Lara Maigue and Gian Magdangal for "The Greatest Duets goes BROADWAY"

Gian Magdangal and Lara Maigue have been certainly turning heads with their various covers on YouTube. My personal favorite is their version of "Last Night of the World" from popular musical Miss Saigon (which will be staged in Manila soon btw). Before they turned into lovers, they've been good friends and just went over that line with good intentions.

Lara is a very talented classical singer (a Soprano) educated from UP College of Music, and has gone in different places across the globe to promote Filipino talent and music. Gian on the other hand has been seen in the musical theater arena, always takes lead roles for obvious reasons. Both are actors, performers in live and on television shows too.  On November 10, they'll be performing at the Teatrino Promenade in Greenhills, San Juan City. They properly call the show "The Greatest Duets goes BROADWAY" which is produced by GL Productions (their own production company). The premise is to take you to best Broadway musicals through the songs they personally hand picked to do duets with. I wouldn't want to pre-empt, but as far as skills go, these two are practically the most equipped to do that on stage and this intimate venue. As Gian states in previous interviews, one reason he got hooked with Lara is her natural ability to mesmerize anyone who would hear her sing. He on the other hand has exceptional singing and acting prowess, which he puts to good use.

According to Lara "It's the first time we are working on something together and it is a way to showcase our love for Broadway. My dream used to be with a full orchestra in Carnegie Hall, while he wanted to do it in The Sphere in Las Vegas. The new generation should know how relevant music is now. The magic of collaborating, we love seeing that. We are fans of Broadway musicals, it was a natural idea to come up with and we want people to enjoy it with us."

Gian adds "The first challenge is to do both hats as producer and performer. The team, the business, it's just the start and we plan to do something big next year. We want to make work happen, a lot of give and take, it's a part of learning together. "

"Our goal is to package this as two individuals doing shows, and perhaps, just showcase all duets. There are going to be few solos but it's seamlessly going to be a duet too so you are not going to be umay from it."

Tickets are sold at Teatrino Promenade via 09175130909 or GL Productions via 09663890156 or Ticketworld.com.ph. Go get them now as I'm sure it'll run out fast!

What You Need to Know About GrabPet

If you've been seeing the announcements recently, it's good news for you and your fur babies as the GRAB Superapp now offers a service called GrabPet. It's a new, safe and convenient way to make sure you get to travel with your pet, whether furry or scaly, and bring them from point A to point B.

If it's that time of the month where you have to bring your pets to the veterinary clinic, your favorite groomer, pet cafe's or a play date with another pet, you can now do it with one press of a button if you are covered. They did this in the past and this is some sort of a re-introduction, so for the time being, it's going to be only available in select areas in Metro Manila. Much of the GrabPet fleet are 6 seaters to make sure you've got ample amount of space when you need to travel with the kids with 2 or 4 feet.

You need to remember a few things though to avail one. A ride can only be done with human passengers, you can't leave your pets alone with the driver. As a pet owner, you need to also make sure your furry kids are clean and not infested with parasites/fleas. You can only bring 2 small/medium sized pets or 1 large pet every booking. They also are required to be in diapers and inside carriers to make sure they don't soil the cars while on transport.

Grab drivers in this particular service have been trained for it and yes, your pets are also insured if they are in the car. For starters, it is available in Makati, BGC, Shaw, Ortigas, Pasay Mall of Asia, NAIA, Malate and San Juan (more areas soon!). You may check the fine print here.

Parañaque Models Digital Health and Augmented Telemedicine

The advancements in health and telemedicine efforts have increased since after the pandemic. This goes the same with the development of platforms, its monitoring and reporting. While we move on with our lives and increase workload to earn a living, the use of these digital health tools come at a very crucial time to service the greater population in need of health services wherever and whenever they need it. Much of these also come to also produce intrinsic health data so both the government and private sector would be able to analyze organizational performance, instances of appointments, and various patient-doctor related information which can be tracked strongly.

In the event hosted by SeeYouDoc (MA) Analytics, Barangay Health workers and Doctors from 16 Barangays from Parañaque City shared their experiences in their respective local government units and communities. Their goal of better health services are really in the forefront.

Dr. John Juliard Go the National Professional Officer of WHO Philippines says "I see we are blessed and happy, our pilot barangays in Parañaque certainly has done a lot in the past few years. In our aim to promote health and create access to quality services, telemedicine has been in regular discussions in WHO about its implementation on how to promote and harness technology plus our efforts to scale it up. The guides served as a really good basis to do health services during the emergency state/pandemic. The meaningful use of it beyond that must be guided especially on regulatory part, and how to address inequity. It has to be trusted and be used by individuals and healthworkers. This is not just for the privileged, and must be supported with adequate resources to institutionalize it. This is important for universal healthcare, we look forward to see how you experienced it and see what challenges are being felt and see where we can sustain. Mabuhay!"

Dr. Olga Virtusio the City Health Officer for Parañaque City Health Office adds "Sitting beside Dr. Jojo is a little fun. In behalf of our Mayor Eric Olivares, and VM Joanne Villafuerte, Cong. Edwin Olivares, our Barangay Captains, with our friends from WHO and SeeYouDoc, the advance implementation of our telemedicine wouldn't be successful without you. After being in the city for 6 years, this has been improving the coverage in Parañaque. Albeit in a geographically limiting area, we have addressed access to health care and we will begin to share this in other cities, places around the country. Here's to watching this in action, be with us in the journey. In the end, no one should be left behind. That's what we mean by Alagang Parañaque."

Recent achievements from Parañaque include 704,904 population, 7K 4P's included, lesser infant mortality rate in the last 5 years, improvement in infant and maternal death rates, 10/16 Hospitals are Primary Health Providers, providing Animal Bite care in Health Centers, increase in consultation rates, improvement in vaccinations. They also have given 683 teleconsultations and still have SeeYouDoc appointments where much are new and male patients. ICT equipment have also been delivered, providing internet and facilities for much of Health Centers in the city. They also have data coming from focus groups after the pandemic. Current challenges include budget, health equipment, need for young health workers, transportation, different medicines and training for health workers. 

The obvious thing here is the cooperation of public and private institutions have greatly augmented health service delivery and will increase universal health coverage in the city, to hopefully have it be implemented in other parts of the country. One health worker won't be doing this alone, with guidelines and procedures in place, a lot of Filipinos would benefit from it especially in health management, logistics, support in these communities. 

LEE MIN HO Celebrates SM65 with SMDC

The good guys from SMDC (SM Development Corporation) celebrated SM's 65th Year with the one and only Asian superstar Lee Min Ho. At the SMX Convention Center, patrons of SMDC, executives, guests and media were treated to an evening with the good looking guy through several interactive games, and SMDC property laden promotions throughout the show. They also showcased properties like Glam, Gold, Sands and Sail.

The event was also hosted by Sam Oh, so the conversation with Lee Min Ho was quite nice since she could translate fast and connect with Tagalog during the interview portion. Though trying to be formal, she was a tad fangirling with Lee Min Ho, she couldn't help it because he was just that good looking.

SMDC President Jose Mari Banzon went up the stage and welcomed everyone then said "To our investors, media partners and guests, good evening. We are celebrating something special, the 65th anniversary of SM and the birthday of Henry Sy Sr. We are thrilled to share to be the Developer of the Year this 2023. In our newest campaign step into luxury, we put in the forefront the premium designs, and our endorser Lee Min Ho. Let us build dreams, thank you and enjoy the evening!"

Lee Min Ho on the Up Close and Personal portion said "I am excited to be here, after we all survived the pandemic I can see you in person now. It's an honor for me to be part of this brand SMDC, they've been in the business for 65 years and that says a lot. Of course having a dream home means we work with people that are professionals, that's SMDC."

Here are snippets from the event last night. Thank you to SMDC for letting us cover Lee Min Ho's tour in Manila. It's super fun to see him enjoy the intimate evening with not just SMDC patrons, but his fans who have loved him for years. Good thing is he acknowledges that, and he knows the same people who supported him since he was promoting Boys Over Flowers back in the days are still the same ones in the event. Can't wait to see him in new projects which he teased a bit in the program. Be back in the Philippines soon LMH!