Iza Calzado: Seeing CULION in a Different Light

Culion has always been one place I’d desire to go to. Gone are the days where the name reminds you of Leprosy, and all things associated with it. The World Health Organization dubbed it Leprosy Free in 2006 and it’s high time people realize that giving unneeded stigma would be the last thing they should do - and see the beauty of it, and it’s second greatest treasure, its people.

Not only that, the place has so much history, and stories waiting to be told. Being a Leper colony for decades, this sparked interest of one of the most acclaimed writers in the country, the one and only Ricky Lee. A promising project emerged a couple months ago, its producer Shandi Bacolod and equally decorated actress Iza Calzado sat down with us over early dinner and gave us a glimpse of this project and how it came about.

Shandi says “It took a while before the community accepted us, when they got involved in the story, they knew it was about triumph, how the movie will tell their plight. Oro was my biggest project then but this is the biggest. The three women will be something you would need to understand. One of the factors we got the help we needed was the letter of Ricky Lee, promising a showcase of humanity, communal love and how they shine through the dark, of purity and love. They ultimately want the stigma to be gone.”

I have interviewed Iza Calzado in the past and have seen her caliber. She’s the type of person who’s acting prowess would be something you wouldn’t question. I was ready to ask questions but when the programme started, I just marveled and sat across the table taking mental notes of how she puts herself into the characters psyche. This time, she’s not just an actress, but a producer as well. Two hats she’s well got a grasp on.

Ms. Iza says “The highlight is on the community. The people, the history, people are smart and can get information in a click. People are really curious about what Culion looks like now; when word gets out and see what they have, they’ll love it. In the film you’ll get to see the characters, and how Culion is strong, how they’ve become a very hopeful people, it goes beyond resilience and they are trying to make their dream a reality. It’s an interesting place, there are people like me who wants to see and understand people who live there during that time. They have a lot of dignity, it is how the story ends, there’s a lot of pity, self doubt, things like that.”

She adds “Ricky is writing it but there is pressure on me to deliver, you don’t act on a scene and tell people you’ll get an award on that instance, his world has weight, the challenge is to make sure the message is not lost. What I do often times is I ask to retake when I am not satisfied with a scene, more so if it is important. I wouldn’t ask directors, but it is my work and I’ll have to work on my own. If I need help, I’ll ask. If I do good it isn’t intentional, if it’s interesting, truth be told I show up and do my work. I must have been doing Mystified, I recharge everyday but I go from set to set and just get enough sleep. If the partner doesn’t give me what I need I lose interest, it’s why I love Sunshine Dizon.”


Here's a short interview with the famed actress:

The plan is to actually make this also a part of the Metro Manila Film Festival. Again, the film is written by Ricky Lee. This is also going to be directed by Alvin Yapan, noted for his documentary work and pieces that require extensive historical research. This would be something I’d be really excited about, to see and be put out there for the world and the country to enjoy. Hopefully after watching the film, I’d be taking a look at Culion in a different light and see a promising new island we’d be proud of - and line it up as some of the world’s best, because it is, because they can.

Shopee x BLACKPINK Meet and Greet!

Shopee, is bringing BLACKPINK to the Philippines this coming June 6. Blinks will get a chance to interact with their favorite idols and win in exciting draws + giveaways which includes signed BLACKPINK CDs and Shopee GC’s.

Shopee users can choose Pink or Black tickets. You can get the Pink tickets by purchasing any product from the YG Official Store on Shopee from May 11 to 25. You have to use the special voucher code “SHOPEEXBP” and only the first 150 successful buyers who used it will be guaranteed with Pink tickets to the fan meet. For the Black tickets, it can be scored by registering on the official Shopee x BLACKPINK Meet & Greet page in the Shopee app first. The top registered users who have an accumulated purchase of at least ₱4,000 on Shopee will receive 1 Black ticket that already comes with an exclusive fan meet pass. The top 40 spenders will receive special autographs and opportunity to meet BLACKPINK live on stage.

For more information about the Shopee x BLACKPINK Meet and Greet, visit shopee.ph/m/blackpink-meet-greet because it’s all there!

The 5th Good Life Summit

JC Premiere just held their 5GL Good Life 2019 summit to make their members, their families and friends a feel of the good life. I was at the part where Angeline Quinto was entertaining the crowd, telling them to post on social media and use the hashtag #AngGandaNiAngelineQuintoSaPersonal which was welcomed by the crowd.

Aside from that, a person shared her story on how the Good Leaf Ashitaba Capsule and Barley drink helped her recover from getting sick (albeit given only a few months to live). Oh and by the way, Gretchen Ho and Mr. Fu hosted the event.

Then we all had goosebumps when popular rockstar BAMBOO Mañalac was introduced. Man, all his songs brought back memories of the 90’s, early 2000’s when they were all at their prime. I bet if the JC Premiere executives weren’t wearing gowns and stuff they would have been jumping up and down with him. Bamboo is just a total performer!

JC Premiere also gave away tons of prizes, it includes cash to the amount of several million pesos.

Carlito Macadangdang the Vice President and CFO went up on stage, I could hear some ladies shriek, saying he’s all cute! It’s their fifth year anniversary and Mothers day so he greeted them first. Then he says “Thank you for celebrating with us, thank you dreamers. Here we go because we’ll be giving out 500,000 pesos! (Winner was from Imus Cavite). This end of May, our Good Life reports will come out and will be available in the office. All our expansions, incentives and news will be put there, it will simply remind you how we are transforming ourselves, transforming lives. I hope you also download the JC University app on Google Play and the App Store so you would know how to earn a six digit income. PSO will also now be available at the JC University App. It’s detailed and it will teach you the steps, best of all it’s free. Now who among you remember the Iceland travel incentive? We have 32 who qualified for that, we will be going to Iceland on October 4-10. Now I know you go to our branches and they ask you if you have vouchers, all our staff ask you for it, but would you like us to make it even better? We want you to earn bigger, so we decided to put the buy one take one vouchers to be effective for a LIFETIME! That means, starting Tuesday (May 14) this week, everything is BUY ONE TAKE ONE in all our centers. Also, after seeing our Boss, we want something new on your portal. We want you to have PASM Transaction History (so you see who and where they are buying), another report is the Direct Monthly Maintenance (so you can monitor your sponsors and your commissions), the third is your Rank History so you can see how you perform in your accounts and how you are growing in your ranks. Now for those Silver and Gold Accounts, you will have the option to upgrade your account online and we will deliver the package to you. Your points will also be sent to your uplines realtime. Just choose the package, pay and receive. Now for those who want to make sure commissions get to you, we want to make your lives easier and get your JC Portal to have an online shopping feature. If you click shop, pay for it and it will be delivered to your doorstep, also, it’s going to be BUY ONE TAKE ONE.”

He adds “I was thinking about what to tell you last night, but really, thank you for spending 5 years of your journey here. A lot of people do not trust you, I know you’ve felt that a lot of times. But your sacrifice for the company is not getting unnoticed. With us here, you will always be secured. Thank you and to God be the glory! Thank you and welcome to the good life!”

Then their President and CEO Jonathan So came on stage and talked saying “How are you all? Who’s from Mindanao? Visayas? International? I would like to thank the one above first, thanks also to our VP and every Mom who’s in this venue, happy mothers day! For all the teens, the kids, if you wanna succeed in life, always follow your parents, love them. I love you Mom, I know she’s somewhere here.”

He adds “I want to thank everyone who put their trust on us, especially those who came from far places. We’ll have a raffle first. (Then he gave away more 500,000 pesos cash!) Now who’s got silver accounts here? Pasm accounts are only given to Platinum accounts, we designed that to payout those who have exceptional marketing skills but we want silver account holders to also have residual income. Today I am announcing that all Silver accounts will get PASM. It’s a cost for us, but wait, I forgot to say hi to other corporations who are watching, don’t worry about us, think of your families, these past few months, there are tons of people who have switched to JC, their number ones and top earners are going here, it is because they know something good is happening here. They have vast experience here and you can’t fool them, I looked up to them when I was starting, but at the end of the day, you’ll earn but don’t put it as if you owe us your success, so for those who want to go here, I am just getting two every month. I have good news, this year you are thinking about where to go, we often want to give this perk to less people and make it hard for them to achieve it. But if that’s how it is, our uplines give travel incentives instead, tonight, I want you to watch this. (Then shows a couple of slides about Vietnam), We want you to be in one plane if it is possible. It’s a free travel incentive and you have to only hit a mark.”

It’s nice to see how they’re changing the way network marketing plays in the Philippines. I might take a look at their platform someday soon if finances are not liquid, they look quite promising.

Visit jcprimiere.com if you want to know more.

GTalks All About Biodiversity

Organizations that care for the planet got us listening through GTalks, a “Tambayan” type event hosted by Mynt and the people behind GCash.

WWF, the worldwide fund for nature Philippines has been implementing various conservation projects in the country involved in crafting solutions in climate change and natural disasters. They operate in over 100 countries supporting almost 5 Million people worldwide but are doing significant work here.

BIOFIN on the other hand (Biodiversity Finance Initiative Philippines) also introduced themselves as a heavily involved in a project involving 35 other countries identifying biodiversity plan implementation and figure out financing for it. They identify finance solutions, raising new money, aligning resources, preventing future costs and improve delivery of finance. This is for programs that contribute to biodiversity. They do convergence programs so either public or private entities get to partner up and maximize their resources.

Gene, Species and Ecosystem was also explained by a young lady from DENR. She hailed the country as a Mega Biodiversity site and is unique, at par with countries like Brazil, US and Australia.

Lots of our animal species are endemic and some are critically endangered. It made us think about what else we can do to help for this not to happen.

The lack of awareness is also not helping, the country is beautiful but if we do not practice use of resources responsibly, we’re all doomed!

GCASH will also be launching a CSR project called GCASH For Good next month, to address how everyone can help in this day and age. Even if you are busy are work, taking care of your family, you would have ways to help impact communities and organizations by individually helping them.

We all can make a difference.