Palami Wants to Ignite Football Fashion in the Philippines

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Philippine Azkals must rack up more wins not only to qualify for the 2018 World Cup but also to increase football’s awareness in the country.

“We feel the pressure of winning not only to qualify (for the World Cup) but also for awareness of the sport in the country,” Azkals manager Dan Palami said.

“We help the sport by winning. The more popular football gets, the more kids play the sport. More players mean more support for the sport and hopefully, the national team,” Palami stressed.

Palami’s dream is to ignite a football passion in the Philippines and make the sport a national obsession similar to other countries.

He said he wants to produce homegrown talents who would inspire more young people to play football and propel the country’s pride.

“We also need to create a passionate fan base to fuel the sport,” he added.

To achieve this, Palami needed to walk the talk, thus his all-out support for and unwavering commitment to the national football team, which is beginning to bear fruit.

Through his efforts, as well as those of other football officials, the Philippine Azkals have come a long way in their attempt to boost the country’s stock in football in the last five years.

Traffic Plan Dry Run For LRT-2 Project Set on August 29

Wazzup Pilipinas!

At a press conference earlier today, August 28, 2015, at the LRT-2 Depot located at Santolan, Quezon City, a panelist composed of spokespersons from the LTO, LRTA and DOTC announce the traffic management plan for LRT-2 Masinag East Extension. There will be a dry run to initiate on August 29, 2015.

We also made a quick tour of the actual site were the extending viaduct along Marcos Highway will be constructed. There will also be two (2) additional stations to be constructed — one to be situated in front of the Robinsons Metro East and Sta. Lucia East Grand Malls, and a second one at the Masinag Junction in Antipolo City.

Since the dry run is already scheduled tomorrow, we will post the press conference video coverage and video invites on a later date, and just proceed in sharing to you their official press release sent to us earlier this morning. We were out all day until late at night covering other event so we could only share this right now. Watch out for the videos soon at http://www.YouTube.com/wazzuppilipinas and the photos at http://www.Facebook.com/wazzuppilipinas

State Universities and Colleges' Budget at All-Time High

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Acknowledging the vital role of education in nation-building and economic development, the education budget has grown tremendously under the Aquino Administration. The budget of State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) actually doubled from PhP23.8B in 2010 to an all-time high of PhP46B in 2016. Comparing the 2016 against the 2015 budget, there is an increase of PhP1.6B or 3.6%.

In the 2016 budget hearing at the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson Dr. Patricia B. Licuanan defended the agency’s and the SUCs’ budgets. Reports on that hearing have been inaccurate. In response to reports that more than 50 SUCs received budget cuts for next year, it must be pointed out that in truth, only 10 SUCs will sustain net decreases in funding with Philippine Normal University (PNU) getting the largest reduction of 19%, University of the Philippines System (UP System) 16%, and the rest single-digit decreases ranging from 0.59 to 7%.

In the case of PNU whose 2016 budget of PhP558M is lower by PhP132M from its 2015 budget of PhP690M, the decrease is due to a one-time congressional insertion in 2015 of PhP100M and its low utilization rate.

On the other hand, the 2.2B decrease in the 2016 budget of the UP System, from its 2015 budget of PhP13.7B is due to a one-time allotment provided for medical equipment of the UP-Philippine General Hospital amounting to PhP3.1B. Without this one-time allocation in 2015, UP’s 2016 budget actually increased by almost PhP1B.