Squad Goals for World AIDS Day

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Dubbed as #LoveSquad, LoveYourself encourages interested groups and individuals, who are seeking life-saving medical intervention like HIV screening, to register at go.loveyourself.ph/lovesquad.

LoveYourself Executive Director Ronivin G. Pagtakhan said “We are getting more aggressive in our strategies to reach the untapped populations for HIV screening, education and other interventions.”

Pagtakhan pointed out, “The incidences of HIV infection already reached 30 individuals per day according to latest DOH data, and that is something we want to see reversing the soonest.”

“This HIV screening day will serve both groups and individuals, and we promise, as always, to ensure utmost confidentiality and promptness of procedure to best protect and serve our clients,” Pagtakhan underlined.

#LoveSquad is completely anonymous because only a code and contact information are given. It eliminates the filling out of lengthy identification forms leading to reduced screening period and increased efficiency.

Relatively, #LoveSquad will be using 3rd generation rapid test kits that only a small pinprick and drop of blood will be needed. Thus, the waiting time of the results will only take 15-20 minutes from the time of pricking.

Over the course of the HIV screening, #LoveSquad counselors will also provide information on safer sex practices to lower the risk of contracting the virus, and an explanation on the test results.

Groups and individuals who will sign up at go.loveyourself.ph/lovesquad will just need to arrive on the said testing venue between 10:00 a.m. -7:00 p.m. to avail of the free, anonymous, and fast community-based HIV screening.

The #LoveSquad is also LoveYourself’s contribution to the commemoration of World AIDS Day, apart from its major participation in holding the first Love Gala -the Asia’s Premier and Awards event which entails the pioneer Ripple Awards for outstanding HIV and AIDS movers in the Philippines and Asia.

#LoveSquad is supported by DOH- Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, Pilipinas Shell Foundation, Inc., Blued, Victoria Court, and Save the Children.

For more details on LoveYourself’s services, individuals may visit the group’s official website at www.loveyourself.ph or follow and like its social media channels: Facebook- @loveyourself.ph, Twitter- @loveyourselfph, and Instagram- @loveyourself.ph.

DOTr Update on Maria Isabel Lopez

A summon has already been issued by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to Ms. Lopez yesterday, 12 November 2017, for committing the following violations:

1. Disregarding traffic signs

2. Violation of the Anti Distracted Driving Act

3. Reckless driving

LTO Chief Edgar Galvante says that proper investigation procedures will be observed, and that LTO shall ensure that their decision will be anchored on the truth, and adherence to the rule of law.

No Plans by RM De Leon

Archivo 1984

Pasillo 18

2241 La Fuerza Compound 1

Chino Roces, Makati City

Archivo 1984 proudly presents "No Plans", a solo exhibition by RM De Leon featuring his new paintings which runs until 28 November 2017. The exhibition takes a direction of randomness from which no specific visual agenda or narrative is imposed. Here, discontinued or unseen permutations archived through the years are repurposed, only stopping when the composition has achieved a sense of formal elegance. The outputs have resulted in vibrantly humorous paintings, which embody an unexpected order amidst the offbeat. All this manifests a playful irony, as seen in found images reworked with blotted lines, and repetitious stamp-like figures.

De Leon’s practice has often tackled established formal standards of painting and image-making. He explores the possibilities of crossbreeding painterly acts and graphic design sensibilities. Pop culture images, the cartoonish and kitsch, and even the banal are processed with a seemingly personalized Warholian approach. De Leon presented just that in his first solo exhibition at Archivo 1984: “Dust Drawings and Other Works” (2015), which showcased a survey of several early period pieces. These were produced under the mentorship of Roberto Chabet in the 1980s, combined with recent works based on rudimentary images he has collected overtime. In his practice, De Leom has mastered the cancellation of the obvious; the result is an amalgamation of images that straddle the boundaries between representation and abstraction; painting and graphic design. He creates works that seemingly embody the contemporary nature and obscurity of the overwhelming bombardment of fleeting images in today’s technological armageddon.

RM De Leon finished a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, Major in Painting at the University of the Philippines in 1984.  With an artistic practice that spans almost three decades, his work has been exhibited in numerous solo exhibition and group shows both in the Philippines and abroad. An accomplished artist, De Leon was one of the recipients of the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Thirteen Artists Awards in 1990. He was the first Filipino awardee of the Vermont Studio Center, Studio Arts Program for Painting. He is currently an art professor at the De La Salle-College of St. Benilde.