Filipino Films from Cignal Entertainment Receive Accolades in Italy

Luck has come our way as the Philippines through Cignal Entertainment's movies bag awards at the recent 19th Asian Film Festival in Italy. This is a big win not just for the production of two pieces "Big Night!" and "Resbak" (english title Payback). This happeened last April 7 to 13 this year at Farnese Arthouse in Rome and undoubtedly, has brought honor once again to the country in this Asian exhibition featuring 30 different entries from countries like Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, china, Taiwan and Thailand.

"Resbak" director Brillante Mendoza was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Roma Lazio Film Commision. Actors Christian Bables (which did Big Night) and Vince Rillon (from Payback) on the other hand won Best Actor for their respective films that are produced by Cignal Entertainment. News of having these in streaming platforms soon are in the works so that more people would be able to watch it. Payback will be released in the Philippines soon.

For those who don't know, "Big Night!" was previously shown in Metro Manila Film Festival in 2021. This is directed by Jun Lana and had stellar reviews, also won several awards including Best Actor, Supporting Actor, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Musical Score, Best Picture and the Gender Sensitivity Award (which was fitting!).

This is a part of what Cignal Entertainment is pushing for. They want to champion fresh, socially relevant and world appealing films and show them to a greater audience. They are thankful for the awards they won in this festival and the ones bestowed to the people who are in these films.

You may visit their official website at www.asianfilmfestival.info for more information about the films and the awards they've given to different films over the years. Congratulations Cignal Entertainment!

Healthy Recipes for Summer from Woolworths

It looks like it's a good day for recipes since it's been extra hot in the Philippines. There's always good stuff around, like fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, lots of things you can whip up for a meal, afternoon snack or a drink to cool you down. Here's some of them you can follow so you can prepare some for your loved ones, quite easy too.

Fiber is a really good place to start. For breakfast, there's this Muesli Breakfast Bowl which you can prepare for your kids or husbands/wife. This also is good for the heart much like other fiber rich foods, so enjoy!

Muesli Breakfast Bowl

Combine half a cup of Woolworths Toasted Honey and Cinnamon Muesli in a bowl, the juice of one calamansi juice, half a cavendish banana, and chopped dried mangoes. You can also add a small container of low fat yogurt, a quarter cup Woolworths Free Form Lactose Full Cream Milk, Coco Sugar or Honey, a dash of ground cinnamon, cashew nuts on top and eat it all!


Summer Macaroni Salad

The usual Macaroni Salad in the country isn't really that healthy, but here's an alternative recipe that would make you probably a few pounds lighter after a holiday. In a mixing bowl, a cup of Woolworths Macaroni, a quarter cup red onion, a small minced carrot, a stalk of celery minced, a cup of Woolworths Tropical Fruit Juice (which you should drain), half a cup of cooked ham, a cup of Woolworths Mayonnaise Shredded Chicken Breast (lesser calories than usual Mayo), a teaspoon of red wine vinegar, salt and pepper, plus a teaspoon of coco sugar. Put it in the fridge and serve during snack, before lunch or dinner.

Tomato and White Cheese Penne Pasta

A really good mix of the usual flare and local "Quesong Puti" is just something so good to pass on.

Get 400 grams Woolworths Penne, 2 table spoons cooking oil, 5 table spoons Olive Oil, a medium bulb onion chopped, 400 grams Woolworths Diced Tomatoes, 2 table spoons Tomato Paste, one Thai Bird Chili (siling labuyo), salt, half a cup Quesong Puti cut to small cubes. Cook pasta to package directions, mix everything together and simmer in pan, top with Quesong Puti and lower the heat til it melts. Add veggies if you prefer, much better if you've got basil too.

Couscous Salad

Couscous has low glycemic index so no worries for diabetics like me. Get half a cup of it and cook to package directions, mix half a cup of red and green bell pepper, yellow if you have that too. Add two table spoons green onion, a handfull of chopped parsley, lemon juice to taste, a third of a cup of olive oil, salt and chopped oven toasted almonds on top. Enjoy!


Drink: Peach Papaya Power Smoothie

Something cold to have on a summer month would be good no? This smoothie would be a nice play to start to get needed vitamins and minerals from fruits and vegetables.

Get 1 Papaya Sliced, half a cup Woolworths Peaches in Juice, half a cup Woolworths Unsweetened Almond Milk, one and a half cup crushed ice, a teaspoon chia seeds. Blend all ingredients together and just sprinkle the chia seeds on top. This can get you protein, fiber, antioxidants you need throughout the day.

There's a lot of ingredients over a Woolworths you can get at Shopwise, Marketplace by Rustans, Robinsons Superstores or shop online via the Go Robinsons app or their website. I personally consume the couscous and several Filipino products they also offer in the Woolworths section in these stores, there's a lot more where these healthy products came from!

Meet the Motorola Edge 30 Pro

What do you usually look for in a smartphone these days? A mean camera with lots of megapixels? a screen with a high refresh rate? a phone that could connect to fast data, tough body, long battery life? or something that looks and feels great? Well, if it's possible to have all of that, you've got to look at the new motorola edge 30 pro.

This is a beast that carries a very powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, a huge 256GB internal storage, performs tasks fast with its 12GB LPDDR5 memory so you can do a lot with it.

For photography enthusiasts, or seriously want big megapixel count on your shots, this one has 50MP main cam and an omni directional Phase Detection Auto Focus so you can get those shots crisp and done quickly, accurately. The phone can also take 8K videos, has HDR, can do Ultrawide and Macro shots, and other special functions. If you're up for entertainment, go watch your favorite movies, KDramas with its 6.7” Max Vision OLED display at FHD+ 2400 x 1080 resolution and a whopping 144Hz refresh rate.

If you're a gamer like me, you'll love using this for different titles and connect to 5G networks so you don't get lags when you're in the heat of the game. You'll get that immersive feeling people look for, with clearer sounds (as it's got Dolby Atmos) if you're partying with your friends or family. Motorola also has software if you prefer to have your display projected, those casting moments at home or work can be done when the need arises. Imagine if you're gaming, presenting something, or just watching movies, this can do that in a jiffy. Don't worry so much about draining batteries because it's got 4800mAh capacity, you can go out and never worry about it. There's a lot you can do with a motorola edge 30 pro, and if you're up to it, they're already available in the market. Go visit your favorite phone retailer to get one today!

They have it availbale at Motorola Kiosks at SM Megamall and SM North EDSA. Aside from that, they've got Lenovo Exclusive Stores and authorized resellers where you can get them today. Follow them on Facebook for promo stuff, they had one for this last April and got people 23K worth of freebies. You should ask if they still have promos like that still, or in the near future.

PayMaya is Gone.... Meet MAYA

When I head the news that the iconic PayMaya bird would be gone, I admit... I was a little sad when I heard that. It's very iconic, but as they say in the industry... change is inevitable.

Gone are the days of digital wallets being just a wallet to send and receive money... or pay bills. These days, people need an all in one place to do ALL their transactions. To change the way you do things, this is where MAYA comes in.

MAYA is cooler, sleeker, and a whole lot different from its predecessor. The tagline that stuck to me was "It's everything, and a bank!" which you can download off the App Store and Google Play. The difference now is that aside from sending and receiving money, paying bills, is that you can purchase crypto currency for as low as Php 1. 

There's also MAYA Savings wherein you can deposit money and get up to 6% introductory interest til August 31st this year. I already some of my funds transferred because of it and you don't have to spend fees in transferring from your wallet to the savings account. The third section in the app is Maya Credit where you can borrow money as much as Php 15,000. You can use this for paying your bills, essentials in your supermarket, buy load or another smartphone. If you want to buy Crypto, just click on they Maya Crypto option on the wallet section and just agree on the prompts indicated there. You need upgraded status to access Maya Bank and Maya Crypto so make sure to have yourself verified through that. You won't see the word PayMaya but the Maya Wallet can do everything that it did in the past.

My first purchase of Crypto from them was Ethereum, it was just a normal transaction and I immediately got the notification that the purchase was successful. If it was this easy and I didn't have to file any paper or form, I'm sure everyone would find it that easy too.

If you haven't seen the changes yet on your app, go download the update now and hurry, take advantage of that 6% interest rate because it's super high for bank standards. They're one of the few who got permission from BSP to be a digital bank. It would be foolish if you didn't do that. Oh and may I say, they've got 3 Million Pesos worth of bitcoin up for grabs if you follow their promos. I can't tell you everything because you'll be battling with me for that, haha!

You've got to beat me to it!