SMDC wins Silver Anvil
SM Development Corporation (SMDC) bagged a Silver Anvil Award for The Good Guys Weekend Market during the 57th Anvil Awards Gabi ng Parangal. The SMDC Good Guys Weekend Market, which has enabled hundreds of livelihood opportunities, is grounded on the idea of inspiring the entrepreneurial mindset of its property residents. SMDC believes that its residents can potentially help boost the economy by owning a business and creating livelihoods for their communities.
Nestlé PH joins global call to #BreakTheBias
In celebration of International Women’s Day, Nestlé Philippines joins the global call to #BreakTheBias, as it highlights its significant progress in enhancing gender balance in its workforce and empowering women across the entire value chain.
In 2021, with over 5,000 employees, Nestlé Philippines achieved a 50-50 gender ratio in its senior leadership and critical positions, even as it enforces gender balance in developing and appointing successors to key posts in the organization for the long term.
Nestlé Philippines conducts an annual equal pay exercise, a proactive measure ensuring that internal pay equity is maintained and is within the pay gap industry threshold.
Reinforcing their commitment to diversity and inclusivity, Nestlé employees are trained annually on unconscious bias and sexual harassment prevention.
A soft-skills training initiative for women on the production lines or shopfloor has been completed in partnership with the Employer’s Confederation of the Philippines and the International Labor Organization.
In 2022, Nestlé Philippines continues to advance the role of women in the workplace with its sustained commitment to achieve gender balance in key positions and functions, enhanced company policies, and increased organizational awareness via mandatory training to foster diversity and inclusion.
Dream come true
A comfortable and beautiful home is the ultimate dream for many Filipino families. Today, the first batch of homeowners of Terraces at Tradizo Enclave in Imus, Cavite realized that dream when they received the keys to their new home during a turnover ceremony and blessing of homes organized by Elanvital.
“We are just as excited as the new homeowners with the opening of Terraces at Tradizo in the heart of Cavite. It has always been our goal to empower middle-income families to own a home…as they step into a brand-new chapter in their lives with us,” said Eileen Uy-Doyle, CEO of Raemulan Lands, Inc.
The six residential buildings feature Two-Bedroom and One-Bedroom units, with living spaces that start at 28sqm. These are complemented by an amenity building, which houses facilities such as a swimming pool, chapel, gym, half-basketball court, play area, and family lounge, for residents’ rest and relaxation.
Terraces at Tradizo is situated just at the backdoor of the master planned Vermosa community, near the CALAX Malagasang Exit, right in the heart of the new Imus City in Mega Manila.
Elanvital strives to forge and strengthen family bonds through high-quality homes and communities. Starting in 2011, it first focused on residential communities, and further continues its thrust towards empowering middle-income families to own a home by introducing condominium developments.
DITO levels up offers
DITO Telecommunity rolls out Auto Pay and Advance Pay available only through the all-new DITO Level-Up Packs–an expanded and enhanced product lineup.
With the new Advance Pay feature, DITO subscribers can receive and pay for their promo package three months, six months or 12 months in advance, giving full control of their promo spending and usage for several months at a time. This could translate to as much as 40 percent or P4,795 savings from their total package cost. Subscribers get as much as 1,560GB of data for only P4.61 per GB.
With the Auto Pay feature , DITO subscribers can automatically renew and pay for their chosen package every month. Customers can get as much as 10gb of bonus data every month when they avail of Auto Pay.
Each DITO Level-Up pack is valid for 30 days and comes with unlimited DITO-to-DITO calls, 300 minutes of calls to other mobile networks, and unlimited SMS to all mobile networks. The packs also come with generous all-access data, all net voice and all-net unli SMS, 30-day validity and a data rollover feature.
LUNA celebrates 1st anniversary
LUNA Academy, an online educational platform that provides affordable and convenient learning, skills training and online certifications that are tailor-fit for Filipinos seeking to grow and thrive in the digital age, celebrates its first anniversary with 400+ courses, 100+ online industry and certification programs, 50+ partners, and over 4,000 learners in the platform.
Developed by DITO CME and CloudSwyft, LUNA aims to help drive all successful learners to exciting employment and internship opportunities with the leading global and local corporations in the Philippines.
For this year, LUNA’s goal is to have more courses for the Filipino youth, ranging from basic life support to communication skills, language, virtual assistant courses, project management, photography, sales, and finance.
BPI project proposal deadline extended
The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), through its social development arm, BPI Foundation, is extending the deadline for project proposals for its BPI-DOST Innovation Awards until March 31, 2022.
In partnership with the Department of Science and Technology — Science Education Institute, the competition aims to challenge bright Filipino students of Basic and Applied Sciences to actively participate in solving prevalent socio-economic problems in the society.
The BPI-DOST Innovation Awards is open to all regular Filipino junior and senior (3rd to 5th year) college students of Basic and Applied sciences. Each school shall be represented by one team composed of three students. The team shall showcase an innovative project that addresses problems in such areas as agriculture, disaster management, education, entrepreneurship, environment, food safety, health, security, transportation, and traffic management, among others.
Ten teams will receive P25,000 each and shall undergo a one to two-day online workshop.
After the workshops, the teams are given 90 days to build and implement their projects.
Out of the Top 10, three teams with the most outstanding projects will win the BPI-DOST Innovation Award and a cash prize of P100,000 each.
SB Finance launches the zukí¬
SB Finance (SBF) has launched the zukí¬ mobile app, a fully digital lending platform that allows Filipinos to apply for various loan products offered by the consumer financing company.
Through zukí¬, SB Finance aims to improve customers’ financial literacy and help them make the journey from the traditionally complicated financial service roadmap to an easy-to-understand, needs-based, digital consumer experience.
To ensure enhanced security for customers using the app, SBF employs top-of-the-line eKYC capability, location detection, liveness checks, and facial recognition functionalities to protect customers from identity fraud. zukí¬ is also powered by a scalable cloud-based solution running on one of the top cloud platform providers globally.
On the zukí¬ mobile app are SB Finance’s product offerings, such as its newly launched Hoologan and MotorsikLOAN products. Its maiden offerings, Car4Cash and Personal Loan, will also be available in-app.
English for Tagalog speakers
Language learning platform Duolingo is launching an English course specifically designed for Tagalog speakers.
Designed with the beginner English speaking Filipino in mind, the course aims to make learning basic English fun and easy, it includes words and situations that will be useful for the learner.
With 550 million users worldwide, Duolingo plans to grow further in Southeast Asia where it is still new, according to Haina Xiang, marketing director.
She said the Philippines has seen a 32 percent year-on-year increase in monthly active users, higher than the global average increase. These are mostly young individuals exposed to culture trends and willing to embrace new things.
Currently, 20 percent of Filipinos on Duolingo are learning Japanese, 19 percent are learning Korean, and 16 percent are learning Spanish.
Church conducts blood drive
On March 13, the World Mission Society Church of God conducted the “Worldwide Blood Drive to Give Life Through the Love of the Passover” at the Church of God in Quezon City, participated in by around 100 people, including the Church of God members, their families and acquaintances. They received the pre-donation screening tests while following the COVID-19 prevention guidelines. 57 people successfully donated blood.
The Philippine General Hospital Blood Bank helped ensure the health and safety of the blood donors. Dr. Ahmad Musahari, expressed his gratitude to the volunteers by saying, “This is a big help … because many are in need. Donation like this really saves a lot of lives”.
The Church of God has over 7,500 branches and 3.3 million registered members all over the world, with church members carrying out a wide variety of volunteer activities such as blood donation, environmental cleanup, education support, neighborhood assistance, etc.
In recognition of their continuous humanitarian efforts, they have received over 3,300 awards, including those from US Presidents Obama, Trump and Biden. In the Philippines, they have received citations, plagues of appreciation, and certificates of appreciation government agencies and private charity entities.
They have been carrying out various volunteer activities like tree planting at the La Mesa Nature Reserve in Quezon City in November 2021 and on public land in Barangay Limao, Calauan in June 2021, and other environmental protection activities in many regions.
