ANGKAS Gets Strong Support From Senate Hopefuls

Tons of motorcycle enthusiasts, clubs, organizations and Angkas riders converged at the Vertis North grounds to celebrate the Angkas Safety Fiesta. It’s an event where motorcycle ride sharing newbies get to apply, trained for deployment, get tons of freebies, and even watch a day long concert featuring some of the country’s brightest stars and viral sensations. This is part of the commitment of Angkas to educate and arm their riders with the knowledge they need to safely go in Metro Manila and keep themselves safe as well. Albeit being in the middle of some government agencies ire in the past few years, they (orgs and Angkas) have been steadily making their presence felt and got the support of several senate hopefuls, as well as incumbent officials to rally behind them during their programs that afternoon. Under the sweltering heat of the sun, they joined thousands of riders at the venue and started talking about their causes and laws that should help them earn a living for their own families. Even local candidates came in. 

Matteo Guidicelli, Rappers, Dancers and even Dante Gulapa provided entertainment for the day!

JV Ejercito showed his gusto to tell people about the Child Safety in Motor Vehicles act and his landmark bill about the Universal Healthcare bill which not only affects ordinary people but riders there and their families as well. 

A few minutes after Chel Diokno went in front of the stage and said his piece “I believe in justice that is fair, equal for every Filipino. I want to send my intentions of the same, to implement it, and I would like to thank Angkas, the riders and everyone who made this safety fiesta possible.” He then signed the covenant to support motorcycle riders and Angkas. (Senator JV Ejercito earlier signed the same document) 

Senator Bam Aquino followed suit and said “My message is simple, we know you riders have a right to make a living. It is not right for you to do that and we need to change laws, so you can do it right for your family. We shouldn’t put people in jail, we made the bill for ride sharing, this is what we will do to make sure you continue working. You have safety, it is important to support you, we are only 4 right now and we hope we have more people support you, we believe people who work for their families are meant to be helped not burdened.” 

Poe went up on stage and watched how the Angkas training for riders was being conducted. She said “I want to say I am impressed with Filipinos who do work for their own families. We all have our own jobs, my Dad was a rider, my Mom always wanted to stop him. I am saluting Angkas because we need a franchise for different modes of transport. Angkas is both a chance to earn and gives proper training. Do you promise to drive safe? Do you promise to drive correctly and follow the law? Do you promise to keep your riders safe?” (They all answered yes). She then goes saying “I think it is time to have a franchise for Angkas. May I ask you do good with driving? I hope I could be of service to you in the Senate.” 

There were several more candidates who appeared and gave their staunch support to their rider groups and organizations plus Angkas too. They have also signed a covenant ensuring they support laws and policies that would take care of the welfare of motorists and the riding public. Drivers had an opportune time to ask questions, learn from experts and see their senate representatives give their thoughts on matters that may affect their livelihood. It was just a great day to see how interested they all were in enactment of laws and more interesting steps they’ve taken to help their sector. 

Now let’s just wait for them to keep their promises! 

Blockchain Collective Offers Integration, Workshops, Diploma Courses in PH

I’m a Computer Engineer but I have never touched on Blockchain that much because I’ve been involved mostly on programming and hardware design my professional life. Like many of you, I am a bit of an alien with Blockchain Technology, I wouldn’t be surprised that only a few people know about it in the Philippines (or other countries) because education about it has been so small. That’s about to change with Blockchain Collective as they envision more proficient, educated and skilled people to support the demand and adoption of blockchain tech globally.

Blockchain is much like a ledger that doesn’t give favor to one centralized verification for transactions. Think of it like a process when one government person attempts to purchase a product, but it goes on a system where everyone sees (everyone has a copy), making it transparent - and when you attempt to change something in it you have to have the consensus of everyone first before you can make changes.

Joseph Chua President of Blockchain Collective Philippines says “Currently we are doing exploratory talks with Ateneo, Mapua and other universities because they are very interested with out curriculum. Hopefully this will be included in their current subjects. We are preparing them to be job ready when blockchain is adapted into their companies. Our amount of coders, we just need to certify them in every aspect we are doing right now. Our company has legitimate ability to certify these individuals, we are Blockchain Collective. Accounting and Finance is just one aspect, there are more.”

Austin Lewinsmith says “I have been in the industry for two years but we have identified the shortage of skill, education and degrees in people and how they can be certified. A one or two day course isn’t sufficient or match up. We wanted to see what was available. We have professional course writers, got to work and have government accredited ones done. We realized the rest of the world don’t have that, they only hear bitcoin and they connect blockchain with it. The public all around the world has started to realize that it had more to it than bitcoin. Facebook, Volvo, Australian Stock Exchange, are using it because they know they need to do it so they could be in the forefront of technology. All the major corporations have programming done in the Philippines, which means education is already here and this is the next step where the internet is gonna go. For us as people, we are giving our information for free, we are forgoing of our privacy. These companies have monetized it, this will take back control of our privacy. Cryptocurrency and blockchain will allow micro transactions soon. Who’s paying attention and started investing in it? The banks now do, it was going to affect them, for contracts, financial transactions, it will take minutes to execute. Banks hold your money for so long, it will enable you to have access to it and allow the world’s reality to have 6-7 Billion in the world connected to it. How do you bring most of them to participate in the world economy? When you’ve got a mobile phone, you can now have access and ability to be your own bank. So someone in the middle of nowhere can start and develop their identity. In Australia there is a new type of health system, but they have a major privacy concern because everyone in that field has access to it. Now what if blockchain is used here, you can use to give information only when you want to. In sense, authorization can be done by smart contracts and change the way accounting is done. We are launching our second diploma, another government accredited course. This is our vision, not always what people say, but do. I believe this is going to be part of our lives in the next 5-10 years. Insurance claims, transactions will all be done with this technology. We are heading towards a global revolution, I can tell you it could taxes, voting systems, all your transactions more transparent. In Australia it already has happened in drivers licenses. The biggest hurdle right now is education, major government systems and startups are now switching systems. To bring it to market and tangible for everyone, we deal with schools and companies. We need people to understand how this will impact us. It will become part of the core curriculum in several universities in the Philippines and one Blockchain Accounting Workshop happened in May 2-3 in San Beda University in Manila. It is everywhere in HR, Accounting, IT, and we have a partnership with ADCA (Australian Digital Commerce Association), what I can say is that I am excited now that the Philippines is at the beginning of expansion. We now have a team on the ground and we all have need for the education so expect us to be in the other universities soon.”

There are 6 core units and about 4 non core units. There is also an Advanced Diploma of Applied Blockchain available, a one day introduction would be sufficient to know your direction in using this.

Courses can be done through the Philippines or in Australia, there are licensing fees and it will be different in costs. In the Philippines can be done in schools, injected in electives and exisiting subjects. They can also do one or two day course, designed for industries. There is also a 5 day training module where you can be certified here since they are currently adapting. Some course content are now available in VR too. In Australia there are accredited trainers, but not here yet. They are currently training trainers, a bit pricey to fly Aussie talent here but they are doing it to engage and move forward. They get enrolled like students, hopefully a lot of people could actually get involved in this soon. We need it, to get ahead of the pack.

To know more about it visit bccollective.io or follow BlockChainCollective on Facebook.

CINEPANULAT Participant Names Bared

Seeing the work of Jun Lana just makes you wonder what goes on in his mind? The best way to actually find out is to learn from him via the CinePanulat Screenwriting Lab where 20 fellows go through rigorous screening so they could learn from one of the best Directors in the industry. They were finally revealed a couple of days ago and it includes Gian Arre, Aminah Badawy, Cris Bringas, Chloe Cabodil, Jerom Canlas, Eluna Cepeda, Adel Clemente, Shane David, Kathleen Gonzales, Jonar Johnson, Jiggy Lim, Ryan Machado, Rhadson Mendoza, Valentino Nool Jr, Jose Maria Ramirez, Janica Regalo, John Rogers, Karlo Sevilla, Anna Francesca Talens and Sofia Urmeneta. They have been chosen among 748 applicants. Having been a screenwriter for over 20 years, this is his advocacy to make sure the future would be bright for the movie industry. 

They will all undergo a 3 month coaching and mentoring process so they would be able to find their voice, so they could also learn how to pitch projects professionally. 

Mind you, previous participants of this CinePanulat have been very successful. They include Jen Chuaunsu’s “Sleepless” directed by Prime Cruz (NETPAC Best Asian Film, QCinema Festival), Ivan Payawal’s “I America” (2016 Tokyo International Film Festival), Keavy Vicente’s “Distance” directed by Perci Intalan (2018 Tokyo International Film Festival) and JC Pacala’s “Kung Paano Hinihintay Ang DapitHapon” directed by Carlo Catu (2019 Cinemalaya Best Film, Best Screenplay and NETPAC Award winner). Hopefully they would churn out more in the coming months as the 20 learn more things from the cinematic genius that is Jun Lana. 

Now how I wish I’d be part of something like that. 

ASEAN Pushing for One Professional Per Family

Got to sit down with some enthusiastic people behind the ASEAN Partylist. By name association, I’d be thinking they would be gearing more into pushing for ASEAN integration, but not solely, they apparently are also pushing and supporting it. But it isn’t something they are concentrating on because there are a lot in their policies that they’d want to implement. What is refreshing though is that none of them are politicians, mostly made of professionals, a factor that they have also been proud of. They want to also push for policies that would help to get one person in your family to become a professional. Sounds good no?

Their way of achieving this is by giving Access to education. They also want to bring wifi access to schools. This would also be possible if there are Scholarships, subsidies and support for reviewees, students and educators which they want to help. They are also gunning for more Employment opportunities, have ease of doing business in every city, have plans of OFW re-integration. They don’t want anything to do with corruption, red tape, have accountability in every government office. They want every Filipino to be a part of nation building, which is why they made their lineup more of CPA’s, Deans, Educators, Practitioners and HR Professionals. They are also headed by Win Ballada, an author of several #MadeEasy books, board topnotcher CPA, and also has an MBA. Second in line is Dr. Roberto Gonzales and Dr. Christopher Biore who are also CPA’s and got MBA’s.

They want to also propose laws that if enacted would have support needed to gain one person per family to have professional work. They also want to push for legislation made to enhance public libraries, OFW Cheaper Remittance, student adoption, fix Magna Carta for CPA’s in government service, salary upgrade for educators, help people going through graduate studies, and a whole lot more. You may check these on detail via Facebook.com/WINBallada and Facebook.com/AseanPartylist.

Win quirps “Education is indeed the greatest leveler. We should invest in education, put people in government with the right education and moral integrity.”

“Last elections we ranked 68th out of 115 but only 58 seats were available. We represented the youth and professionals. We are in so much in our sector which is the academe. One professional in one family, we wish to prioritize education. We are lagging in educational investment, we have a long way to go and more of our population have never event set foot in college. We wish to identify the poorest of the poor, if they don’t get someone to study in a state university or college, it will be hard for them to get a job and provide for their family. If they are given priority, they would have options. We believe that if there would be one son or daughter to do this, they would be able to uplift the lives of their whole family. If not for scholarships, I would not have even been able to graduate. My Mom said I wouldn’t be able to study back then, I approached my classmates, I survived getting shared food from the food of my friends, I also asked for money. But it can only do much, until I found a scholarship posted on a newspaper. Through the Go Kim Pah Grant, I was able to tell them my story and they gave me one because I asked for it, I assured them I wouldn’t fail them, I blurted out I will top the board exams, I promised them that, ended up over achieving and got 2nd place in the CPA board. I told God I would share and pay it forward. I have the story up on my Facebook page who I hope would be inspired by my story. Those who have limited opportunities, to be part of the policy making process and help a lot more people. When my mates and I talk, we ask ourselves how to fight dynasties and businesses associated with partylist groups. Nobody outside our circle supported us, simply because we didn’t have the funds, hopefully id we share our story, they will be able to understand and trust us as academicians. In fact I tell students how our currency is our reputation. One thing I can promise is that I would be the same person, to be one of you, to work for the things I know and share it with you.”

Now I’m in no way endorsing them, they are giving you a choice to fill that one blank space in the partylist line on your ballot. You should make sure they are capable, honest and one that would push more for the cause you believe in because if you remember, the partylist system was made to represent unheard sectors of society. If they answer your questions well, choose them for their merits.