FDCP Establishes Partnership With the 25th Asian Television Awards

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Following the successful celebration of the 24th Asian Television Awards (ATA) in Manila in January 2020, the ATA has announced it is partnering the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) in the quest for the best of Filipino talents and entertainment programs in the country to compete on Asia Pacific’s largest platform for content makers.

The two entities now look ahead as the prestigious awards-giving body gears up for its next season to be held from January 15 to 17, 2021 in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

Launched in 1996, ATA will mark its 25th year of recognizing the best in Asian television and entertainment. Through the years, it has become the most widely watched awards show in the continent. Its telecast consistently reaches 500 million homes across 22 countries and attracts major partnerships. It also annually receives over a thousand entries of diverse genres to compete in different categories.

The Asian Television Awards has more than 56 categories that are divided across the four groupings of Digital, Performance, Technical and Creative, and Programming. At the 24th ATA in Manila, the Philippines scored victories in several categories. Best Leading Male Performance was awarded to Martin del Rosario for his gender-bending role in Born Beautiful, while Best News Presenter or Anchor went to Catherine Yap-Yang of Market Edge with Cathy Yang on the ANC business channel.

Past winners include seasoned and esteemed actors, such as Gina Pareño, Eula Valdes, Ice Seguerra, Roderick Paulate, and Michael V. Indeed, the Filipino talent has proved to be a force to be reckoned with in the pan-Asian awards derby.

FDCP Chairperson and CEO Liza Diño has expressed her excitement for the new partnership, saying that “FDCP is proud to support the Asian Television Awards.”

She added, “The ever changing landscape of the audiovisual industry has allowed for our content creators and artists to be able to cross over with their outputs and visions. The role of TV has become more than a format, but more especially a platform that showcases quality stories and narratives from our country. And we hope that through our partnership with ATA, we can promote more of what we have to Asia and even the rest of the world.”

The Chairman of Asian Television Awards, Lee Keen Whye is looking forward to this meaningful partnership, sharing “The Philippine entertainment industry is one of the most vibrant in Asia. We believe Filipino talents and content are best in class and deserve to be ranked against the best across Asia Pacific.”

In anticipation of the upcoming awards ceremony slated in January 2021 in Cambodia, the ATA has opened the submission for entries for the 25th Asian Television Awards. Submission deadline is 6 Sep 2020 and all entries must have been aired/premiered between 1 July 2019 to 31 Aug 2020. To view the complete list of award categories, visit https://www.asiantvawards.com/awards-categories. For more information, send an email to support@asiantvawards.com.

Is DITO of Dennis Uy Getting Special Favors?

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The more, the merrier it will be for Filipinos. That is, if the new player doesn't have a hidden agenda.

The House of Representatives approved on third and final reading a bill granting a 25-year franchise to the Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company Incorporated (Mislatel) or Dito Telecommunity Corporation (Dito Telecom), the country’s third major telco player owned by Dennis Uy.

Dito is composed of Uy's Udenna Corporation and publicly listed Chelsea Logistics, with Beijing-run China Telecom as its foreign partner.

Dadaan pa ito sa Senate for concurrence. The bill will be referred to the Committee on Public Services for hearings first, prior to plenary debates. I expect that the officials of the DITO Telco will be inquired about sa delays in their promise to have finally a third telco that will foster competition in ensuring faster Internet connection. So, my projection is baka tumagal ang bill sa Senate due to that, especially if hindi masagot mabuti ng mga officials ang mga tanong ukol sa delays. I hope however na masagot nila if they want their franchise to be granted.

Once allowed to operate,  Dito is expected to break the country’s telco duopoly dominated by Smart Communications owned by tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan and Globe Telecom of the Ayala Group.

But are we going to sacrifice national security for faster internet service? Congress doesn’t see this as a national security nightmare?

It is disturbing how easy China Telecom is gaining access to our market, despite all the red flags. It took only less than 3 months to reach this state, but the haste is not really important here. What is very alarming is the same country backing DITO, is the same country bullying us and grabbing our territory in WPS.

I don't understand how that could slipped from the brains of any real blood Filipino representatives.

It's also a good thing that there's more competition, because it would mean better service and more affordable rates. BUT no way to 100% foreign owned telecom companies, especially a Chinese company!

Galit na galit sa ABS-CBN, dahil ang Lopez owner ay may dual citizenship. Pero pagdating dito 100% foreign owned na telco, walang pero pero, 25 years franchise agad!

The Philippines is the place that kills the peoples' television station over foreign ownership while assigning plum telco rights to Chinese cronies. Self-dealing is official policy.

Uy was one of Duterte's biggest campaign donor. And, Duterte could be simply returning the favor. While the hearing was on going, Duterte was publicly attacking other telco firms. PM is not the key sis, presidential favor is.

Oligarchy was not dismantled, instead, another one rised.

Duterte did not dismantle oligarchy. He just threatens non-donors, expels critics from the arena, and makes room for oligarchs of his own. The DDS public might not accept this reality (they might not even understand it) but it is more than real. Deal with it.

Take time to look up Dennis Uy's background and how he rose into power in less than 10 years.

To say that I was surprised with the 270 lawmakers who overwhelmingly voted for the 25-year franchise of Dito TelCo by the Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy is an understatement!

DITO was granted franchise to operate to be the 3rd telco on July 2019 on the following conditions: 

1. To build 2500 cell towers by July 2020, or in 1 year's time. 

2. Within the same period to cover at least 37% of the population with average minimum internet speed of 27 mbps.
3.Over a 5 year period, to cover 84% of the country and offer internet speed of at least 55mbps

4. To post a $500 Million performance bond to guarantee these undertakings, equivalent to Php 25 Billion.

Uy missed the 1st two undertakings, leading to his missing the 3rd and the forfeiture of the 4th, i.e., his performance bond. What happened? Instead of building his own cell towers, he pushed NTC to come up with the common tower policy forcing telcos to share their cell towers, which meant giving Uy a free ride because he has none.

What is clear is, Uy has not been able to transmit even a single text message to the Filipino public. So, why would the President wants to expropriate Globe and Smart? So he could hand over their operations to Uy?

But also remember when Telstra was supposed to open shop here in the Philippines (allegedly backed by the past administration)? It would have been our saviour too but Globe and Smart blocked their franchise application to continue the duopoly in digital communication and telephony. Imho, people here shitting on DITO because of their owner’s close ties with the current president, even if it is going to promote competition and probably better services from all telcos so you can upload your Tiktok videos faster.

Yes, its Chinese owned, pero kung maganda at quality service bakit magtitiyaga sa network na deka-dekada na nga pero panahon pa ni kopong-kopong ang serbisyo! Doon tayo sa makakapagbigay sa atin ng 100% satisfaction guarantee, masusulit natin ang bawat piso na gagastahin natin sa kakaload, hindi tayu bibigyan ng stress, at hindi masisira trabaho natin!

Bakit pagtitisan ang mga greedy at sakim na networks na puro sakit ulo ang hatid?! Sana mag-operate na ang DITO very soon, at sana 100% better ang services nila kaysa sa iba diyan!

So ano ba taga ang position ko on this matter? Am I for or against this new telco?

Well, kahit ako confused because of several issues haunting the presence of this Telco...and how poor our current telcos are performing.

LTO to issue driver’s licenses with 10-year validity by 2021; exclusive to motorists with no traffic violations

Wazzup Pilipinas!


Starting October 2021, drivers with clean records with the Land Transportation Office (LTO) will be able to enjoy “premium” license cards, as the agency will roll out new licenses with ten-year validity.

In a press briefing Thursday, 19 August 2020, LTO Chief Assistant Secretary Edgar Galvante said that the issuance of licenses with 10-year validity is in line with the implementation of a provision in Republic Act No. 10930, signed into law in 2017.

The law states, “Except for student permits, all drivers' licenses shall be valid for five years reckoned from the birthdate of the licensee, unless sooner revoked or suspended: Provided, however, that subject to Section 26 hereof, any holder of a professional or nonprofessional driver's license who has not committed any violation of Republic Act No. 4136 and other traffic laws, rules and regulations during the five-year period shall be entitled to a renewal of such license for 10 years, subject to the restrictions as may be imposed by the LTO.”

With this, the LTO devised a new point system, wherein drivers will accumulate demerit points for each violation committed and earn incentives for drivers with good standing.

Under the point system, a motorist accumulates “demerit points” depending on the gravity of his or her violation. These violations are classified according to their corresponding categories: grave for five points; less grave for three points; and light for one point.

In the said press briefing, Asec. Galvante emphasized that the examples of grave violations are driving a motor vehicle in the commission of crime, operating a colorum vehicle, and driving under the influence. However, the LTO chief clarified that less grave or light violations may also be considered as grave, if violations are committed repeatedly.

Further, the driver’s license of an erring motorist may be suspended if he/she will accumulate 10 demerit points, while earning 40 points will result in its revocation.

Violations committed by motorists will be uploaded or recorded in the LTO’s system. Asec. Galvante shared that the license holder will also be notified of the committed violations, which will be the basis of issuing a new license upon renewal.

On the other hand, Asec. Galvante emphasized that the 10-year validity of driver’s licenses aims to incentivize those who strictly obey traffic laws.

“Hopefully, with this measure mababawas-bawasan ang road crashes, road or traffic incidents na nagka-cause ng injuries and even pagkamatay,” Asec. Galvante said.

“Not all license holders are entitled to this privilege. For those who have clean records, you may enjoy not coming back for renewal not only for five years, but ten years. That is if you are not delinquent,” the LTO chief added.