BELMONT HOTEL Mactan in business hub, UNIONBANK leverages AI, PETROGREEN donations, HEALTHSOLUTIONS diagnostics, FEDEX Express-Zonta collaboration, ABOITIZ-PLDT for digitalization, FAMILYMART award, CEB P1so sale, SMC boosts farmers’ income, HONDA deals, VISA for startups, TAKEDA award, OPTUM Global Project GIVE

New Belmont Hotel Mactan in Cebu’s lifestyle and business hub

GM Del Valle, “Choosing Belmont Hotel Mactan means enjoying a seamless business travel experience in a location that allows you convenient lifestyle options with quick and easy access to and from the city,” general manager Johnson Del Valle said.

The hotel is located within the heart of lifestyle and business hub, The Mactan Newtown Township by Megaworld. The estate provides everyone with various dining establishments, coffee shops and convenience stores alongside mixed-used condominium towers and office spaces. The township also offers guests the luxury of enjoying its very own front beach plus staying close to notable tourist sites much like the Mactan Shrine Park where the iconic 20-meter statue of Lapu-Lapu stands.

At a grand perspective into the near future, Belmont Hotel Mactan standing right beside Savoy Hotel Mactan, both under the Megaworld Hotels and Resorts management, are poised to cater more to MICE events and attendees with the soon to rise Convention Center that’s going to be built right across the two hotels.

UnionBank leverages AI

Union Bank of the Philippines has unveiled an innovative tool that leverages Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (DSAI) to enable and accelerate better and more meaningful experiences for its customers while maximizing value creation for the Bank when it comes to its products and services.

The DSAI-powered tool from UnionBank, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) Free-text Analysis Tool, can automate the identification of user needs and gains through direct feedback analysis. NPS helps the bank to estimate the loyalty and satisfaction of its customers towards its products and services. Customers can rate the Bank with a satisfaction score ranging from 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest) and give feedback or reviews to expound on their scores and recent experiences.

This solution allows the bank to understand the sentiments of customers through free text found in various channels and platforms, such as the UnionBank Online mobile app or surveys answered in branches.

Based on the tool’s performance over a period of eight months, UnionBank said it was able to streamline the analysis of more than 10,000 monthly survey responses and over 35,000 monthly inquiries and complaints from customers.

PetroGreen donations

Dagohoy, the host municipality of the proposed 27 MW Dagohoy solar power project, received the Mobile Medical-Surgical Clinic donated by PetroGreen Energy Corp. last December 13.

The mobile clinic is fully air-conditioned and equipped with LED TV, patient bed, ambu bag, 20 lb. oxygen tank with regulator, digital BP apparatus, drawers and shelves for medicines and extended canopy for the waiting patients.

PetroGreen also turned over school bags with school supplies to  pupils of San Vicente Elementary School. PetroGreen donated a St. Joseph the Worker replica to the Parish of San Vicente Ferrer.

Hands-on training for new immunoassay system

HealthSolutions Enterprises Inc.  dives into the in vitro diagnostics market by acquiring PerkinElmer Inc.’s new immunoassay system, the SuperFlex Automated Chemiluminescence Analyzer, to cater the critical care needs of the laboratory and hospital.

This system delivers fast, accurate and highly specific results through its ultra-sensitive detection of small biological molecules using labeled antibodies and antigens in serum, plasma and whole blood while promising cost efficiency with its low maintenance feature.

SuperFlex product manager Kent Chai conducted hands-on training sessions attended by the service engineers, sales force and the marketing teams of both HealthSolutions and PerkinElmer.

FedEx Express PH, Zonta Club collaborate for young women in science

FedEx Express has collaborated with Zonta Club of Makati and Environs (Zonta) to empower young female scholars through a three-year educational program.

FedEx donated US$35,000 to Zonta’s Empowering Women Scholarship Program (EWSP), which supports marginalized women enrolled in engineering and science courses.  The grant will benefit graduating engineering scholars from Polytechnic University of the Philippines for three academic years. For the 2022 school year, 14 EWSP scholars have been granted financial support for transportation, food, school supplies, thesis research, and graduation fees.

Throughout the month-long virtual mentorship webinar series, FedEx conducted online learning sessions to help the scholars develop skills for the corporate world, including knowledge sharing on leadership and project management skills and delivering high-quality customer service.

Supporting digitalization to benefits Filipinos

PLDT Inc., through its subsidiaries Smart Communications Inc. and Digitel Mobile Philippines, and Unity Digital Infrastructure Inc., a joint venture between Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc. and leading global private markets firm Partners Group, recently signed a P9.2-billion sale and purchase agreement covering 650 telecommunications towers and related passive telecommunications infrastructure, as well as a master services agreement covering the lease back of the said towers.

The transaction brings PLDT’s total number of towers to be monetized via sale and leaseback transactions to over 6,500, or more than P86 billion.

Golden Grab

FamilyMart took home the Happy Hoarding Sales Superstar award at the recently concluded Golden Grab Awards 2022 wherein the most notable merchants on the app were honored.

The award recognizes the merchant with the most offered items in GrabMart in the last year. FamilyMart was made available on the Grab app in 2020 as one of the first consumer value stores to offer delivery services.

The convenience store chain was nominated for two awards last year.

P1so sale

Cebu Pacific (CEB) welcomes the new year with its trademark P1SO sale for select international routes for everyJuan.

For as low as P1 one-way base fare (exclusive of fees and surcharges), Cebu Pacific’s #CEBSuperSeatFest is up for grabs until today, January 6.

Travel period is from February 1 to May 31, 2023. CEB also extends this P1so sale for its domestic flights on the same travel period. This includes flights to Cebu, Davao, Dumaguete, Iloilo, and a lot more.

1.7M kgs of farmers harvest

Since 2020, San Miguel Corp. (SMC), together with Rural Rising Ph (RuRi), has rescued over 1.7 million kilograms of fruits and vegetables from farmers struggling to sell their harvests.

SMC’s partnership with RuRi has helped boost incomes of about 4,500 farmers from Luzon and provided consumers with fruits and vegetables at affordable prices through the company’s Better World Diliman community center.

From the rescued harvest, Better World Diliman has donated over 14,000 kgs of agriculture produce to Tondo-based communities since 2020 while its more recent Box-All-You-Can activities at SMC head office yielded 2,260 kgs of fruits and vegetables sold to employees.

The initiative is part of SMC’s program to help boost farm incomes, prevent food waste, and ensure the country’s food security amid the ongoing pandemic.

New year, new deals

Honda Cars Philippines Inc. (HCPI) opens 2023 with the best deals and special offers through HCPI’s “New Year, New Deals” promo until January  31.

Interested customers may bring home and enjoy the following models:

23YM City 1.5 S CVT through the following special offers: promo discount of P45,000; special all-in downpayment for as low as P10,000 and low monthly amortization for as low as P17,618

23YM All-New BR-V 1.5 S MT through: special all-in downpayment for as low as P40,000 and low monthly amortization for as low as P20,150 per month.

HCPI also offers accessories of up to 60 percent discount as well as insurance packages and financing options.

Visa for startups

Visa has announced an open call for startups in the region including in the Philippines to apply for the Visa Accelerator Program 2023.

Now in its third year in Asia Pacific, the Visa Accelerator Program selects a small group of startups to collaborate on some of the most pressing challenges in the payments industry.

The 2023 program will focus on developing solutions in the following areas: Web 3.0, global money movement, embedded finance, merchant and small business enablers, and open banking solutions.

Applications for the Visa Accelerator Program 2023 will close  January 10.

Takeda bags award

Biopharmaceutical leader Takeda Healthcare Philippines Inc. received the Inspirational Brand Award by the Asia Pacific Enterprise Awards (APEA) 2022 Regional Edition for its continuous commitment to helping patients in underserved communities access the medicines they need.

Established in 2007 by the Enterprise Asia, APEA 2022 honors exemplary business leaders and enterprises across Asia, which excelled and demonstrated resilience and growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Takeda Philippines has been a vital catalyst in bridging the gap of access to medicine and vaccines, providing educational grants and medical training, and conducting patient assistance programs.

In early 2022, Takeda launched its “Spot Lymphoma, Stop Lymphoma” campaign which aims to raise awareness about lymphoma and improve access to treatments in the Philippines by providing free testing to patients.

Bringing healthcare, happiness to over 1,500  families

Optum Global Solutions continues to inspire with its CSR program, Project GIVE, through a series of volunteering initiatives by its employees.

Optum employees visited the SOS Children’s Villages in Cebu and Manila last July 25 and 30 to turn over a 2 million peso grant to support the organization’s various health and education initiatives around the country. The funds will be put towards the purchase of medical equipment and learning devices for the children living in these villages, and will also serve as additional support for the other programs of the organization.

The SOS Children’s Villages in the Philippines currently support over 1,500 families of orphaned, abandoned, and neglected Filipino children. The families are spread out across eight different locations in the country, and the Cebu village specifically had reached out to Optum for support to purchase health equipment for their clinics and learning devices for the children.