Complete your Sinulog Experience with the Sinulog Guide App Powered by Smart

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Sinulog Festival is one of the much-awaited and most famous festivals in the country. This festival is so rich in culture and color that many people go out of their way to fly to Cebu despite paying a higher airfare, if only to be at the heart of the festivities.

To the lucky ones who get to be in Cebu for the festival, there is an app that can help ultimately enhance your Sinulog experience. The Sinulog Guide mobile application, the official guide to the country’s biggest festival, can let you know what to do and where to go, so you don’t miss the best that the city and the festival can offer.

Sinulog Guide app features helpful tabs that will provide you with updated activities for the festival; useful tools and information that will make it easier for you to navigate the city; as well as tips and suggested spots to check out in and around Cebu.

A project of Smart Communications, Cebu-based media start-up InnoPub, and the Sinulog Foundation, Inc. the Sinulog app is practically a festival and Cebu 101 handbook, as it features extensive information on anything and everything about the Sinulog, plus various tours and activities that you can enjoy such as waterfalls shower or river cruise, which can enhance your Cebu experience exponentially. The app also boasts an extensive directory of Cebu establishments such as restaurants, hotels, malls, and emergency services—sparing you of time wasted looking for one.

Of course, dependable mobile Internet connection are now as important to any tourist as a change of clothes. Good thing Smart offers a wide array of services like the Smart Giga Surf 99 which gives you 1.5GB data valid for 7 days. Giga Surf 99 also comes with 300MB bonus for streaming on iflix, YouTube, Spinnr, Vimeo, Dailymotion and Dubsmash, as well as Free 1 Day Full Access to iWant TV. To subscribe, text GIGA99 to 9999.

The Sinulog app is downloadable for free for Android, IOS. Just search Sinulog Guide or visit this link with your mobile browser: http://apps.myguide.ph/sinulog/

Cusi Assures Full Power Restoration in Typhoon-stricken Areas

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Department of Energy (DOE) and its partners in the power sector are prioritizing the resumption of electricity in areas of Southern Luzon and Eastern Mindanao rendered without power by a series of typhoons.

“Our priority is to ensure that the restoration of power in typhoon-affected areas is on schedule. We have asked rehabilitation personnel to work double-time, especially in areas where power facilities were badly damaged,” said Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi.

An 11 January 2017 report of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) noted that all transmission lines affected by Tropical Depression (TD) Auring in Caraga are now completely restored.

NGCP reported earlier that all transmission facilities affected by Typhoon Nina have been restored as well.

Distribution utilities in Dinagat Islands, Siargao, Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur affected by Tropical Depression Auring are now in the process of bringing back electricity services after NGCP worked to normalize transmission services in the said areas.

For its part, the National Electrification Administration (NEA) has reported that 80.69% or 1,368,040 of the total households affected by Typhoon Nina had already been re-energized as of 8 a.m. today (12 January).

Earlier this week, electricity supply was restored in the provinces of Batangas, Occidental Mindoro, Camarines Norte and Sorsogon, NEA said.

A total of 322,818 households are undergoing rehabilitation in the following areas with the following level of restoration: Quezon (92.89%), Oriental Mindoro (98.44%), Marinduque (28.79%), Camarines Sur (47.68%), Albay (64.20%) and Catanduanes (31.65 %).

“We understand and are one with our kababayans in the remaining areas still without power. We will make sure that electricity services in all areas are restored,” Secretary Cusi said.

Davao’s Kadayawan Street Dance Tradition Goes to Hong Kong for Chinese New Year

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Hong Kong Tourism Board invites you to celebrate the city’s biggest and most colorful festival at the Cathay Pacific International Chinese New Year Night Parade on January 28 at Tsim Sha Tsui. This highly received entertainment event, now on its 22nd edition, features a series of world-class performances including the famous street dance display of Davao’s Kadayawan festival.

The Kadayawan festival is a thanksgiving harvest festival, which showcases Davao’s rich culture, diversity and the unification of the province’s resident indigenous groups. The main highlight of the Kadayawan festival is the Indak-Indak Kadalanan or street dancing, which will be brought to Hong Kong as part of the line-up in this year’s Chinese New Year celebration with the theme, “Best Fortune. World Party.”

The festivity begins with a fun-filled, interactive street party, followed by a parade with spectacular floats and a wide variety of local and international performing talent, including marching bands, cheerleaders, dance troupes, and roving costumed characters.

Along with the Kadayawan street dance performance, some of the most talented groups from all over the world will be featured in the parade, including the acrobatic Wheelartistics Wuppertal from Germany, world class marching band Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps from the USA and dance group Giant Flowers and Butterflies from France plus many more.