MANILA Prepares for Manila International Dance Festival

Something really big is happening over at the city of Manila, it's the Manila International Dance Festival (also called MIDFestival) happening on September 8, 2023.

In a grand press conference a couple of days ago at the Manila City Hall's historic Session Hall, they announced details about the three day festival aimed to celebrate diversity, peace and unity through dance and music. The word international must have already given you an idea that this will involve several countries in the region that will also showcase their cultural dances at the event. This includes our neighbors Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, plus friends from India and South Korea.

What's quite different about this festival is that it'll be happening in different areas of the city simultaneously. From the biggest malls in Manila like Lucky Chinatown and Robinsons Place Manila, schools, universities and Fort Santiago in Intramuros, they'll be performing in these places then culminate in Rizal Park later on in the evening.

Vice Mayor Yul Servo says "4 of our newest projects in Manila is happening this last quarter, with the help of our Mayor Honey Lacuna and the different organizations in the city of Manila, we are asking for your support and cooperation to make this a very successful one in the coming months to benefit the young Manilenos and Manilenas. We will have 16 dance groups from the Manila and different parts of the Philippines plus other countries like Indonesia, India, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand. This project aims to showcase the talent of Manilenos, and our neighboring countries too. We would like to thank those who have cooperated and arranged this project like the National Parks Development Committee, Concert at the Park, Archiestic Events Production, Office of the Vice Mayor of Manila, Department of Tourism, the National Center for Culture and the Arts, Verde Creatives, and the City of Manila who will fully support this much awaited event and prestigious dance festival in the region. We will also be holding the "Mr. Manila" pageant, which is now a separate entity from the previous Mr. and Ms. Manila pageant where talented Manilenos who work, live and study in the city could join and represent Manila in international tilts. We sincerely thank our Mayor Honey Lacuna for her full support on these endeavors."

Here's our interview with Festival Director Archie Dema-ala who also shared some details about the upcoming MIDFestival:

MIDFestival is also supported by the honorable Senator Loren Legarda, Hotel Sogo, Lyf Hotel, and the City of Manila. If you want to become part of the celebrations (for partnerships) you may email them at midf2023@gmail.com or through their social channels facebook.com/manilainternationaldancefestival.

The sheer number of participants just make me feel so excited for what's about to happen. This is a big event for the city of Manila, we can't wait to see this in the coming weeks!

KATHRYN BERNARDO at the realme 11 Pro 5G Series Launch

realme just launched the new realme 11 Pro 5G Series with the one and only Queen Kathryn Bernardo. This includes the realme 11 Pro+ 5G and the realme 11 Pro 5G.

Kathryn's been very busy these couple of months as she's doing a film called "A Very Good Girl" with famed actress Dolly De Leon. Shooting was tough but Kath was thankful she got to spend the days after with the realme family just to launch these special phones in the Philippines.

If you haven't seen it, the realme 11 Pro+ 5G has a 200MP OIS SuperZoom Camera and a 120Hz Curved OLED Display. It uses a MediaTek Dimensity 7050 processor and utilizes a 100W SUPERVOOC Charge to fill up a 5000mAh battery. The realme 11 Pro 5G on the other hand uses a 100MP ProLight Camera and a 67W instead for the charger. Dolby Atmos Dual Stereo Speakers means you've got entertainment handled by it easily. If you haven't tried it yet, go visit their TikTok Shop, or their main E-Store to get discounts when available.

Neil Zou the CEO of realme Philippines says "From websites to magazines and broadsheets, we love our partners and the things we achieved together. We are announcing this new series for the realme brand."

Jane Yan VP for Marketing adds "The realme number series started since 2019 and we want to bring this flagship features to be enjoyed by everyone. No leap, no launch, so if there is no design or technology advancement, there would be no launch. The Pro variants all carry the realme master design, this is why we have the best in class realme 11 Pro Series 5G. This August we will have the realme fanfest in different parts of the country until this September. I hope you guys are ready, because we want you to see the world up close!"

Jimclaude Gayo the product manager details "The realme 11 Pro Series 5G encourages you to do more as it is designed by Matteo Menotto. He wanted to pay tribute to Milan in its overall design. The look is contemporary, the rising sun (the lens) and the beige color is the sunlight spilling hence the very aesthetic look. He combined architecture, natural light, and is made of premium Lychee Vegan leather. This makes it sophisticated and stylish, with a metallic feel, high gloss, and is also available in Oasis Green. It's got 120Hz Curved OLED Display, high refresh rate so you get less strained eyes. It also has best color accuracy, double reinforced glass, and a Mediatek Dimensity Processor. It boasts a 200MP Camera and has OIS for those unstable shots you often post on social media. They also employ Super Nightscape mode, 4K video, smart long exposure or dual video for those into vlogging. The front cam is 32MP from Sony, and can charge fast with a 100W SUPERVOOC Charge and it's 5000 mAh battery. It's still slim and lightweight, available in 12GB+512GB Storage."

The phone is available in Astral Black, and has filters from Lonely Planet that looks like polaroids when you're doing filters. Try it out when you're in the area.

Don't tell me I didn't tell you!

Whoscall Launched in the Philippines

Have you been scammed online or through calls? Well, you're not alone. There are thousands of people who fall victim to these unscrupulous individuals every day. Yes, you can block numbers one by one, but it isn't a permanent solution. They can call you using a different number, or use a link to trick you into thinking it's a legitimate website.

Popular app "WhosCall" is now in the Philippines and is pushing for a Scam Free Pilipinas, a movement to put a stop to these scams. Their app is free to download (on Google Play and the App Store) and use database comparison for those unknown calls, with the aim to trustworthy communication wherever you are in the world. Aside from that, those unnecessary telemarketing and non business related calls could be identified, to of course, have less anxiety if someone calls you out of the blue. Scammers are also being so creative, but with Whoscall AI features, you can up your security.

At the New World Hotel in Makati, broadcaster Karen Davila, tech blogger Gian Viterbo, and youth leader Aileen Montalbo shared their real life experiences about being scammed. Albeit a bit on the techie side, they still fall prey, and this threat is real for a lot of Filipinos. For a safer mobile space, Whoscall was developed by Gogolook.

Jeff Kuo the CEO of Gogolook says "Our company was built by 3 college friends 3 years ago. We tried to raised funds to see our vision. We tried to explain the differences between communication types, and whoscall reveals the names of people behind numbers, to empower everyone on the internet. This is a community and partnership, with this, we can assure a scam free Pilipinas!"

COO of Gogolook Manwoo Joo says "We are happy to introduce Whoscall in Taiwan, HK, Thailand and other areas, we are excited to introduce it to the Philippine market. It's getting more high tech lately even after the pandemic. This will be one of the options to keep people from scams, our first campaign is about Scam Free Pilipinas, where our database will team up with telecom and government agencies, not only for metro areas but provinces too. Hope the things we did in other countries would be implemented well in the Philippines."

 

Gian also adds "You need to enable to block spam, Whoscall is a layer of security. I also advice to not to connect to public networks unless it's an emergency. I have installed it on iOS and my Android devices, it checks numbers, tells me when it's a scam and add new ones if needed."

Col. Joey Fontiveros of the Philippine Army says "The internet has been a source of vulnerability, complexity and criminals have been stealing information and do scams, frauds. It's a major concern for the military, by experience, you can often know how scams work. Even charities, trouble with the government, your family, a virus on your computer, could be something that scammers would say to get your account compromised. They want you to pay through crypto currency, electronic payment systems, and hackers can see what you do. We need to limit sharing of data, and this innovation is useful for all consumers whether you are connected to the internet or not."

With over 2.6 Billion numbers in their database, they can show you who's calling or sending the sms. You can also search for it, and see if there's a url or fraud links which you can do for free. They have collaborated with law enforcement and government agencies. Go download the app today and get yourself protected.

Globe Group Optimistic on Growth Despite Economic Challenges

Globe is now officially running their business into more of a Tech-co rather than a pure telecommunications company. In recent announcements from the group, there has been strong growth on data and non telco revenues in recent months (first half of 2023) compared to last year. This brings their non telco revenues to 52% year on year amounting to 2.8 Billion pesos. Aside from that, they are optimistic about the impact of the new ST Telemedia Global Data Centres Philippines that broke ground plus Mynt's earnings on GCASH. Growth is also seen on the mobile business, reaching pre-pandemic numbers during the second quarter of 2023 despite extended macroeconomic pressures in PH business conditions and lower voice and text usage in the country.  

Globe also announced their succesful SIM registration efforts getting 99% of their revenue generating base. That's over 53.7 Million registrants since the government implemented it. This is 62 percent of their total number of subscribers, which is already high than their expected turnout and last ditch efforts last month.

Their Fiber business for home got 12.8 Billion Pesos in revenue, but is expecting to have 10% decline on fixed wireless lines. Globe also launched the GFiber Prepaid lines to cushion this impact, and will service a lot of Filipinos with the no tie up and unlimited data use promotions they are implementing for it. They also have a buy now pay later option (on GCash) to make sure it reaches an even wider demographic to serviceable areas in the country. All of these are being managed through the Globe One App, which proved convenient for me (used as a backup).

They are also ramping up corporate data services and are already seeing a 9.1 Billion Peso Data Revenue during the first half of 2023. This includes cloud, business apps, cybersecurity, data center and IOT services that they also offer.   

This event was attended by Ernest Cu the CEO of Globe, Globe's Chief Commercial Officer Issa Guevarra-Cabrera, Globe's Chief Transformation and Customer Experience Officer Rebecca Eclipse, Head of Consumer Mobile Officer Darius Delgado, Globe Group General Counsel Atty. Froilan Castelo, the VP Corporate Finance Carlo Uno, their Head of Network Technical Group Joel Agustin, VP Broadband Business Raymond Policarpio, President of Mynt - GCash Ms. Martha Sazon, CFO of Mynt Tek Olanio, Managing Director of 917Ventures Vince Gamat, CEO and President of ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) Philippines Carlo Malana.

Globe is continuing their commitment in delivering the best and reliable connectivity to all their customers, whether wireless or fixed lines. They remain optimistic in spite of expected slow down in the economy this year, and in 2024.