Jr. NBA and Alaska Milk Brings 2016 Philippine All-Stars to a Once-In-A-Lifetime NBA Experience

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Alaska Milk Corporation announced today that for the third consecutive year, Jr. NBA All-Stars from Southeast Asia will travel to China to watch a live NBA game as part of the initiatives in promoting healthy lifestyle and diet among children.

Ninety Jr. NBA All-Stars from Southeast Asia – boys and girls ages 10-14 – will attend NBA Global Games China 2016 presented by Master Kong in Shanghai on Oct. 9, featuring the Houston Rockets and the New Orleans Pelicans playing a preseason game at the Mercedes-Benz Arena. The participants from the Philippines will be joined by Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam and for the first time by Jr. NBA Singapore standouts following the program’s introduction to Singapore earlier this year. As part of their visit to Shanghai, the boys and girls will also meet with NBA players and legends, receive additional basketball training and tour the city.

“Our Jr. NBA All-Stars will once again embark on an unforgettable journey where they will get to experience a foreign country, take part in advanced basketball training and watch a live NBA game, all while engaging with their counterparts from Southeast Asia,” said NBA Asia Vice President, Global Partnerships & Events Francesco Suarez. “This gathering creates lifelong memories and friendships for our participants, and we will continue providing even more youth with opportunities like this in the years to come.”

“I’d like to congratulate our Jr. NBA Philippine All-Stars on their success. Through Alaska Milk’s Nutrition.Action.Champion. Program and our partnership with the NBA, we have been able to help fuel the basketball dreams and life aspirations of thousands of children across the country,” said Alaska Milk Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer Wilfred Steven Uytengsu. “This collaboration is an important element of our long-standing Nutrition.Action.Champion. campaign. By leveraging on this initiative, Alaska Milk was able to proactively educate families and children on the important role of drinking milk and getting into sports to achieve a healthy and active lifestyle.” 

PLDT Enterprise Rolls Out eLearning Program to Aid Millennials' Studies

Wazzup Pilipinas!

PLDT Enterprise, via their Digital Mobility team, leads innovation in eLearning or digital technology-backed education as it recently launched SMART's new eLearning Program for the academe and training institutions. This consists of a suite of products that leverage the benefits of internet-based technologies in schools.

This erases the perception that many people have of technology such as gadgets as mere distractions to students' studies. The products in this suite are specifically developed to benefit not only students and teachers, but also administrators, parents, among many others.

"Our view is that the devices will serve more as effective study aids, and act less as distractions," said Gio Abaquin, Head of Digital Mobility, Disruptive Business Group (DBG), the emerging technologies business unit of PLDT Enterprise.

"Today’s millennials have learned to accept the role that devices play in their daily lives. It is important to bring in this new technology into the classroom, for both the obvious, physical reasons, such as lighter physical loads versus heavy books and notebooks, as well as for technological benefits," Abaquin explained.

"Mobile learning supports the learning process rather than being integral to it. Mobile learning can also be a useful add-on tool for students with special needs. It can be used as a ‘hook’ to re-engage disaffected youth," Chet Alviz, Head of SMACS (Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud and Security) added.

For the eLearning App, there will be package options such as app-only, app with SIM, as well as tablet bundles.

More than a Learning Management System (LMS), the SMART eLearning program creates an end-to-end Digital Campus Experience. SMART is set to roll out the eLearning program with select schools.

The whole suite offers PLDT iGate, SMART WiFi, SMART M2M SIMs, SMART Prepaid SIMs, customized website with eCommerce capability to help establish online presence, Vehicle and Personnel trackers for the school transport as well as for student use, customized App, including evolved learning solutions such as SMART's eLearning LMS and Microsoft Office 365. All these can be accessed by authorized teachers, admin, and students in and out of the campus.

“We are very pleased to have included in our service portfolio an educational digital tool that not only benefits students, but also the entire school ecosystem. Parents, for example, will be able to gain access to their child’s developmental progress.
​ ​Educators, on the other hand, will be able to freely interact with both students and parents on the more important aspects of today’s learning experience,” added Nico Alcoseba, Head of PLDT’s Disruptive Business Group.

PLDT Enterprise stressed digital technology-backed education is ever more rising and it believes the Philippines has a high potential for growth in eLearning adoption. Ambient Insight, an international market research firm that specializes in eLearning and Mobile Learning, said in a statement that in Asia alone, the market for learning and training programs supported by electronic technology is expected to reach $11.5 billion by 2016, or more than twice the $5.2 billion in 2011.

The two countries with the highest growth rates in the world are Vietnam and Malaysia, respectively at 44.3 percent and 39.4 percent. Also in the top 10 are Romania and China. The Asian region is also known for a high adoption in mobile technology, due to proliferation of low priced mobile devices.

Currently, the Philippines ranks at seventh place in terms of growth rate in e-learning. The country joins Thailand, India,Kenya, Slovakia, and Azerbaijan with growth rates of between 30 percent and 35 percent.

This shows that the Philippines is well on the way towards adapting eLearning for educational institutions – and even in businesses. SMART's goal is to be at the forefront of that digital change, at home, at work, and even in school.

LRT, MRT Common Station Now A Go After 7 Year Deadlock

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The seven-year deadlock is finally over.

After years of legal entanglements, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) has inked a consensus among shareholders to identify a single location of the Common Station, which will connect the three urban transit lines: LRT Line 1, MRT-3, and the proposed MRT-7, which will run from North Avenue to San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.

The Common Station, which will be built between SM North EDSA and Trinoma with access to both malls and major roads such as EDSA, will provide a common concourse or atrium wherein train commuters can conveniently transfer from one line to another.

An agreement between the DOTr, Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA), SM Prime Holdings, Inc. (SMPHI), Universal LRT Corp. (ULC) and Light Rail Manila Consortium (LRMC), North Triangle Depot Commercial Corporation represented by Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will be signed tomorrow, Sept 28 to finalize the agreement.

The DPWH also assured that the underpass being built will seamlessly integrate with the Common Station.


Resolving the dispute

Getting all parties to agree is among DOTr’s Secretary Arthur Tugade targets within the first 100 days, and it involved engaging all stakeholders in meetings in order to reach a consensus. In a meeting last Sept. 8, the country’s top CEOs: SM’s Tessie Sy Coson and Hans Sy, Ayala’s Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, San Miguel’s Ramon Ang, and Metro Pacific’s Manny Pangilinan agreed that a unified station is necessary to make commuting more convenient to the public.



Legal tussle

The Common Station project started in 2009 and has been on hold due to legal issues. The LRT Authority inked a deal with SMPHI to build the station near SM North EDSA. Five years later, the DOTC decided to build the Station near Ayala’s Trinoma citing reasons to cut costs. The Supreme Court (SC) intervened and issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) in favor of SMPHI to stop the construction of the Common Station.

The agreement to be signed tomorrow will pave the way for a filing of a joint motion to the SC to lift the TRO.