Angry girlfriend destroys photographer's lenses (6 Photos)

Reblogged from theCHIVE:

Jobs fairs cap Labor Day May 1

More than 30,000 job vacancies are available for jobseekers on Labor Day Jobs Fairs on May 1, Dole-6 Regional Director Ponciano M. Ligutom reported.

More than a hundred local companies and overseas recruitment agencies are expected to join the jobs fairs in Amigo Plaza Mall in Delgado-Iznart Streets and SM City Mall in Mandurriao district, Iloilo City and SM City Mall in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firms joining in the job fair will be placed at the Amigo Plaza Mall while the rest of the local companies and overseas recruitment agencies will be accommodated at SM City Mall in Mandurriao.

More than 5,000 jobs are up for grab such as openings for Food Technologist, Secretary, Merchandiser, Front Desk Clerk, Farm Technician, Farm Helper, Teachers, BSED Major in Physics, Office Staff, Technician, Hardware and Networking Assistant, Account Officers, Managers, Compliance Officer, Internal Auditor, Company Drivers, Cashiers, Account Executive, Food and Beverage, Housekeeping Staff, Research Analyst, Graphic Artist, Dining Crew, Production Crew Pastry Chef, Warehouseman, and Service Personnel, among others.

There are openings for Operations and Marketing personnel for Bacolod and Iloilo Cities, Area Sales Coordinators for Negros and Panay, Instructors in English, Nursing, Science, Social Science and Math, Nurses, preferably NCLEX-RN Passers with or without experiences, Electricians, Serviceman, Credit Officer, Barista, Bartenders, Steward and Drivers.

Most of the jobs are from companies engaged in retail service like F & C Group of Companies, SM City Iloilo, SM City (SM City Iloilo Cinema snackbar), Next Trade Philippines, Inc. Northstar Meat Merchants, Souther Synergy Sales Marketing, Toyota Iloilo, Inc., Baby Company, F & E Enterprises, Inc., I Public Computer Sales Center, Vismin Plastic Center and Meridan Enterprises.

Taytay Sa Kauswagan, Inc., Valiant Bank, Banco San Enrique, Sarabia Manor Hotel & Convention Center, Boracay Ocean Bay Resort and Café, Katuwang Resource Center, Inc., Fortune Medicare Inc., Team Micro Credit Corp., Steel Art Billboards Inc., Universal Robina Corporation – Sugar Division SONEDCO and VIL-MAG Management and General Services will be hiring.

For overseas employment, more than 25,000 job openings are at stake for professionals like engineers, nurses, teachers, and skilled workers such as construction workers, pipe-fitters, riggers, cooks, restaurant managers, factory workers, millwright, restaurant workers and electricians, among others.

Job applicants are advised to pre-register with PhilJobnet at http://www.phil-job.net, the government’s online job and skills matching portals, or log on http://www.dole.gov.ph. This will prevent overcrowding the registration area during the job fair.

They may also go to the Public Employment Service Office (PESO) Iloilo City or at SM City DOLE designated area for manual registration.

This year’s Labor Day job fair will be made possible in partnership with the Philippine Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Inc. (PCCII), through its President Joe Marie Agriam, Chairman of 2012 Job Fair Committee, the Philippine Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Inc. (PCCCII), and other business & workers’ groups like the Iloilo Multi-Sectoral Business Orgn., Inc., (IMSBOI), Iloilo Business Club (IBC), Federation of Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Inc. (FFCCCII), Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Inc. (FCCCII), Federation of Filipino Workers (FFW), NACUSIP-TUCP, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and PESO-Iloilo City and Province. (Dole-6)

Iloilo City a rising apex of BPO Triangle

Iloilo City with the soon-to-rise 54-hectare Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao district is being envisioned as an apex of BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) Triangle strategy of giant real estate developer Megaworld Corp.

Iloilo complements the crowded cities Manila and Cebu considering the two are seen becoming saturated.

It is high time that Megaworld embarks on developing the urban countryside as well, specifically Iloilo and Cebu, with high-profile BPO projects, declared tycoon Andrew Tan, chairman and CEO of Megaworld Corp. 

Together with the firm’s cyber-parks in Metro Manila, Iloilo Business Park and The Mactan Newtown encapsulate the BPO triangle strategy “offering BPO companies advantages in terms of location, lease prices and talent.”

Why Iloilo?

“Iloilo and Cebu are highly urbanized and their university systems produce quality graduates annually. The locals, due to their native dialects, have a pleasant vocal intonation that BPO firms can take advantage of in servicing their clients,” Tan stressed.

Multiplier effects

Megaworld expects to help create about 40,000 new jobs within Iloilo City, thus helping spur up the local economy.

Once BPO firms expand into the countryside, this will improve family incomes and create a ripple effect in related industries in these two provinces plus their neighbors, Tan explained.

WV’s new biz center on the rise

Megaworld has started constructing the Richmonde Tower. Its BPO component will run from the second to sixth floor, offering more than 9,000 square meters of prime office space for BPO locators. The upper floors are slated for Richmonde Hotel Iloilo.

The hotel will host 90 guest rooms, ranging from superior rooms to junior suites. Its seventh-level amenities deck features play amenities such as a lap pool, children’s pool and fitness center. The business center on the same level will include meeting rooms and a conference room.

The project’s first retail component called Festive Walk will be completed in the latter part of 2012.

These anchor projects aspire to turn the old Iloilo Airport into a new business center in Western Visayas.

With its strong Work-Play-Learn components, Iloilo Business Park projects to fill more than 24,000 seats for the BPO sector, and its retail component to infuse more than 200,000 square meters of space for the commercial sector.

Magnet for BPOs

Since all Megaworld’s cyberparks are Peza-certified IT parks, locators to any project within Megaworld’s BPO triangle are entitled to exclusive perks such as income tax holidays, duty-free importation of office equipment, hiring of expatriates and repatriation of earnings, among others.

Now a taipan, the chief of the country’s No. 1 BPO office landlord is enticing BPO companies and executives to venture out beyond Metro Manila and help spur development in the countryside.

Now on a bigger league and stature, Tan is embarking on what he envisions as the country’s “BPO triangle” that will make the Philippines even more competitive globally and a desirable investment location for outsourcing and offshoring (O&O) firms.

With BPO triangle strategy, the company is making its contribution to help the Philippine BPO industry reach its five-year goal.

“As the industry is expected to generate US$11 billion in export revenues in 2011, more prime office spaces in the pipeline in strategic locations in Metro Manila, Iloilo and Cebu will certainly help propel the BPO industry to register $25 billion in exports by 2016,” said Tan.

In the late 1990s, the visionary Tan changed the Philippine business landscape forever by enlisting Eastwood City Cyberpark as the country’s first accredited information technology (IT) park.

Megaworld has successfully engineered, and continue to build up, the concentration of BPO activities in Metro Manila via three cyberparks – Eastwood City, McKinley Hill and Newport City.

Today, Eastwood City Cyberpark is the country’s largest IT park, No. 1 in terms of employment figures and salaries paid for 2010, according to Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza).

Eastwood City is home to top BPO firms including Citibank, IBM, Stream, Dell, Siemens and Accenture.

Queen City of the South

In Cebu, One World Centre in The Mactan Newtown has been ready for occupancy. The first BPO building to rise in this new 16-hectare township project in Mactan Island, offers 7,000 square meters of prime office space across five storeys.

Retail space for restaurants, fast food outlets and convenience stores are slated for the ground floor. The location of One World Centre near Punta Engaño gives the employees of BPO locators easy access to beach destinations after a hard day’s work.

Also slated for development are the five-storey Two World Center and the township’s first mixed-use, four-cluster development, 8 Newtown Boulevard, three floors of which are dedicated for BPO offices and the rest for luxury residential condominium units.

Megaworld expects to create, through its locators, 2,000 new jobs in Cebu with these first two BPO towers.

Mushrooming in Manila

At Eastwood City Cyberpark, TechnoPlaza Two were set for turnover to BPO tenants. The building offers 15,000 square meters of prime office space across five floors and easy access to shopping and dining outlets at Eastwood Mall via an elevated walkway. A supermarket on the second floor will serve the needs of the Eastwood City community.

TechnoPlaza Two can accommodate up to about 4,000 new workers in total among its BPO locators, according to estimates. This will further beef up Eastwood City Cyberpark’s employee count.

New and expanding BPO firms may check out the advantages of locating in Megaworld’s BPO triangle by calling the Business Development division at (02) 912-0708 or checking out www.megaworldcorp.com. (Megaworld Corp.)

Housing project bridges rich, poor

Popular nation-building initiative Gawad Kalinga (GK) is a housing project that has been bridging the rich and the poor, said its founder Tony Meloto.

The prominent Lopez family which traces its roots in Jaro, Iloilo City committed to build a total of 50 housing units inside the Eugenio Lopez Sr.-GK Village at Brgy. Buntatala in Jaro District, a 1.6-hectare site donated by the Archdiocese of Jaro for homeless church-workers.

Oscar M. Lopez, chair of Lopez Group of Companies, said their donation was part of their social development projects coordinated by the Lopez Group Foundation Inc. (LGFI) for their hometown.

The GK village highlighted the “Lopez family’s legacy to return to their roots,” said Meloto.

“Their (Lopezes) efforts will encourage other rich families to follow their example. Being the most prominent family in Iloilo, they are championing this province,” he added.

“If every rich family in this country will make the poor also their heirs, then there will be no poor. If you understand what I’m saying, we can see a prosperous country because of sharing – the wealth is there all along,” said Meloto.

GK is not just giving house and lot packages to the homeless and landless but restoring their lowly plight so they can have an opportunity to live fruitfully, explained Meloto.

“We are not giving land but dignity and security…They are squatters who build shanties in slum communities…There is security because they will be not evicted anymore,” Meloto stressed. 

The GK project in 2007 also marked the 105th birth anniversary of patriarch Eugenio Lopez Sr.

Manuel M. Lopez, chair of Meralco Millennium Foundation Inc., led the turn-over of P.5-million school building project also at the said site.

This modified story first appeared in The Guardian Iloilo Feb. 27, 2007

Ilonggos design, craft high-fashion eco-bags

Ilonggos have designed and crafted a line of “high-quality, high-fashion” hand bags made of discarded tarpaulin materials used for outdoor advertising, and formally launched by leading wireless services provider Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart).

Released under the Nautilus label of internationally renowned Ilonggo designer PJ Arañador, the creation and marketing of these bags are part of Smart’s initiatives to provide eco-friendly and sustainable livelihood to its adopted communities.

Designed by Arañador and handcrafted by the residents of PLDT-Smart Amazing Gawad Kalinga Village in Sooc, Arevalo District in Iloilo City, these bags are one of the outputs of Project Zero – a joint project of Smart, Arañador and Gawad Kalinga.

“We called it Project Zero because it all started with nothing but a stock room full of used tarpaulin billboards and banners. And by using zero electricity and leaving behind zero waste, we managed to create green products that will help support the livelihood of the Gawad Kalinga residents in Sooc,” said Arañador.

The product launching was held at Arañador’s Nautilus Shop at D’Mall in Boracay, Aklan, where the products are now available to the island’s visitors and foreign tourists.

Soon, the bags will be available in Gawad Kalinga’s GKonomics show rooms in key places across the country.

“When we started our partnership with Gawad Kalinga, we gave homes to several families in Sooc but did not stop there. We did not just build homes, we helped them build livelihood,” said Darwin Flores, Smart’s Senior Manager for Community Partnerships.

“From creating simple products made of tarpaulin, we are glad that PJ came and helped us train the community in crafting more marketable, quality products,” Flores added.

“It also helped that PJ is a designer and social entrepreneur with environmental conscience because that’s what Smart is pushing for – a sustainable livelihood that’s both pro-planet and pro-people.”

An Ilonggo himself, Arañador through the help of Smart conducted trainings for the residents of GK Sooc, Iloilo, infusing the Filipino influence in the bag designs.

Aside from bags, he also trained the residents to come up with other usable creations like baskets, trays and small furniture – all made of discarded tarpaulin materials.

“My ultimate goal is for the GK Sooc community to grow this livelihood to a number followed by so many zeroes,” said Arañador.

The PLDT-Smart Amazing GK Village in Sooc that crafts the launched Nautilus bags is composed of more than 60 households with close to 400 members.

Aside from tarpaulin recycling, Smart is also providing other means of livelihood like pulverizing tarpaulin to be turned into bricks for building and the creation of useful and decorative clay sculptures.

Photo credits: Smart Communications

PJ's take on Greening Boracay

Reblogged from Sustainable Tourism, Events, Green Hotels and The Clean Blue:

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PJ Aranador, International Environmental Design Activist, Nautilus Boutique owner in Boracay and consultant for Go Green Philippines wrote his comments to my blog post, “Boracay Beckons”.  This is his take about environmental concerns and issues that we must deal with on the island.

 

 I support you and the rest of those who will join us. Ecological destruction is still…

Read more… 1,003 more words

Boracay not for sale?

Who’s selling the hotly-contested Boracay Island? Who’s cutting the summer capital Baguio City’s famed pine trees?

Or is there any space or slice of overcrowded island paradise still left for sale? Isn’t Boracay already owned by big businesses and small and medium enterprises sprouting like mushrooms? Or will the giant mall chain conquer and change Baguio’s green landscape?

The government should stop selling lands in Boracay and Baguio to stop further environmental degradation, so said DENR Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje.

“The government could only promote public welfare in land that it owns. Once sold to private sector, we cannot dictate but only tell them how to mitigate the impacts of developments on the environment,” Paje was quoted as saying.

Interestingly, Boracay is still owned by the state but will lapse by 2016 based on a 2006 Supreme Court ruling.

In a span of a short three-year time, the government has the so-called opportunity to “correct and plan for a more sustainable development of the island.”

The cadastral survey of whole island is now underway and will soon be completed, noted Paje.

Curiously, the DENR has not issued since 2006 any ECC or environmental compliance certificate for any building or establishment being constructed on the island “until such time Boracay has been planned properly.”

Obviously, structures are not allowed within 25 meters from the mean water mark determined between low and high tides, and within an additional five meters intended for tourist access within the beach area.

Such rule is said to be currently being implemented through an ordinance enacted by the municipality of Malay, Aklan, which has political jurisdiction over the island.

The Aquino administration directed DENR, DOJ, DILG and DOT to study the carrying capacities of Boracay and Baguio and to look into cases of “over-building” in these areas.

The President also urged police inclusion in the implementation of environmental laws whenever necessary.

Carrying capacity refers to “how much load an area can take over a given period of time from factors such as population and infrastructure without adversely affecting the environment.”

Boracay is always in a battle against issues and concerns on solid waste management, sewage treatment, drainage system, flooding, water pollution, and coliform bacteria in its once crystal-clear waters – man-made disasters brought about by overdevelopments that threaten the multi-billion industry.

Environmentalists even raised a battlecry on disappearing bat population because of disturbance on their habitats.

PNoy even ordered to ensure that issues confronting Boracay and Baguio would not be repeated in other top tourism sites of the country.

Although DENR’s decision-making situation on issues like Boracay and Baguio is likened to “a high-wire act in balancing economic development with environmental protection.”

Positively, it is supposed to have “raised public consciousness” as the industry is considered to have become more conscious of the impact of their actions on the ecosystem.”

In case of state-owned Camp John Hay, DENR had issued a cease and desist order on the cutting of more than 1,000 trees for construction purposes.

“We can only implement decisions in government properties. In Baguio, the biggest land owner is still the government, so we can still mitigate and make decisions that will promote public welfare,” stressed Paje.

So the next time you visit Boracay or Baguio, think green and buy the idea of becoming an eco-friendly.

Iloilo rising in BPO world map

Giant real estate developer Megaworld Corp. vowed to put Iloilo in the world map of rising business process outsourcing (BPO) industry with the development of 54-hectare old airport property in Mandurriao district.

“This is a rare opportunity for us to transform the site into a vibrant economic catalyst of Iloilo. Megaworld built its reputation throughout Manila and now we’re bringing that to Iloilo,” stressed Kingson Sian, Megaworld executive director and senior vice-president.

“We are bringing development we hope all Ilonggos can be truly proud of—this is our first major investment outside of Metro Manila,” he noted.

Megaworld is largest landlord of BPO companies in the Philippines and the fastest growing real estate company in the country, said Sian.

Why is Megaworld bullish on the property market?

“We have identified five growth drivers including BPO, middle-income housing, power of OFWs, decreasing home mortgage rate and government infrastructure spending,” Sian explained.

“Megaworld envisions the Iloilo Business Park a live-work-play-learn community hosting BPO offices, residential units, hotels, convention center, commercial and retail outlets, skills training center, and recreational facilities,” he pointed out.

Sian said a theme park will become a hub for tourists.

A pioneer in the development of cyber-parks, Megaworld foresees that BPO companies may be interested to set up offices in the Visayas region.

The BPO sector includes call centers, medical and legal transcriptions, software development, architecture and animation using state-of-the-art computer technology.

Megaworld would apply with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) for a special economic zone license to transform the old airport property into a new business district.

A Peza-accredited business hub which offers tax incentives to become a magnet for major BPO companies interested to expand in the metropolis.

In addition to office buildings for BPO industry, the project will host educational facilities geared to provide value added training to equip prospective employees with necessary skills suited to the requirements of call centers and other BPO businesses.

WISE INVESTMENT

Iloilo is considered the center of trade and commerce and education being host to several universities in Panay Island.

“One of the key factors for success is manpower availability. We are very satisfied with the quality of labor and there are lots of universities here as what we need. Major telecom players are already established here. There’s no reason why Iloilo should not be in the world map of BPO,” Sian said.

He was referring to headlines that Cebu, Pasig and Baguio have been cited among the world’s emerging BPO centers.

“We are very excited—this is a wise investment. Iloilo is a very progressive city with very cooperative local government unit and we want to be a part of that growth. We will create a community—we want to add and enhance to the city’s growth. We don’t want to wait any longer—the opportunity is there,” Sian stressed.

He was also optimistic of adequate power supply which is vital especially to BPO center’s 24/7 operations.

“If the power concern is insurmountable, we could not have invested. But we are confident we could rise to the occasion and solve the problem,” said Sian.

Iloilo belongs to the “big city potential” category among prospective BPO locators because of its quality manpower and existing infrastructure, said Oscar Sañez, chief executive officer of Business Processing Association of the Philippines.

“The telecommunications infra here is one of the most modern and it is improving. We have highly qualified manpower here because of the number of universities and students here. We in the BPO sector are very bullish on Iloilo’s potentials because of these factors,” Sañez said.

This modified story first appeared in The Daily Guardian Dec. 10, 2010

Photo credits: Megaworld Global Estate Iloilo /Sta. Barbara Heights Township FB account

Iloilo City to join US anti-smoking forum

The Iloilo City Anti-Smoking Taskforce (ICAST) will be joining the 7th Annual Global Tobacco Control Leadership Program to be conducted by Institute for Global Tobacco Control (IGTC) at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, USA on June 2-16.

Mayor Jed Patrick E. Mabilog is optimistic the ICAST’s participation in the international tobacco control initiative will further enhance the implementation of comprehensive anti-smoking campaign in the metropolis. 

This, after ICAST director Inigo Garingalao was chosen to participate in a comprehensive two-week, in-depth leadership program focused on building capacity to develop effective tobacco control policy and interventions. 

Garingalao’s nomination and selection was confirmed through email by IGTC director Dr. Joanna E. Cohen.

“We are excited to meet you and want to make this leadership program an important step in the development of your tobacco control career. Best wishes and congratulations!” Cohen wrote Garingalao.

The course sessions will focus on tobacco topics including policy development, advocacy, communications, intervention planning, implementation and evaluation, and management and leadership. 

The faculty will be comprised of internationally renowned experts in tobacco control policy, communications, research, advocacy, and surveillance.

Acceptance to the program is by nomination only from one of Bloomberg partner organizations including the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation, International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, World Health Organization (WHO)-Tobacco Free Initiative, and World Lung Foundation, Cohen noted.

The participants’ financial support for stay in the US will be provided through a scholarship that will be used to pay for costs associated with the travel, stay, and program materials as outlined in the application, she explained.

IGTC aims to prevent death and disease from tobacco use by generating, synthesizing, and translating scientific evidence to support effective tobacco control policies, programs and activities.

Three pillars support and frame the IGTC’s work as it seeks to carry out its mission: (1) knowledge generation, synthesis and translation; (2) evaluation and surveillance; and, (3) capacity building.

Through its work and growing reputation, the IGTC has become a key international resource to support tobacco control action in countries around the world.

The IGTC has received recognition for its work and achievements by being designated as a partner in Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use and a collaborating centre of WHO. 

Sand sculpting showcases env'l protection

Reblogged from wanhandredwan:

They are more than just sandcastles.

If you were amazed by Boracay sandcastles before – though you won’t see one anymore because its making was banned in the island paradise – now you will see more of giant sand sculptures in Villa Beach on Sunday April 29 starting 6AM – 1PM.

The 18th Porma Balas (sand sculpting) – The 2012 Iloilo Sand Sculpture Competition will once again sizzle along Villa shorelines courtesy of organizer Rotaract Club of Iloilo City.

Read more… 379 more words

More than just sandcastles, the giant sand sculptures send a strong message and seek to impart to the Ilonggos the importance of environmental protection most specifically preserving and protecting the once famous Villa shoreline.