Gilas Cadets, UAAP Standouts for SMART Elite UAAP and an Exclusive Interview with UE Red Warrior Paul Varilla

 It's UAAP Season 78 and what better way to celebrate it but by recognizing the best of the best players  as SMART the country's biggest network launches Smart Elite-UAAP in Makati. After being in the midst of their counterparts in the NCAA we were only expecting the best players included in this mix and we were eagerly waiting for the names announced that afternoon. We were not disappointed!

Mr. Epok Quimpo, Smart's Sports Senior Manager says "We have tennis, we have badminton, we have football, and Smart has been sternly supporting a lot of sports and come to think of it, why do we have to do a Smart Elite launch? Basically our goal is to impart to the Filipinos how to live a Smart Life. When we say living the Smart Life, it means touching on our passion points. Passion points like entertainment, leisure, travel, you post where you go, like Jordan Clarkson who went to Boracay and his girlfriend a Victoria Secret Angel, she posted a photo in a paraw, she really fell in love with the place. Boom, TJ, and I love international games, we want Filipinos to experience this passion across the nation and we're here to introduce several UAAP standouts in promoting and doing this. We invite everyone to support the athletes in promoting the LOVE for the sport, for the game of basketball. This will inspire kids, the high school, college basketball teams and hopefully represent the country in the international level."

They came out one by one and it was nice to see Gilas cadets Kiefer Ravena of Ateneo De Manila, Kevin Ferrer of UST, Mark Belo of FEU, Gelo Alolino of National University and Prince Rivero of De La Salle University. They are also joined by UAAP standouts Von Pessumal of ADMU, Jette Manuel of UP, Dawn Ochea of Adamson University (he came after practice!) and Paul Varilla of my alma mater University of the East.

Now we didn't get to see Paul Varilla because he had practice schedules that morning so we did the next best thing and asked him questions online. Paul says "I want to thank Smart for selecting me and giving me an opportunity to represent them the best I can. I feel honored to be apart of the Smart Elite team and alongside the other UAAP players. My brother and I use Smart's pocket wifi when we are out and about. I use it every night to connect and chat with my parents abroad. I use Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram mostly. I am really looking forward to use Spinnr! For those who want to get in touch, my IG and Twitter handle is @PuffeeP or they can just search for Paul Varilla. I forgot to mention that I do watch a lot of YouTube as well haha! I tried to use streaming accounts from the US but it doesn't stream out here. I've just recently heard of iFlix and I'll check that out for sure! Aw man now it hurts more that I wasn't there haha. I really wish I was in the launch, my apologies but my priorities with the team had to come first in preparation for the first game!" then we exchanged pleasantries.

With Smart's widest coverage, UAAP fans including me will continue to address digital needs by catching games wherever we are in the country. Using our smart phones, Smart, PLDT Home will bring more Filipinos closer to the games and their passion. The players all are heavy internet users, Kiefer and Mac even mentioned how they love Spinnr and iFlix too. Von and Dawn also uses Smart Bro in their quarters so after a game they would be able to get in touch with their families wherever they are, and says it's very convenient since they play in their respective schools and Smart Araneta Coliseum.

For those who want to win make sure you visit the SMART Life booths in the Smart Araneta Coliseum today so you can get the chance to get phones and gadgets unlike those fake Facebook pages I saw yesterday, don't fall for that by the way!.

I'll be at the SMART Araneta Coliseum later to watch the UE Red Warriors battle it out with UP Fighting Maroons. I'm rooting for my alma mater as usual because I'm a full blooded warrior but I'll be cheering for the whole Smart Elite Team too of course. They've done the country proud and even inspired thousands of students, hopefully convert them all to live the Smart Life!

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Kim Rodriguez Celebrates Birthday at Grace to be Born in Pasig City

We were with Kim Rodriguez a few days ago to celebrate her birthday in Pasig City. I haven't been here before but the place we went to called Grace to be Born is a shelter fully dedicated to the temporary care of expecting mothers no matter what age or demographic they may be. 

Ladies from the shelter personally made Kim Rodriguez's birthday posters. That part was very touching!

According to Ms. Esther the shelter's Social Worker "We do temporary care, facilitation of adoption and foster care. We're being supported by Light of Jesus Community which is also being ran by Brother Bo Sanchez. It's one of the ministries of Brother Bo Sanchez and at the same time is the Pro Life Ministry under the Rosary for Life Ministry. For now we have 13 mothers in the shelter, 9 are pregnant and 4 have already given birth. The other babies here, their parents have opted to place them for adoption but we're not a child caring or placement facility primarily, we just facilitate. Hopefully we'll be in that state  as soon as we open up another Grace to be Born facility in Pampanga soon. So we'll have 2 facilities, Pasig and Pampanga. There are a lot of maternity homes but our admission of pregnant women is only for those in the first trimester. It's because we provide counseling, we also give them three options to take care of the baby, temporary care and adoption. We're the ones to help them with that. After Grace to be Born, they have one month to recuperate and stay after they give birth. Everything is provided, everything is free from Vitamins, from checkup, so that's why babies are healthy when they're born. People who want to help us are usually referred by NGO's, government agencies, some walk in, and we screen all of them too. Grace to be Born has been here for 6 years already and we're blessed to be still operating til now, we get help with people like you, like Kim Rodriguez and GMA, and we don't get permanent help but get by with donations. Light of Jesus family helps us too in so many ways." You can also get in touch with them on their Facebook page here if you want to help.     

It was also nice to see some of Kim Rodriguez's sponsors helping the cause. Big shoutout to Artista Salon who gave livelihood starter kits to expectant moms. They taught and had some of them cut hair and provide services, a thing that they could do to earn a living after their stay here in Grace to be Born. They also received goodies from Unisilver Time and Aquabest. You could see the faces of the women in the shelter light up when they played games and small contests, it kept them entertained while we were there. You could also see Kim's reaction on how she got to interact with the women and how her contribution will go a long way to the care of them, they absolutely need your help too. I remember what Ms. Esther told us during our visit, some people just appear on their door with 2 sacks of rice, they need that to feed everyone in the shelter and when they need it, people just go there and help.

 

 Now here's a short interview we did during that event:



Happy happy birthday Kim! Stay blessed!

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