THE United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific (Mowcap) has inscribed the Culion Leprosy Archives to the Mowcap Regional Register during its 8th General Meeting in Gwangju, Republic of Korea, last May 30.
HAD Alfred Hitchcock seen this island, it could have been the location of his famous movie The Birds. The only difference is, the aves are not menacing crows and do not violently attack humans. Instead, they give you expressions of wonder and awe.
SHE came from a middle-class family. Her father was a jeepney driver and her mother, a government employee. They could barely make ends meet, but her parents were able to send her and all of her siblings to finish college.
IT is one of the fastest-growing cities in the Philippines because of its vibrant tourism industry. As one of the Philippines’ major tourist drivers, it is in a class by itself. A World Heritage Site and countless other new and undiscovered wonders of nature can be found here.
She started as a tourism inspector in local government. Her job: Make sure accommodation facilities are up to standards. When political winds changed direction, she had nowhere to go. Her last recourse was to go on her own.
A 20-kilometer sea trip amid crazy winds is bad enough, what about a distance 50 times longer, in varying degrees of weather condition and you’re on your own in a wooden boat 20 times smaller than an aircraft carrier?
Mona Sulaiman, the Philippines’s sprint darling of the ’60s, had just won three gold medals in the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta. As she was preparing for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Philippine softball was likewise busy making a name for the country.
SHE was the first princess I met and I was so dumbstruck I only noticed her smile, which was as radiant as the sun.
Did you know that 4 tons of waste is equal to 1 ton of oil? And waste can be turned into electricity? Wait no more. It can happen in the Philippines and Puerto Princesa City will lead the way.
Who says public schools cannot breed good English communicators? She does it like it is her second language. She, too, was like a chameleon, she adapted easily.
Before anything else—that is Bae, for short.
It all began with canapés. When her father passed away in 2011, Mae Magnaye-Williams started a small catering company in London, producing canapés for corporate and private events. Guests raved about them and craved for more. Her secret: she added a Philippine twist to each piece.
Serendipity, I met Ric Autajay and his wife Ces on a ship, about the same time last year. It was the maiden voyage of Star Virgo, the 19-year-old luxury vessel to Manila, a much-publicized event that hugged lifestyle sections of many broadsheets in the Metro.
NO fear. That’s what can be said of my views on the southwestern Philippines, much more the Sulu island groups. I rarely believe the bad rep these islands get.
Before their shop became one of the most sought-after multicultural communications agencies in Toronto, Marvi Yap and Anna Maramba had to work almost 24 hours a day in their first few years.
WHEN the word Antique is mentioned, what do you think comes to people’s minds? Most likely, one of these will show on the list: Evelio Javier, Arturo Pacificador, a far-flung province languishing in obscurity, a place some people never even bother to visit.
In her work, the phrase “lost in translation” is a no-no. Medy Beroy is a Filipina who works as an independent legal and medical interpreter in Georgia, USA. As an interpreter, she listens to what her clients say and translates them to another language so that legal or medical procedures are translated accurately without losing their meaning.
THE three-city tour was fast, ran in clockwork precision and very organized.
Troy Argones cuts hair in London but has never cut his ties with the country of his parents and grandparents. He is even proud to tell people that they were migrant workers.
Print was one of two of the most loved media up to the last days of 2005. Because we handled a telecom account, doing a print ad excited us no end. For one, the waiting time of seeing the fruits of our hard work was short. It would surely come out on the coming weekend, and whoa, humongous–no less than full page or centerspread.
Not all jokes are funny. One joke can be funny to Steve, but not to Dave or vice versa. Another joke can be funny to Pietro, but not to Pedro.
More direct flights from neighboring Asian countries. More cruise ships docking at its port. More investors to build bigger hotels. More tourist-centric activity development around the Underground River complex. In essence, that is what the paradise city of Puerto Princesa is gearing up for in 2018 to attract more tourists and perk up its flourishing economy.
Six (at one point, seven) of the world’s 10 best airports are in Asia, and the first three are also in the region. What do all of them have in common? They are destinations by themselves, almost entirely resembling resorts, built by architects and engineers with impeccable design, efficiency and utmost passenger comfort in mind.
Anywhere in the world, tourists experience some of their best and worse moments. Let’s talk about the latter. Even some of the most visited places in the world like Paris, New York, London, Sydney, Barcelona, Manchester, Istanbul, Chicago and Bangkok, among others, have hogged the headlines because of bad elements in society.
Businesswoman Divina Valderrama of Quezon City almost missed her flight when she forgot to pay her travel tax at the airport. She was whiling away her time lounging at a café, engrossed at reading a book, oblivious that what she paid for her Japan trip did not include her travel tax. And she was about to go to the pre-departure area. Distraught, she immediately paid her bills and rushed out, almost in panic.
After the Philippines hosted the 2016 Miss Universe Beauty Pageant, organizers told the Department of Tourism (DOT) a flattering message: It wanted the country to host again the following year, an invitation normally not accorded to the incumbent host.
THE Ausans of Mindoro moved to Palawan in the 1970s after the patriarch of the family retired from government service. Paulino Ausan had been assigned to the capital to help combat malaria in the province’s far-flung communities.
Every commuting person knows that it is tough to get a ride in the metro during rush hours. The agony doubles when it rains. Poor commuters are reduced to urban rats—drenched, standing in cramped waiting sheds, hungry—when they should be home with their loved ones. What a pitiful sight. Is there light at the end of the tunnel?
Old photos never die. They fascinate me and I make them live. Every time I stumble into one, I spend precious seconds looking at them to see what lessons I might learn, and hear stories they might want to whisper and make me listen.
PINK. Red and white make up its characteristics: passion and energy, peace and purity. The mixture gives a color commonly associated with romance. Albeit also associated with femininity, it has a deeper meaning: love, caring and understanding humanity.
It is prime time, where are your kids? They are all over the city, watching your favorite show. Not on tv but on a smartphone you once gave them as a present. They are watching Netflix, NBA, the World Cup, UEFA Euro, America’s Next Top Model, BBC, or enjoying Bruno Mars on Youtube.
Are you a tourism ambassador or heckler? Come join the growing number of citizens pushing the Philippine tourism bandwagon to the world. We are all in it together and when we really want something done, something happens—change.
For the coming Chinese Lunar New Year, a businessman from Manila is organizing a reunion of his immediate relatives, not from Binondo, but from Fujian, China. This is not going to be the usual gathering of about 10 or 15 people. It is going to reach about a thousand. He was so upbeat he even put up a travel-agency business, catering mostly to tourists in that part of the mainland.
Let’s avoid the fancy titles. Let’s just call them creative Directors. Creative director A is former boss of Creative Director B. The former transfers to another advertising agency but the creative umbilical cord between the two remains rubbery strong.
It is not just an award. It is meant to extol sustainability for humanity, modernity with less impact to the environment. It may sound like a motherhood statement but, demographically, it means, all of us, and generations of our children, can look forward to enjoying this paradise, just like Mother Nature made it.
We have many products that have reached world-class status. Among them the Malagos Dark Chocolate from Davao, Lakan, the premium lambanog sold in most Philippine Duty-Free shops. Ube, our purple yam, is taking the centerstage in patisserie and high-end restaurants in the United States. By sheer coincidence, it is now a culinary superstar in New York’s Manila Social Club. Recently, it sold ube doughnuts, garnished with gold flakes for $1,000 a dozen.
MARBLE’S a marvelous mineral. From enhancements that beautify walls and lobbies of elegantly designed skyscrapers to giving character to hotels, offices and homes; bathrooms looking so clean one can sleep in them to balustrades, stairs, monuments, hallways, terraces and tiles that, literally, can floor you (pun intended): What else can you not make beautiful with marble?
In the olden days, just after sunset, we would usually wait for our “Lola Basyang” on the porch. We would gather around our grandmother and listen to her stories with bated breath. Some of them made us gasp with disbelief. Some made us cringe because they were spine chilling. Some made us roll with laughter on the floor. Some made us cry we even had to share handkerchiefs to wipe off our tears.
BACK in the early ’90s, when Philippine advertising entered a new phase and ads that were called malinis—clean, produced with polish but not exactly compelling—were no longer potential award winners, ad agency people shelled out cash every payday.
Coffee, tea or…chances are, you’ll choose the first.
Sparkle like a luminous star. Transform. Integrate. Throughout the interview, Nicolas Menat, CEO of Publicis One Asia, the global creative enterprise unifying all Publicis Groupe agency brands (Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi, Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) and other assets) kept mentioning the last word.
The 1990s were the best of times for Filipinos in Jakarta. Indonesian employers kept an eye on Filipinos, those who were experts in their respective fields, as among their prized recruits.
Social media went abuzz. Newspapers made headlines. The nation was in disbelief when the result of the 2016 Bar Exam was bared to the public on May 3, 2017.
Can you tell a story in 30 or 45 seconds? What about in lesser time, 15 seconds, for example? In the advertising world, a 60-seconder is already an extended version, and it is different from a documentary or audio-video presentation.
No less than Condé Nast, the travel bible, called the Philippines as “the next great destination after the Mediterranean and Carribbean”. In a recent island-hopping voyage to the Philippines, famous travel author Lindsay Talbot mentioned the Philippines as a prime destination most travelers have been long overlooking.
“Blessed are the weird people, the poets and the misfits, the artists and the writers, the music makers, dreamers and outsiders. They force us to see the world differently,” goes an often-quoted line. Steve Jobs used it and so did Dennis Garcia, bassist and writer of many, if not all, iconic Hotdog songs.
By Roger Pe
You may call it a hotel with a museum, or a museum that looks like a hotel. But either that, you must come up to Baguio, not because of Pinagbenga or its cool weather, but for Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, Fernando Amorsolo, Vicente Manansala, Hernando Ocampo, Carlos “Botong” Francisco and more.
When he said the interview would be at five in the afternoon, he meant just like that. Five o’clock. Not a few minutes late, not a few minutes early either.
By Roger Pe | Special to the BusinessMirror
By Roger Pe
By Roger Pe
By Roger Pe
TURNING 25 was a meaningful year for Adrian Williams, a second-generation Filipino in London who cofounded Philippine Generations, a not-for-profit voluntary organization that promotes Philippine culture in the United Kingdom. His group has grown big and now provides educational, inspirational, as well as empowering, services to members of the Filipino community. The aim: Strengthen Filipino cultural identity in that part of the world.
Imagine a billboard on Edsa. It may seem harmless, but on closer look, you see a different version of what was originally approved for display. In the aftermath, the netizens start bashing it. The trigger-happy kind join the fray and all-knowing people post them on social media. Who gets the flak and fined a hefty sum after?
