Monthly Archives

July 2021

Entertainment

Juan Karlos returns with a new single “Boston”

Returns from an indefinite hiatus social media, acclaimed artist Juan Karlos with arresting folk-rock tune that showcases a more laid-back, stripped-down approach in terms of songwriting and production.  Released digitally, Bostonis out now on all streaming platforms worldwide via Island Records Philippines and MCA Music Inc.

Boston” revisits an old memory with a former flame, and runs with the fictional idea of “what could have been” if decisions in life were done differently. The song also documents that lingering bittersweet feeling of longing that, because of circumstances beyond control, cannot persist.

https://juankarlos.lnk.to/MVBoston

Going beyond his comfort zone, Juan Karlos recorded “Boston” alone in his home studio without his band. He tapped Dix Lucero for additional sax and flute parts and Noel De Brackinghe as his Recording, Mixing and Mastering Engineer, who made the material more intricately layered but tastefully sparse.

With subtle instrumentation that allows the sentiment of the song to soar and tug hearts, Juan Karlos’ latest single embraces his introspective side with creative whims and folk-rock sensibilities, while retaining a sense of hushed fragility.

“I’ve always wanted a simple treatment with a touch of complexity,” the young singer-songwriter shares in a statement. “Boston works in that vein, and it captures my personal vision as a musician.”

The song comes with a music video that features Juan Karlos performing in a moving pickup, with EDSA as his backdrop. The visual narrative shows the alt-pop artist singing with his guitar, as he traverses the sprawling urban stretch aimlessly, as if navigating places without a particular destination.

Follow Juan Karlos: Facebook  |  Instagram

Follow MCA Music: Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter  |  YouTube

About Juan Karlos

Juan Karlos is a Filipino band and six-time Platinum awardee signed under MCA Music composed of JK Labajo on vocals and guitar, Jeriko Aguilar on guitar, Louise Bayas on bass, and Gian Hipolito on drums. Formed in 2018, the eponymous band went under several personnel changes and ultimately released their smash hit, “Buwan” in the same year.
Frontman JK Labajo shared that his solo music career is currently inactive. Hailing from Cebu, he first gained recognition as a finalist on The Voice Kids Philippines and went on to pursue a career in music and acting. Following the release of his albums under MCA Music, JK (2015) and JKL (2017), he realized that he has to stop settling and commit to what he really wants: to write, produce, and perform his own songs the way he hears it in his head and heart and be part of a band. Juan Karlos aims to “dream big or go home” and to make a mark in OPM and globally. “I want to be able to make a change, a difference,” he said. I want to show people the importance and beauty of music. I’m in music for the art, to earn in order to fund my daily needs and dreams, and for recognition so I can have reach and to be heard.”
 
Lifestyle

Use #FriendshipGoals on Tiktok to Commemorate this Friendship day with your beloved Friends

TikTok seems to have become a site where friendships are created and nurtured as a platform that brings creative groups together, digitally uniting like-minded people from around the country and the world. TikTok content creation has also proven to be an enjoyable activity for groups of friends to undertake together, as well as a terrific method to remember memories.

Friendships, both virtual and real-life, are meant to be treasured and appreciated, and World Friendship Day is all about that. This global celebration, also known as International Day of Friendship, was formally declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 2011 as a day to recognize friendships amongst peoples, countries, cultures, and individuals, something TikTok has accomplished over the years since its establishment.

To celebrate World Friendship Day, let’s get to know some friends who “TikTok” together by taking a look at their awesome videos that give us all #FriendshipGoals feels!

https://www.tiktok.com/@its_kjoy/video/6941253428765134086

                                               Watch three best friends looking absolutely fierce in this TikTok video.

https://www.tiktok.com/@dandoesthecooking/video/692044466691558937

Four friends take on the #4CourseMealChallenge on TikTok, where different persons choose what to order as appetizers, drinks, main course, and dessert, all from different restaurants.

https://www.tiktok.com/@villasan_joshua/video/692205319496111232

This outdoor photoshoot with friends looks like a lot of fun. It’s a great way to capture moments together, too!

https://www.tiktok.com/@thisisashiee/video/6907580815366966530

You can learn a lot about your friends when you take on the #ThisOrThat challenge together on TikTok!

https://www.tiktok.com/@_goldentriooo/video/6973200200139803906

These three ladies call themselves the Golden Trio, and they enjoy creating TikTok videos so much as a group that they have created an account just for their content! Watch them dance together in this video.

Enjoy great moments with your friends and share them with the world on Tiktok! To get started, download the app on your iOS and Android device today.

 

 

 

 

Entertainment

Ben&Ben with Moira second collaborative single “Pasalubong”

Reuniting again, Ben&Ben and Moira for a song that captures the intensity of deep longing and persistent desire. Their been working together last year for the heartwarming ballad “Paalam,” which has reached more than 40 million streams on all combined music platforms. Pasalubong is the third single off Ben&Ben upcoming sophomore full-length album to be released next month. and a romantic confessional that drips with unapologetic sentimentality:  a song that is defenseless in its yearning and honesty, hoping that one’s profession of love will be received and reciprocated.

According to Ben&Ben, the song was inspired by the double meaning behind the title, which is a term that is commonly used to refer to a gift, and a word that could also mean to meet. “The track is a play on both these meanings,” the acclaimed nine-piece outfit explains.

Moira adds that the song’s impact radiates on a universal level, simply because it shows bravery and honesty despite the odds. “It isn’t so common anymore today to say what you mean,” the hitmaker says. “So I love that after a whole song of poetry, we end with the simplest but scariest lines to say…. Gusto Kita.”

Written and produced by the band and Moira, with arrangement from Ben&Ben’s very own percussionist Andrew De Pano, the folk-pop tune encapsulates the beauty in sparseness, and the magic in turning an outpour of emotion into a generation-defining anthem.

Andrew reveals that he was tasked to oversee the production side of the material, relying heavily on the weight of the word as basis for the arrangement and the overall vibe. “A big immediate difference from the usual Ben&Ben sound is the way the guitars sound, and the absence of most of our usual elements in the beginning. There was a major effort to really embody and project emotions of waiting and uncertainty and longing, and the ‘bass drum’ sound that is present throughout the song is meant to symbolize those times we get so caught up deep in thought that we end up hearing our own heartbeat.”

For their part, multi-awarded singer-songwriter duo Moira and Jason Marvin Hernandez helped finish the lyrics and added lines that give the material its enduring pop appeal. “For Pasalubong, we built it from the original song and added elements to it while in the car on our way to the Ben&Ben house,” Moira shares.

Together, both Ben&Ben and Moira interpreted the heart-wrenching nature of the material with precision and character. They made the song both timely and timeless, with every flow punctuated by unwavering vulnerability, and every word cutting deep and beautifully.

“With Moira and Paolo’s evocative vocal performance and the band’s emotional execution of Andrew’s arrangement, Pasalubong is a song that will certainly bring up all kinds of feelings, and hopefully will give people comfort in knowing that they aren’t alone in their frustration and longing,” the band shares in a statement.

In terms of delivery, Moira is very particular with the tone being conversational, as if telling a friend about her day or sharing the story to a lover. She also commends Andrew for being hands on in the studio, guiding her in every step of the way. “He has this crazy way of making something complicated, seem so simple. There’s this pitch where we used the 7th note for the last chorus which I thought was genius— that was all Andrew.”

Watch out for the music video premiere on Ben&Ben’s official YouTube channel this July 30, 2021 at 6:00pm, Friday. And the song “Pasalubong” is now available on all digital music platforms worldwide via Sony Music Philippines.

 

 

 

 

Food

Mega Global’s Mega Bigay Sustansya Program is in its third year of malasakit and extending out to more Filipino families one meal at a time

The ultimate present that Filipinos can acquire is good health. With many youngsters suffering from malnutrition, it is critical for the community to band together to assist these children and for them to have a better future ahead. Mega Global Corporation, in collaboration with the Mega Tiu Lim Foundation, will hold the Mega Bigay Sustansya program for the third year in a row, in recognition of its contribution to the nation’s development. Malasakit is the company’s core value, and it’s reflected in the company’s health and nutrition program. Mega Bigay Sustansya intends to reaffirm the significance of nutrition to every Filipino family worldwide and provide assistance to those in need as part of its commitment to strengthen the country’s healthcare system. I’m so grateful that I was invited to attend their virtual meeting, where I acquired so much knowledge about this Mega Sustansya Program. Indeed it is such a great helping hand to fight malnutrition in our country. Hand in hand we will end this and will see a bright future especially to the young ones.

As it expands the program, Mega Global will be working in partnership with th Reach Out Feed Philippines, who will spearhead the preparation of the meals daily, deliver these house to house to each beneficiary and provide a nutritional assessment of all recipes used in the program, and will also analyze and evaluate the results of the program.

The program aims to support 870 children from various barangays across six  provinces through a 60-day nutrition program. These include Batangas, Navotas, Valenzuela, Samar, Surigao del Sur, and  Zamboanga. Beneficiaries are children aged 4-12 years old, who will receive two nutritious meals daily for 60 days. The daily meals will include at least one sardines meal, made using Mega Global’s vitamin- and nutrient-packed high quality sardines.

At the beginning and end of the program, the weight, height, and mid-arm circumference of the children will be taken to gauge their progress. To encourage parents to support the nutrition program for their children, Mega Global will provide incentives to select participants who fit the program’s criteria – biggest gainer, most improved, etc. 

To further ensure that the progress made is sustained, Mega Global will also be developing leave-behind materials containing affordable nutritious recipes made from ingredients that are easily accessible to the families. This will empower parents and the community with knowledge on how to prepare nutritious meals for the health and well-being of their children and loved ones.

“When we first launched this nutrition program two years ago, we saw how transformative it was for the beneficiaries, who not only saw an improvement in their weight, but also in their health and well-being. Inspired by their transformation, Mega Global decided to expand this program and make it sustainable by also educating the community on the importance of having good food and having good nutrition for the whole family,” said Marvin Tiu Lim, Chief Growth and Development Officer.

Mega Global Corporation lives up to its core value of malasakit in everything it does. Every decision made by the company is based on the philosophy of malasakit for all, from products to people to the larger community. This is brought to life once more at Mega Bigay Sustansya, which aims to improve the lives of disadvantaged children and allow them to reach their full potential.

 

 

 

 

Tech

Infrastructural Challenges in PH Can Be Addressed With ABB Technology

ABB Philippines

ABB, a global technology leader, has the infrastructure in place to assist the Philippines in meeting its goal of having electronic vehicles (EVs) account for 10% of all road transport vehicles by 2040.

Support infrastructure, according to Department of Energy (DOE) Director for Energy Utilization and Management Bureau Patrick Aquino, is one of the hurdles they must overcome to achieve this aim.

“Under the 2018-2040 Philippine Energy Plan, EVs are expected to account for 10 percent of road transport vehicles by 2040 in the clean energy scenario,” he said during the forum, “The Future of E-mobility Is Now”, which was held on the second day of the ABB Digital Summit.

Aquino was one of the resource speakers during the forum, along with Electronic Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP) president Edmund Araga and ABB Product Marketing Specialist Engr. Ace Bisnar. ABB Asia Pacific Manager for Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Kumail Rashid also joined the event during its question and answer segment.

ABB EV Charger

ABB has been leading the way to a zero-emission mobility future. It has developed electrification solutions from EV chargers for the home to fast-charging roadside stations.

The company also offers electrical distribution solutions and battery energy storage systems — infrastructure that are essential to enabling an e-mobility future.

Bisnar added that ABB can provide remote support to monitor EV chargers in different areas.

“It’s not just putting the EV charger on the area, but also making sure that it is working 100 percent,” he said.

ABB E-mobility

The latest available data shows that the transition to EVs from conventional vehicles has been slow so far. Aquino shared that from 2010 to 2019, only 11,950 EVs were registered, accounting for a mere 0.09 percent of registered vehicles.

This is why organizations such as the EVAP are closely working with the government and other sectors to further e-mobility in the country.

“We never stop promoting, and continue sustaining its ground” Araga said during the Summit.

ABB Philippines is hosting the ABB Digital Summit for the first time, a four-day online event featuring worldwide ABB speakers as well as invited resource persons from other organizations and associations. ABB, in collaboration with the European Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (ECCP), the Energy Managers Professionals Association in the Philippines (EMPAP), the Institute of Integrated Electrical Engineers of the Philippines (IIEE), the Philippine Energy Efficiency Alliance (PE2), and the Philippine Green Building Council, is hosting the event from July 26 to 29. (PGBC).

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ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a leading global technology company that energizes the transformation of society and industry to achieve a more productive, sustainable future. By connecting software to its electrification, robotics, automation and motion portfolio, ABB pushes the boundaries of technology to drive performance to new levels. With a history of excellence stretching back more than 130 years, ABB’s success is driven by about 105,000 talented employees in over 100 countries. www.abb.com
ABB’s Electrification Business Area is a global leader in electrical products and solutions, operating in more than 100 countries, with over 200 manufacturing sites. Our 50,000+ employees are dedicated to transforming how people live, connect and work by delivering safe, smart and sustainable electrification solutions. We are shaping the future trends of electrification, differentiating through technological and digital innovation while delivering an outstanding experience through operational excellence for our customers across utilities, industry, buildings, infrastructure and mobility. For more information visit https://go.abb/electrification
Entertainment

TikTok Offers a lot of ways to enjoy LIVE in their platform

There is something really special about seeing a live performance by a musician, hearing a Q&A with a new author, or meeting an actor at the stage door after a performance. We want to provide people the means to deliver the same degree of connection to a global audience with TikTok LIVE. The number of individuals going LIVE and watching LIVE has doubled in the last year, indicating that livestreaming has become an important means for producers and viewers to engage honestly. We continue to invest in new tools to aid in safely discovering, making, and consuming LIVE videos because of the TikTok community’s excitement and participation.

[Embed Video https://www.tiktok.com/@tiktok/video/6985301663976279302?referer_url=http%3A%2F%2Ftiktok-news.bytedance.net%2F&referer_video_id=6985301663976279302&refer=embed]

TikTok LIVE brings together a global community to participate in a new concert experience with The Weeknd, as well as an around-the-world museum tour to learn about art and culture. In 2020,  #GenTikTokPH, a two-hour TikTok Live online celebrating of Generation TikTok – the varied community that makes TikTok a source of fun, happiness, and encouragement – brought together Filipino content producers and celebrities. We’re also equipping creators with one-of-a-kind and cutting-edge tools that encourage content development, audience engagement, and exploration.

LIVE Events

Recently launched in select markets, LIVE Events is a new tool that lets creators schedule, manage and promote LIVE videos. While viewers can easily discover, register, get notifications and receive a reminder when the LIVE is about to start, LIVE Events is a great way for creators and fans to easily connect ahead of an upcoming LIVE stream. From musicians and artists to non-profits and museums, the possibilities for LIVE Events are endless.

Picture-in-Picture

You won’t want to miss any of the excitement from a real-time LIVE stream – but what happens if you are in the middle of watching a Q&A or performance and the group chat is blowing up? Instead of missing a second of the stream, TikTok users can seamlessly continue watching LIVE videos across their device with Picture-in-Picture on iOS and Android.

Go LIVE Together

The world is full of dynamic duos: Charli and Dixie, Gayle and Oprah, Beyonce and Jay Z – the list goes on – and your next favorite duo might come from a LIVE video. Go LIVE Together gives people the ability to easily go LIVE through Go LIVE Together. This means more chances for LOL inducing interactions, twice as many behind the scenes reveals, and more ways to connect with top creators.

LIVE Q&A

With LIVE Q&A hosts are able to easily engage with and respond to viewer’s questions in realtime.  The LIVE Q&A suite of tools helps hosts more easily select, showcase, and answer questions from fans while LIVE. This leads to more entertaining experiences and deeper connections for everyone tuned in to the stream.

Top LIVEs

Discovery is at the heart of the TikTok experience. Rolling out soon, people will be able to more easily find and tune into LIVE videos conveniently from the For You and Following pages. Some of the top LIVE categories include Chat (Q&A), Gaming, Talents, Fashion, and Daily Life, and with updated access points to the LIVE page, Top and Recommended LIVE videos will soon be closer than ever.

Help for Hosts

To help hosts focus on entertaining and engaging the community, they can now, ahead of their livestream, assign a person they trust to help them manage their streams by tapping Settings on the right side of the livestream launch screen. During the LIVE, both the host and the person helping can mute and block users to help keep the stream welcoming and civil.

Keyword Filters

As LIVE provides creators the opportunity to share more of themselves with the TikTok community, our goal is to help people feel comfortable doing so, which means taking a hard stance against bullying or hateful comments. We’re mindful that some comments or words may seem innocuous to some but are hurtful to others. To protect against this, in the settings tab of the LIVE launch screen, hosts can turn off comments or add up to 200 terms into the keyword filter to limit those comments in the chat. Words can be added to the list throughout the livestream by hosts and the person helping them.

Consider Before You Comment

Once a livestream starts, we want creators to be able to focus on entertaining their viewers. Because negative or abusive comments undermine the passion and energy creators put into their livestreams, viewers will now be prompted to reconsider the impact of their words before posting a potentially unkind or harmful comment.

In the coming weeks, we’ll also introduce a way for hosts and the person helping manage their LIVE to temporarily mute viewers or remove unkind or harmful comments as we strive to maintain a supportive and authentic community environment. This is also why we have additional safeguards and policies for LIVE, including requiring accounts to be 16 years old to watch the livestream and 18 or older to host a livestream. We also prohibit gift-baiting (the solicitation of gifts or engagement) as well as fraudulent behavior or scams. Further, if we identify an account that impersonates or misleads our community about their identity, we will remove the account from our platform.

We’re dedicated to keeping TikTok’s friendly, helpful, and motivating community alive while also forging new connections with creators, artists, companies, and audiences with products like TikTok LIVE. We’re enthusiastic about the possibilities of growing TikTok beyond a platform to an environment at the center of entertainment, the creator economy, and technology, whether we’re on the FYF, reading through the Discover Page, or watching a TikTok LIVE.

 

 

Lifestyle, News

Smile Train, the world’s largest cleft organization Expands Comprehensive Cleft Care Services Across Philippines

Smile Train announced today the establishment of four Comprehensive Cleft Care (CCC) centers across the Philippines to increase accessibility of treatment to cleft-affected individuals and their families. Ongoing reality that babies are born with a cleft everyday is more than 540, that calls for comprehensive solutions to help them overcome challenges and live a happy, healthy life.

For the past two decades, Smile Train has supported more than 64,000 cleft surgeries through its 50+ partner hospitals and organizations throughout Philippines. As the organization marks its 20th anniversary in the country, it is further expanding its services to include nutrition support, orthodontic and dental treatment, and speech therapy in more locations across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

“Smile Train’s goal is to provide those born with a cleft the necessary holistic care beyond their initial surgeries. We will continue to build a network that will bring comprehensive cleft care to Filipinos, so they have the support and the tools they need to overcome any challenge. Through this network and these comprehensive cleft centers, we aim to ultimately provide them the ability to work, play, and live happy, healthy and productive lives,” said Kimmy Coseteng-Flaviano, Smile Train’s Vice-President for South East Asia.

Smile Train’s geographical and programmatic expansion comes as the organization celebrates National Cleft and Craniofacial awareness month this July. Smile Train has launched comprehensive cleft centers at partner hospitals including the Philippine Band of Mercy and Marikina St. Vincent General Hospital in Metro Manila, San Fernandino Hospital in Pampanga, and Mabuhay Deseret Foundation in ARC Hospital in Cebu. At these centers, in addition to surgeries, parents and patients in need can access nutrition counselling and nutrition services, orthodontic treatment, and speech therapy sessions at no cost.

These institutions have served as Smile Train’s partners for years, helping patients from across different provinces and performing thousands of cleft surgeries with the assistance of Smile Train, and will be continuing to do so in an increased capacity as CCC centers. Philippine Band of Mercy has performed 25,300 Smile Train-funded cleft surgeries since 2002; Marikina St. Vincent has performed 1,900+ cleft surgeries since 2011; San Fernando Hospital has done over 1,000 cleft surgeries since 2011; and Mabuhay Deseret Foundation has performed 1,500+ cleft surgeries since 2008. Additional partner hospitals will be able to provide CCC in the coming months.

More on Comprehensive Cleft Care (CCC)

SONY DSC

Comprehensive cleft care complements cleft surgery, which Smile Train has been providing at no cost to families in need for over 20 years in the Philippines. Cleft treatment is not a one-off process or even just a series of surgeries, but often requires a holistic approach including nutritional support, dental and orthodontic care, psychosocial support, and speech therapy. CCC is provided by an interdisciplinary, supportive team of highly trained professionals that typically includes geneticists, nutritionists, surgeons, nurses, speech therapists, ENTs, audiologists, mental health counselors, dentists, and orthodontists, among others. For Smile Train and its medical partners, CCC means that each person with cleft has access to all the care they need in order to thrive.

The expansion of Smile Train’s CCC footprint also supports its efforts to promote a working telehealth network, which will allow patients to access CCC despite the challenges posed by the pandemic and geography.

In the Philippines, the pandemic has not gotten in the way of Smile Train’s efforts to help cleft patients, providing over 1,800+ surgeries (pandemic-related) done in 2020, and 1,120 in the first 6 months of 2021 with 26 partners actively doing surgeries.

 

Since the start of the pandemic, Smile Train’s speech telehealth program in the Philippines has treated over 200 patients, providing them with more than 1,000 cleft care-related sessions. Recently, the organization launched the country’s first Filipino speech therapy mobile application which serves as a platform for more patients and families born with cleft to continue to receive comprehensive cleft care with minimal disruptions.

To learn more about how Smile Train’s sustainable approach means donations have both an immediate and long-term impact, please visit smiletrain.ph. For more information about Smile Train’s work in the Philippines, please contact [email protected]. Smile Train’s global efforts and to donate, please visit smiletrain.org. Lastly follow Smile Train Philippines on Twitter and Instagram @SmileTrainPh, and like us on Facebook at @SmileTrainPhilippines. The Smile Train Philippines mobile application can be downloaded via Google Play and App Store.

 

 

 

 

Entertainment

onlyfriends the debut EP of Charlene Su

Finally the Pop-R&B songstress Charlene Su dropped her debut EP titled onlyfriends, with four songs that promise to be absolute bops. OnlyFans, onlyfriends came about through collaboration among friends, aside from subtly and cheekily referencing the popular, albeit raunchy online platform. Looking through the writers, you can see why. “To me, collaboration is the best part about music,” says Charlene, as she likes to think of songwriting as self-expression through shared human experience.

“We have all felt disappointment and the ache of heartbreak before, be it unrequited feelings for a crush or even within friendships. I think of this EP as my coping mechanism of sorts for that disappointment; it’s really just me whining and trying to get over my feelings in a very melodic, pop way.”

Charlene Su’s onlyfriends EP also includes the R&B jam “bitter baby,” whose laid-back beats and tropical-sounding production drip with sensual confidence, and the earlier released tracks “iwas4u” and “ilikered.”

The music video for “say it back” will be released on 25th August 2021 together with a live- streamed performance of the EP. The new song off Su’s new EP, features Universal Music Singapore’s up-and-coming singer-songwriter and producer YAØ.

About Charlene Su
Charlene has been writing songs and dreaming up bedroom bops since her teen years. With her candy-coated vocals sitting atop a spirited hybrid of modern pop, R&B and lo-fi, she has drawn audiences from all across Asia with her unfiltered, unadulterated charm.
With success in the cards both in a tech start-up career as well as with music, Charlene worked to balance both priorities over the past few years before deciding in 2021 to focus on her efforts on her passion for art.
Straying from the downtempo roots with which she first made her name, the Singaporean artist has turned her vocal prowess towards a series of intimate and infinitely catchy soundscapes, crafted with care for today’s digital music landscape. Her fresh, decidedly distinct, and vibrant pop-princess sound is bound to captivate audiences across the globe.
At the end of the day, Charlene hopes to make honest music that both entices and empowers. With lyrics that feel and beats that truly bop, she remains one to watch in this exciting new age of pop music.

 

Lifestyle

Brand of the Year Award to FERN-D: Sunshine on Top of All Brands

During this time of uncertainty, the outdoors has become an unsafe place, and everyone has been stuck at home. And to save ourselves from contagious health risks, we chose to give up the outdoor sun that used to be part of our daily routine. But we still believe that sunshine is a need, and we ought to get it in the midst of it all.

Your daily dose of sunshine—even without the sun.

FERN-D has always been a household name as a Vitamin D supplement in the Philippines. With its premium quality at an affordable price, Filipinos can get their daily Vitamin D fix even without stepping outside. This is why people have grown to love this “sunshine vitamin.”

This brand love has birthed fruitful results. FERN-D received the Brand of the Year Award for the Vitamins and Supplements Category in the 2020-2021 World Branding Awards. This prestigious award is not just any other award a brand could get—it is a worldwide recognition, nominated by over 250,000 consumers across the globe.

FERN-D has won the award by leading the numbers according to brand valuation, consumer market research, and public online voting. The consumer votes constitute seventy percent of this scoring process, proving that the brand is indeed voted by the people who receive and experience its quality.

A ray of sunshine amidst any weather.

In a time when the global economic landscape was greatly disrupted, the efforts and initiatives of brands to remain distinct and relevant are testament to the creativity and innovation they bring to the table.

IFERN CEO and PRESIDENT TOMMANNY TAN RECEIVES THE BRAND OF THE YEAR AWARD 2019
IN KENSINGTONG PALACE, LONDON

“The Awards are an acknowledgment of the tireless effort of the teams that build and maintain their brand presence in an ever-changing market,” said Richard Rowles, Chairman of the World Branding Forum.

Indeed, the success of FERN-D is a team effort. “Sharing Prosperity Through Global Entrepreneurship” is a philosophy that Mr. Tommanny Tan, President and CEO of I-FERN, lives by. By guiding, mentoring, and giving a business opportunity to people who came from humble beginnings, I-FERN has since produced entrepreneurs who carry the company’s legacy while spreading good health with products like FERN-D.

FERN-D WON THE BRAND OF THE YEAR AWARD IN THE WORLD BRANDING AWARDS
FOR TWO CONSECUTIVE YEARS (2019-2020 & 2020-2021)

For 2 consecutive years now of winning the Brand of the Year Awards proves the success that FERN-D continues to build—all by staying true to its promise to be a daily dose of sunshine for the Filipino market.

 

Lifestyle

Vote Pilipinas Team Up with Smart Communications to Encourage Filipinos To Register for 2022 Election

To encourage more Filipinos to register for the 2022 elections, Vote Pilipinas, the official Voter Registration Information Campaign Partner of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) has partnered with PLDT’s wireless arm Smart Communications, Inc. Spearheaded by the non-government organization Impact Hub Manila, Vote Pilipinas offers non-profit, non-partisan online and offline information about the upcoming elections.

“As the country’s leading mobile services provider, Smart is in a unique and significant position to expand the reach of ‘Vote Pilipinas’ using the power of digital technology and our nationwidest and nationfastest network,” said Jane J. Basas, SVP and Head of Consumer Wireless Business at Smart.

With more than 18 million Filipinos belonging to the 18-39 year-old range, Gen Zs and millennials make up the biggest bulk of the voting population next year. Together, Smart and Vote Pilipinas will drive an information campaign aimed at igniting the youth’s passion and purpose to live smart and vote smart – starting with registering for next year’s polls.

“We’ve always believed in the power of the youth to positively impact our society. There’s no better way to show this than by participating in the upcoming elections – especially because the youth have a big stake in our country’s future,” she added.

Under the partnership, Smart will help boost Vote Pilipinas’ online call-to-action through social media executions, and help widen the reach of the non-partisan, non-profit organization until May 2022. These efforts are aimed at motivating Filipinos, especially the youth, to be counted, be informed, be heard, and be one with all Filipinos in nation-building.

To kick-off the campaign, Vote Pilipinas hosted a town hall called #MagpaRehistroKa where key officials from COMELEC explained voter registration and the country’s election system. Vote Pilipinas is also set to launch two more virtual town halls to share relevant information about the 2022 elections. The #MagpaRehistroKa virtual town halls will be available over Zoom, Facebook Live, and Kumu.

In line with the commitment and efforts of Vote Pilipinas and Smart to help the country attain the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals particularly UNSDG 16 which calls for strong institutions.

Visit and learn more about Vote Pilipinas through https://www.votepilipinas.com