PHLPost landscapes historic Manila Central Post Office Building

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Philippine Postal Corporation (PHLPost) landscapes the historic Manila Central Post Office Building, transforming its public space into a vibrant, eco-friendly and sustainable government center.

PHLPost said that the greening of the Post Office building helps connect its employees and the public with nature and raises environmental consciousness and appreciation.

The presence of green spaces can enhance the health and wellbeing of people working in cities.

It somehow relieves anxiety, level of stress and improves creativity and productivity.

The Manila Central Post Office Building has been declared an “Important Cultural Property” by the National Museum. It is still considered the grandest building and most prominent landmark and tourist attraction in the City of Manila.

This neo-classical building was inaugurated in 1931, known then as the “Bureau of Posts” which was designed by the famous Filipino architect Juan Arellano. The Post Office Building was built as a modern colonial architecture, an example of a perfect neo-classical monument.

Aside from the Manila Central Post Office Building, Arellano also designed the Manila Metropolitan Theater and the old legislative building (National Museum).

Urban green spaces can also help reduce pollution and improve air quality.

New Directions Digital Art 2021: Negros

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The Negros Season of Culture is an initiative to showcase the artistry of Negros Occidental. A province in the central Philippines, Negros Occidental has produced an incredible amount of artists that have enjoyed critical as well as commercial success at home and abroad. In celebration of the National Commission of the Culture and the Arts’s National Arts Month, the NSC is proud to showcase three amazing young artists from Negros Occidental.

These three artists are featured by the Negros Season of Culture as they discover, explore, and even pioneer areas in art and design during one of the largest global pandemics in history.

Faye Abantao, Daryl Feril, and Christoph Sagemuller have more in common than being Negrenses. These three artists graduated within years of each other from La Consolacion College in Bacolod City, the capital city of Negros Occidental. They are young, dynamic artists who, due to their schooling, have a grounded foundation in the fine arts but have branched out, experimented with, and are now using new and exciting media for their art. They are also the farthest thing from the stereotype of the starving artist.

Abantao, Feril, and Sagemuller are successful both critically and commercially. They each have several exhibitions under their belts. Their art pieces and designs command interest not just from private collectors but from Fortune 500 companies. They represent a new wave of artists from a place that has always celebrated and supported the arts.

They are also at the forefront of pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the current Information Age and the nascent Fourth Industrial Revolution. The Internet is used as a source for research as well as ways to communicate with people all over the world. Digital tools, virtual and real, are used to create pieces of art for commercial and aesthetic pursuits. Their reach covers the entire country to as far as South Korea and the United States of America, a feat that one argues could have only been possible for three young artists who just graduated from a local provincial college in the Age of the Internet. 

Digital Art defies limitations traditional art has in its reach. A global pandemic may close galleries and museums and limit patrons, buyers, and art lovers from enjoying or buying artwork. However, an artist whose work is in virtual space does not share those limitations.

The prevalence of digital tools in people’s phones and computers, the ease with which they can be used has given rise to not only a new generation of artists but a new kind of artist. An artist who may not have ever even seen a tube of oil paint or an actual paintbrush, one whose portfolio exists entirely in the cloud, one whose studio and gallery are located in a hard drive somewhere. Just as charcoal had given way to paints, there is a new medium and artists who are making use of it.

Abantao, Feril, and Sagemuller are the first of many who personify the new direction that art and the artists are shaping themselves into in this new millennium. They speak a whole new language, one that is an amalgamation of traditional and the digital. Their works are unmistakable international in scope and appeal yet undeniably Negrense at heart.

One could say, it is a change of the seasons.

https://www.negrosseasonofculture.com/

PRI steps up online training with new Learning Management System; Conducts first batch of training through the platform

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The Philippine Railways Institute (PRI), an agency under the Department of Transportation (DOTr), launched its new online learning platform, the Learning Management System (LMS), through the conduct of its Web Refresher Training Course on 15 February 2021.

The LMS aims to provide the existing railway operations and maintenance workforce a platform that allows self-paced learning, while still encouraging the trainees’ participation through facilitated contact sessions.

With the LMS, PRI’s training courses are now administered, delivered, tracked, and automated in just one online platform.

"I am delighted that, in keeping with the times, the PRI is now able to provide remote learning sustainably during, and even beyond, this pandemic. PRI is now part of a growing number of institutes and organizations that have adopted this kind of learning platform,” DOTr Undersecretary Anneli Lontoc, the Officer-in-Charge of PRI, emphasized.

Last week, the railways institute successfully conducted the first LMS-delivered Refresher Training Course, with 30 railway personnel and 15 graduating college students as participants.

The pandemic’s disruptions have accelerated technological trends in the fields of learning and education. Instructional methodologies are evolving with the adoption of innovations to address limitations set by health and safety protocols to prevent the further spread of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

It may be recalled that before the strict community quarantine was imposed due to the pandemic in March 2020, the PRI was conducting the Refresher Training Course (RT) face-to-face. A total of six batches graduated from the course. From July 2020 to February 2021, the learning institute shifted to the Web Refresher Training Course (WRT), an online course conducted through the Zoom platform, with 15 batches completing it.

In November 2020, PRI expanded the scope of its WRT to include graduating college students with railways-relevant background, and returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) with railway operation and maintenance experience.

With the growing number of participants, and the challenge of conducting face-to-face classes, the PRI developed its own platform, the LMS.

The LMS gives PRI instructors and railway trainees an academic and scalable digital learning environment alongside the existing video platform being used by the Institute. It is also mobile-friendly, which allows trainees and instructors seamless access to learning materials anytime and anywhere.

“This is again a great next step in PRI’s learning strategy that will have a positive impact on learning across the railways sector,” Usec Lontoc said.

The PRI is a research and training center for the railway sector under the Department of Transportation (DOTr). It serves as the planning, implementing, regulating, and administrative entity for the development of human resources in the railway sector to ensure the delivery of efficient, reliable, and safe railway transportation services.

The PRI ensures that personnel working in each railway line have the right knowledge, skills, and attitude for operations and maintenance through the issuance of certificates of competencies.

The establishment of the PRI is supported by a JPY 670 million grant from the Government of Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency.