes Romero, the gallery has spearheaded the discovery and support of young abstractionists, giving them the opportunity of being launched in their own first solo exhibition. On occasion, however, Renaissance Art Gallery has also exhibited classic and conservative contemporary masterworks.

Curated by noted art critic, writer and visual artist Cid Reyes, the participating artists in “XIV” are: Allain Hablo, Sio Montera, Josef Laureano, Pao de Guzaman, Arley Carig, Jay Ragma, Art Bermido, Aner Sebastian, Resty Tica, Rick Hernandez, and Sam Penaso.

A man of many talents, Allain Hablo is, first and foremost, a thinking artist. Sio Montera’s works are distinguished by an ambitiousness of scale and a mania for surprising materials. In a transitional stage, Josef Laureano’s works are more audacious in the gestural character of Abstract Expressionism. Emerging abstractionist Pao de Guzman comes from a studied representational idiom. Arley Carig advances into the evanescent depths of space. Jay Ragma generates visual excitement with throbbing retinal sensations. Art Bermido manipulates space with neither beginning nor end. Aner Sebastian transports the viewer into a once remembered, favorite spot of nature. Resty Tica pursues an abstraction of subtlety and tranquility. Rick Hernandez is an acolyte of geometry, unbuirdened by objects and ornaments. Award-winner Sam Penaso explores the three-dimensional field with his so-called “scraptures.”

The show runs from June 8-20, 2017. Reception cocktails will be held on June 14.

Renaissance Art Gallery is at the 4/L, The Artwalk, Bldg. A, SM Megamall, EDSA corner Julia Vargas Avenue, Mandaluyong City. For inquiries, call mobile: 0917-7625692. Email: renaissanceart.ph@gmail.com.

DOTr and LRTA Breaks Ground for LRT2 East Extension Project- Package 2

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Travel time from Recto to Masinag will soon be reduced to 40 minutes compared to the usual travel of up to 3 hours in the same route by bus or jeepneys.

On May 30, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) headed by Secretary Arthur P. Tugade and Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) Administrator Gen. Reynaldo I. Berroya led the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the Masinag and Emerald stations of the LRT-2 East Extension Project. The ceremony was held at the center island of the proposed Masinag station at Brgy. Mayamot, Antipolo City, infront of SM Masinag.

“It will be a timely addition to have both new stations in the LRT Line 2 as we acknowledge the need for greater accessibility of passengers coming from the eastern side of Metro Manila, extending to key areas of Antipolo and its nearby cities,” DOTr Secretary Arthur P. Tugade stressed.

“This increased capacity of 80,000 daily ridership of the rail line will not only provide a means to decongest our roads, but more importantly offer better riding options to our daily commuters. As we improve the public’s general mobility, we also unburden them from traffic worries,” Sec. Tugade added.

The additional two stations are designed to accommodate an additional 80,000 passengers daily during its first 5 years of operation, which will add to the current LRT 2 average daily ridership of 240,000.

Representatives from the provincial government of Rizal and cities of Antipolo, Pasig and Marikina also attended the event.

According to LRTA Administrator Berroya, the LRT2 East Extension Project is a proof that the government takes solving traffic woes seriously.

“The completion of the LRT Line 2 East Extension Project is part of the fulfillment of the government’s promise to ease traffic congestion by extending the service of the LRT Line 2 System to the eastern part of Metro Manila,” he said.

The LRT-2 East Extension Project involves the construction of a 4.0 kilometer extension of the existing LRT-2 System from Santolan, Pasig City to Masinag in Antipolo. Rizal. Two (2) additional stations will be built namely the Emerald station which will be located infront of Robinsons Metro East and Sta. Lucia in Cainta, Rizal and Masinag station which will be located before the Masinag Junction in Antipolo City.

The D.M Consunji Inc (DMCI) bagged the contract for the 2 stations which is set to start construction works on 6 June 2017 and targets completion in August 2018.

Secretary Tugade also asked for the public’s understanding as the construction phase of the project would affect the traffic flow in the area. A Traffic Management Plan (TMP) was released by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) detailing the list of alternative routes motorists may use to avoid the construction site. This can be found on the official social media accounts of DOTr, LRTA and its other partner agencies.

The LRT- 2 East Extension Project is set to be operational in the first quarter of 2019.

Oceana Partners with Stakeholders to Champion Benham Rise

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Together with its allies in the government and private sector, Oceana Philippines is urgently pushing for the legal protection of Benham Rise (renamed recently as Philippine Rise) as a marine protected area including the declaration of Benham Bank, the shallowest portion of Benham Rise, as a no-take zone, where human activity is not allowed.

In a policy dialogue called “Bayanihan Para sa Benham” hosted by Oceana and graced by representatives from various government agencies and other stakeholders, Director Mundita Lim of the Biodiversity Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources shared that Benham Rise was designated as an Ecologically and Biologically Significant Marine Area (EBSA) by 196 countries during the 13th Meeting of the Convention of Parties (COP) to the Convention of Biological Diversity in Mexico in December 2016.

EBSAs are said to be “geographically or oceanographically discrete areas that provide important services to one or more species or populations of an ecosystem or to the ecosystem as a whole, compared to other surrounding areas or areas of similar ecological characteristics, or otherwise meet the following scientific criteria: Uniqueness or rarity, Special importance for life history stages of species, Importance for threatened, endangered or declining species and / or habitats, Vulnerability, fragility, sensitivity or slow recovery, Biological productivity, Biological diversity and Naturalness.” Benham Rise scored high in four of the seven criteria, a global recognition of its importance, and of being pristine and unique.

The COP Decision described Benham Rise as “relatively pristine … of critical ecological importance, including for offshore mesophotic coral reef biodiversity and for the sustainability of fisheries.” It added that “aside from being an important source of biodiversity and contributing to the resiliency of threatened ecosystems,” Benham Rise was also cited as “forming part of the only known spawning area of the Pacific blue fin tuna, Thunnus orientalis.” Other world famous EBSAs include the famed Galapagos Islands in Ecuador and the Rajah Ampat Park in Indonesia.

“We need to conduct more research on Benham Rise to know exactly what there is to protect,” explained BMB Director Mundita Lim.

Tugade Leads Groundbreaking of LRT East Extension Project

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“Life must go on”.

This was how Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Arthur P. Tugade described the administration’s eagerness to pursue projects and initiatives that could move the economic development of the country, despite the ongoing situation in Marawi City.

In a speech during the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the Masinag and Emerald stations of the LRT-2 East Extension Project on Tuesday morning, Secretary Tugade took the said rail line extension project as an example of how the government is taking its infrastructure commitments seriously, while also equally attending to other significant state concerns.

“Kahit may sigalot sa Marawi, life must go on. This should not deter us from pushing for our economy to grow and prosper,” Secretary Tugade stressed.



A little inconvenience in construction

Secretary Tugade also appealed for patience and understanding from the commuting public while the two new stations are being constructed. He mentioned that the construction may cause traffic congestion in the affected areas.

“This will cause a bit of inconvenience. The construction will cause a bit of traffic but we should get this done. Panandaliang hirap pero ang kapalit ay pangmatagalang ginhawa,” he quipped.

The LRT-2 East Extension Project involves the construction of a 4.0 kilometer extension of the existing LRT-2 System from Santolan, Pasig City to Masinag in Antipolo. Rizal. Two (2) additional stations will be built: (a) the Emerald station, which will be located in front of Robinsons Metro East and Sta. Lucia in Cainta, Rizal; and (b) the Masinag station, which will be located before the Masinag Junction in Antipolo City. These stations are expected to accommodate 80,000 passengers/day.

Once completed, the extended line is expected to significantly cut the commuting time from Masinag in Antipolo to Claro M. Recto in the city of Manila by 30 to 40 minutes from an average of 3 hours of driving on the road.

The construction of stations is set to be finished in August 2018.


Noble project

Rizal Governor Rebecca Ynares describes the new additional stations in the LRT Line 2 as a “noble project” as she expressed her gratitude to the administration for making this long-desired plan of their province possible.

“In behalf of the people of the province of Rizal, I would like to thank the administration of President Duterte for bringing this noble project in the province of Rizal. For quite a long time, traffic has always been a problem of our province. Kaya sobrang-sobra ang aming kagalakan at pasasalamat… na magkaroon ng katuparan ang matagal na naming hinahangad sa lalawigan ng Rizal,” Governor Ynares said.

Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Mark A. Villar, on the other hand, lauded his “partner” Secretary Tugade and the DOTr for the successive constructions that the department is doing.

“Bilib na bilib po ako kay Sec Art dahil sunod-sunod po ang kanyang mga openings. Eto at kakatapos lang po ng opening dun po sa LRT 1. Ramdam na ramdam po ang presence ng DOTr,” Secretary Villar said.

Aside from Secretaries Tugade and Villar, and Governor Ynares, the groundbreaking ceremony was also attended by Light Railway Transit Authority (LRTA) Administrator Gen. Reynaldo I. Berroya (Ret.), Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Gen. Danilo D. Lim (Ret.), Light Rail Manila Corporation (LRMC) President Rogelio L. Singson, Antipolo City Administrator Mr. Robert Nacianceno, Senior Vice President of DM Consunji inc. (DMCI) Mr. David Villaviray, officers of DMCI, and representatives from the cities of Marikina, Antipolo, Cainta and Pasig.

Robinsons Supermarket Automates Inventory and Replenishment with JDA

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Large supermarket chain in the Philippines addresses highly segmented customer base, increase productivity of its stores and improved efficiency with its processes

Supermarket retailing is a highly dynamic industry. Hundreds of products are introduced and delisted week to week. To remain relevant to its customers, Robinsons Supermarket needs to ensure it offers the right products, at the right place, at the right time, and at the right price, and turned to JDA Software Group, Inc. Robinsons Supermarket – a JDA customer for almost two decades – recently upgraded its JDA Merchandise Management System and JDA Space Planning footprint to improve and streamline its database management capabilities and automate its relevant operational processes.  

Robinsons Supermarket is a subsidiary of Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. (RRHI), the second largest multi-channel retailer in the Philippines with $2.1 billion in net sales in 2016. Founded in 1980, RRHI operates six business segments, with nearly 1,600 stores and an additional 1,912 franchised stores of The Generics Pharmacy as of December 2016.

According to Robina Gokongwei-Pe, President and Chief Operating Officer at Robinsons Supermarket, “As the supermarket is a non-discretionary format that serves the daily needs of our customers, we have to ensure that the products that meet these needs are always available on-shelf. An efficient and equipped supply chain process powered by JDA has enabled us and our vendors to address the persistent challenge of on-shelf stock availability.”

Targeted expansion to different regions in the Philippines coupled with strong organic growth, has ushered in an increase in the volume of transactions, vendors, SKUs, and database records. As Robinsons ventured into three more sub-formats under the tradenames of Robinsons Easymart (minimart), Robinsons Selections (premium supermarket), and Jaynith’s (discount supermarket), it required a scalable ecosystem of solutions that could proactively handle the ever-changing and increasing demands of the business. More than ever, Robinsons needed to view its stores, customers, and SKUs through different lenses to create more customized and engaging programs for shoppers. This upgrade enables Robinsons Supermarket to address the changing needs in price, promotions management, analytics, database management, backend processing and record management.

Robinsons operates an integrated ecosystem of solutions from stores to a central office where JDA Merchandise Management System serves as its core transactional and operational system handing PO management, price and cost, transfer, and database management, rebate and adjustments as well as warehouse management. Its point-of-sale (POS) solution sends data to JDA Merchandise Management System, where a customized auto-replenishment system generates suggested orders that are pushed to vendors via a supplier portal. Deliveries to the distribution center (DC) and stores are also handled in JDA Merchandise Management System. JDA Space Planning is used to create generic planograms which are incorporated with display guidelines to help stores execute the proper and equitable display of the items on-shelf.

Robinsons can now create purchase orders with larger amounts and quantities to cater to growing consumer requirements, attach unlimited attributes to SKUs and stores to help provide a deeper analysis of data, and assign longer reference series to transactions to avoid constant purging of records. It also provided improved backend processing of data and transaction management capabilities, allowing Robinsons to focus on its customers. Planogram visualizations created from JDA Space Planning made display guidelines easier to understand and follow, and has improved the compliance with plans and strategies in stores.

“At Robinsons Supermarket, we consider JDA as one of our core solutions,” said Anthony Paul Pasia, Information Systems Delivery Manager. “By tapping into the JDA’s transactional and database management capabilities, we streamlined our processes, increased our productivity, enhanced our understanding of our customers, and completed our operational tasks and activities more efficiently. Simply put, JDA helped us achieve our mission of putting our customers at the heart and center of our business.”

Moving forward in 2017, Robinsons plans to improve and upgrade its category management capabilities by implementing JDA Assortment Planning, JDA Floor Planning, and JDA Space Planning Automation solutions.

“With this solution, Robinsons can address its highly segmented customer base, each with different demands,” said Vishal Dhawan, Vice President, Sales, ASEAN & India, JDA. “We are pleased to work with a customer such as Robinsons for so many years and see their evolution take place in line with market shifts, helping them keep pace with consumer needs and allow them to focus on its core business.”  

Vitaly Bigdash Faces Aung La N Sang in Highly-Anticipated Rematch at One: Light of a Nation

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The largest sports media property in Asian history, ONE Championship™ (ONE), returns to Yangon, Myanmar on 30 June for another blockbuster evening of world-class, authentic martial arts action. The Thuwunna Indoor Stadium is set to play host to ONE: LIGHT OF A NATION, featuring ONE Middleweight World Champion Vitaly Bigdash, who will defend his title against hometown hero “The Burmese Python” Aung La N Sang in the main event.

Chatri Sityodtong, Chairman and CEO of ONE Championship, stated: “The first bout was an absolute showcase of incredible skill and unwavering determination, and the rematch promises nothing short of another classic. Yangon’s favorite son, Aung La N Sang, will get another crack at the ONE Middleweight World Championship held by Vitaly Bigdash. This time, it will be on his home turf. Fans will not want to miss all the action that goes down at ONE: LIGHT OF A NATION this June!”

ONE Middleweight World Champion Vitaly Bigdash of Rostov-on-Don, Russia, has proven to be one of the most talented martial artists in the world. Making his ONE Championship debut in 2015, Bigdash captured the middleweight title with a resounding technical knockout victory over Igor Svirid, in one of the most action-packed contests in ONE Championship history. In his last bout, Bigdash successfully defended his world title for the first time against Aung La N Sang, winning by unanimous decision. With an unblemished professional record of nine wins and no losses, Bigdash is set to return to the ONE Championship cage in a rematch against the Myanmar hero.

Vitaly Bigdash, ONE Middleweight World Champion, stated: “Aung La N Sang is one of the toughest fighters I have ever faced, and it will be an honor to come into his hometown to perform. I am not worried about the hometown advantage, because a true champion can fight anywhere and under any circumstance. I am excited to get back inside the cage and expect nothing less than a spectacular showing in Myanmar. Although I respect Aung La N Sang and what he brings to the table, I am returning home victorious, and with my belt still over my shoulder.”

Realizing the Economic, Environmental Benefits of Using Green ICT

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Fujitsu PH promotes environmental conservation through energy-saving ICT products, services

Over the years, information communication technology (ICT) has been considered by business enterprises as a tool to reduce costs and optimize operations. However, with the increasing global environmental concerns, particularly the adverse effects of climate change, enterprises are now leaning towards adopting green ICT. Even if you use traditional means, it is important to compare business energy to find the most suitable deals.

According to Raul “Cricket” Santiago, president and CEO of Fujitsu Philippines, this trend is driven by the demand for effective and efficient use of energy. Green ICT is necessary to lessen power consumption, reduce resource usage, reinforce product recycling, and eliminate hazardous substances.

“The ICT industry remains as one of the contributors to global warming. With this adverse impact, enterprises are now urged to take on steps to mitigate the effects to the environment. The challenge now, however, is for the distributors of ICT to extend greener products and services,” added Santiago.

According to a research firm, Gartner, Global ICT industry accounts for approximately two percent of global carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. This is caused by the wide use of ICT products and services to run specific business operations. ICT products include not only desktop computers, printers, as well as databases, among others but also encompasses the data centers as well as the equipment and servers in them.

The impact of ICT equipment to the environment is manifested on how the materials are being manufactured, used, and disposed of. It is ideal that energy consumption is expended efficiently from production, transport to the consumers, until the time that it is being used. Meanwhile, improper disposal at the end of their lifetime may also add to the pollution.

To ensure that it aids in addressing the said issue, Fujitsu has made society and the environment as the center of its management philosophy. At the heart of environmental care is the attitude that environmentally-conscious product development begins at the initial design phase. It brings together small technologies which lead to big power savings and energy conservation.

For instance, the company designs all of their product’s parts in a way that it can be easy to recycle. Fujitsu fortifies its recycling capabilities to advance the collection and reuse of resources in its products. In terms of eliminating hazardous substances, Fujitsu not only complies with relevant regulations, but it also defines its own stringent rules to eliminate hazardous substances from products.

To maximize effectiveness and minimize costs, it is also important to choose ICT products offering strong environmental performance. However, attention must also be paid to the facilities housing such equipment. Fujitsu provides optical fiber temperature measurement systems for large-scale server rooms and data centers. It also markets green facility solutions for server rooms and Facility CUBEs for offices, stores, hospitals and many other facilities. The company's ever-evolving products and services save energy, space, and costs in any environment.

In terms of manufacturing, Fujitsu also works to not only reduce electrical consumption but also, gas and crude oil. Reducing chemicals and waste materials, and promoting recycling with organic materials have contributed to zero emissions.

Fujitsu also adopts power-saving and energy-conserving technologies to improve equipment performance and processing speed, manage systems efficiently, and reduce loss and CO₂ emissions.

“The concept of Green ICT is at the heart of every products and services of Fujitsu. By doing so, we are encouraging the enterprises in the country to shift to a much greener and sustainable systems for their business processes,” Santiago further said.

Fujitsu, Oracle Launch Fujitsu SPARC M12 Servers with World’s Fastest Per-Core Performance

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New servers provide optimized infrastructure for on-premises, cloud environments

Fujitsu Limited, a global leader in providing information and communications technology solutions, and Oracle, a multinational computer technology corporation, recently announced the launch of Fujitsu SPARC M12, a new lineup of enterprise servers now available nationwide.

With its Fujitsu SPARC64 XII processor, Fujitsu SPARC M12 servers achieved the world’s highest per CPU performance in arithmetic processing. It offers dramatic improvements for a wide range of database workloads, from mission-critical systems to big data processing in the cloud.

The new Fujitsu SPARC M12 servers join the vibrant SPARC technology ecosystem. Together with Oracle's SPARC systems, the new servers leverage the unique security and scalability features of the Oracle Solaris operating system, as well as the efficiency and versatility of the Oracle VM Server for SPARC virtualization software.

For enterprises, this innovation can help them optimize investments in ICT infrastructure and create better value based on cutting-edge digital technology. It provides support for customers' digital transformation by providing high-speed processing, as well as safe and stable operations.

Of Reversals and Revisitings

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(Exhibit Text for Gerardo Tan's show at Archivo 1984 Gallery, "Recto/Verso: New Collages and Paintings")

ARCHIVO 1984 Gallery is proud to present RECTO/VERSO: New Collages and Paintings by Gerardo Tan opening on Friday, June 2, 2017 at Archivo 1984 Gallery.

Visual artist Gerardo Tan extends his continuing exploration of collage-based paintings in this solo exhibition of recent works. Comprised of small collages on paper and their translations into larger canvases, the works dwells on the reflexive materiality of things: transforming archival fragments into art objects and, conversely, repositioning art objects as itinerant archives.

The terms “Recto/Verso” denote the front (recto) and the reverse or underside (verso) of bound materials and art objects identified for conservation treatment. The tension between the two words lies in the dual relationship of forward and backward orientation. Implied in this are constantly shifting states of appearance and concealment: one can not view a side without moving away from the other, making the act and position of viewing a single object always a multifaceted process.

The entire series begins with the collages, which were constructed using materials such as pages from art books, texts, and posters. Tan makes extensive use of billboards and posters plastered across various public spaces in Berlin. Like collages, the city’s walls are weighed with this history of overlapping images and fragmented signs, fused into a singular mass through time and chance.