Dancers Show Flair in DanceSport National Tilt

The DanceSport Council of the Philippines Inc. (DSCP) launched the DSCP National Championships in conjunction with its 13th anniversary celebration. The competition was held last Nov. 29, with almost 400 dancers competing for the top spot.

Also geared toward finding the best candidates for the national pool of competitive dancers, DSCP Becky Garcia said that this competition is a way to keep the Philippine dancers visible on the international scene and also to develop of the skills of the country’s representatives in future dance tilts. The event was originally scheduled to be held at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium last Oct. 10, but was rescheduled to the Nov. 29 launch because of Typhoon Ondoy. The dance competition was held at the Rizal Ballroom of the Makati Shangri-La Hotel.

Serving as adjudicators in the competition are Mr. Jeff Elworthy (Australia), Ms. Hermien Rachmat (Indonesia), Mr. Marcel Keijzer (Netherlands), Mr. Victor Buenavida (Spain), Mr. Paul Harris (United Kingdom), Mr. Michael Lim (Singapore), and Mr. Gheorghe Raducan (Romania), licensed adjudicators from the International Dance Sport Federation (IDSF).

The dance championships had a total of 27 divisions in the Standard and Latin categories. Among those competing are National DanceSport athletes Emmanuel Reyes and Maira Rosete (Standard), Brian Ocana and Karla Ocana (Standard), Ronnie Vergara and Charlea Lagaras (Latin), and John Melencio and Dearlie Gerodias (Latin).The winners in the different divisions are:

Grade A Latin: Ronnie Steve Vergara and Charlea Lagaras (Cebu)

Grade A Standard: Brian Ocana and Karla Ocana (Metro Manila)

Grade B Latin: Anselmo Estillore Jr. and Mae Lozada (Cebu)

Grace B Standard: Gil Satrain and Chiao-Mei Chu (Metro Manila)

Grade C Latin: Jungie Zamora and Sheena Richen Daminar (Mindanao)

Grade C Standard: Don Kristian Bolaños and Alona Dangcalan (Luzon)

Grade D Latin: Joseph Bautista and Luzviminda Atruz (Metro Manila)

Grade D Standard: Glenn Marvin Fabul and Richelle Cabigas (Luzon)

Junior A Latin: Nigelandes Legaspi and Rochelle Canoy (Metro Manila)

Junior A Standard: Tristan John Ducay and Willanne Rose Ducay (Metro Manila)

Junior C Latin: Nigelandes Legaspi and Rochelle Canoy (Metro Manila)

Juvenile C Latin: Joshua Orapa and Dannah Joyce Piol (Metro Manila)

Juvenile C Standard: Joshua Orapa and Dannah Joyce Piol (Metro Manila)

The event was sponsored by the Philippine Sports Commission, the Philippine Olympic Committee, PCSO, PAGCOR, NU 107, Savannah Moon, Water Zone, Studio 116, and Ho. Andrea Domingo.

For more details of DSCP and the complete list of winners, visit their website at http://www.dancesportphils.com/.

PMWA at 6

The Philippine Medical Women’s Association (PMWA) celebrated its Diamond Anniversary and their 60th Annual Convention last November 6 to 7, 2009 at the Manila Hotel carrying the theme “PMWA at 6—‘Enriching Lives, Empowering People’ What Have we Done?”

PMWA is an organization of medical women to foster closer relationships and fellowship among all medical graduates to enrich, encourage, and empower one another in their chosen fields of practice or specialties and subspecialties so that they may be better equipped to serve the community and the underprivileged and take an active part in national affairs specially in problems that affect women, children, and the family. Since then, the association has grown to more than 4,000 members nationwide in 45 various chapters in Metro Manila and the provinces.

The said event was announced by the PMWA President Dr. Concordia M. Pascual. Moreover, Dr. Teresita L. Yiongson, past president, was the keynote speaker during the opening ceremonies of the convention.

Manila hosts the 10th Anniversary of Asia Pacific manning

The Asia Pacific Manning and Training Conference celebrated its 10th Anniversary last November 4 to 5, 2009. The said event was participated by more than 200 delegates representing over 40 of the biggest international maritime companies from different countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, and Norway.

Lloyd’s List Events, UK-based conference specialist, organized the conference that was held at the Hotel Sofitel Philippine Plaza in Manila.

Ms. Kathryn Barnard, Conference Producer from Lloyd’s List noted that there is an unprecedented number of international companies who have registered this year’s event.

With the theme, “Seeking Solutions in Partnership: An Industry Commitment to Future Manning and Training”, the event aims to bring the world’s largest maritime companies to Manila to discuss the issues and challenges affecting the crewing of commercial vessels worldwide.

Moreover, workshop were held after the main conference to enhance the knowledge of the participants which was conducted by IFSMA and DNV SeaSkills Asia, followed by a gala dinner to celebrate the 10th Anniversary at the grounds of Sofitel Philippine Plaza.

Registration were held online at http://www.manningandtraining.com and through Mr. Alec Almazan at alecva@yahoo.com.ph.

8th Seaweed Festival honored Sitangkai

Tawi-Tawi Provincial Government hosted the 8th Seaweed Festival coincided with the celebration of the 36th Founding Anniversary of the province dubbed as “Kamahardikaan Tawi-Tawi” last September 24 to 27, 2009.

Tawi-Tawi Gov. Sadikul Sahali noted that they have exerted more efforts in the preparations of this year’s event compared to what they have done in the previous years. Moreover, he confirmed that a larger number of local and foreign tourists witnessed this year’s festival together with the seaweed farmers from the municipality of Sitangkai and nearby Sibutu.

Seventy percent of the country’s seaweed production is in Sitangkai where at least 4,000 metric tons of dried seaweed produced monthly and seaweed farming in the town covers about 5,000 hectares with 60,000 more hectares awaits farmers to plant high-quality seaweed.

Gov. Sahali also shared that good farming methods and infusion of new technology helps them to produce good quality seaweed, and local farmers will have the power to dictate the market price and value of their dried seaweed product.

Global prices of seaweed still remains very volatile, as he admitted that seaweed farmers are still trapped in poverty despite the strong demand for their product in the global market.

To further develop the industry, Sahali said seaweed farmers were recently organized into cooperatives to overcome their fears that the industry may be overtaken by other major seaweed exporters’ countries, like Indonesia.

Philippines joined global celebration of OneWebDay

The Philippines joined 50 countries and cities who celebrated OneWebDay last September 22, 2009. OneWebDay is an Earth day version of the Worldwide Web. The Philippine event was hosted by the Philippine Internet Users’ Society (PIUS).

OneWebDay, which started in 2004 in the United States, aims to emphasize the importance of the Internet in terms of empowering individuals, enhancing social networking, and contributing to the economic growth and development through e-commerce and better access to information.

For the Philippine celebrations, activities were held at the SM Mall of Asia and SM Baliuag. The celebrations at the SM Mall of Asia include Battle of the Bands, Grand Eyeball of Online Pinoy Entreps, Visual Art Competition, and free PC repairs. The SM Mall of Asia event was co-organized with Events Philippines, Inc..

Meanwhile, the activities for the OneWeb Day Celebration at the SM Baliuag Events Center include FREE Infotech training on blogging to earn, Adobe Photoshop, and Essay Writing Contests. Free WIFI Access was also made available to all. It was organized with Baliwag.net, a project of Brotherhood of Destiny.

The 1st Philippine OneWeb Day celebration was co-organized with Event Philippines; Official Online Partner sulit.com.ph; it was sponsored by SM City Baliwag, Informatics Computer Institute; and the following media partners: u-talk, dzmm teleradyo, Philippine Daily Mirror, Malaya, The National Newspaper, Jam 88dot3, Magic 89dot9, 99dot5 RT, 103dot5 max fm, UR 105dot9, wave 89dot1.

Internet users may join PIUS by signing up at their website www.piusonline.com, thru email info@piusonline.org or mobile numbers (63919) 7944106, (63906) 3858958.

NGO Heads Celebrate Social Development Week

Heads of non-government organizations (NGO) in the country renewed the role of NGO in ushering civil reforms during the Social Development Week celebration held last December 5 – 12, 2008.

Last year’s Social Development Week, with the theme, “Kasali Ka, Sumama Ka”, aims to promote public awareness of the roles of NGO’s and their contributions to national development.

During the week-long celebration, enterprising NGO’s promoted their unique products and services from all over the country in the Development Trade Fair at the Glorietta Activity Center in Makati City from December 8 – 11, 2008.

Fora about social responsibility, national issues, civil-society relations, and good governance were held in different venues of Ateneo de Manila University, University of the Philippines – Diliman, and Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Center for Educational Innovation and Technology (SEAMEO Innotech) in Quezon City.

These fora were organized by different NGO’s and academic organizations including Partnership of Philippine Support Service Agencies (PHILSSA), Asia Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (AsiaDHRRA), Economic, Social And Cultural Rights Network in Asia (ESCR-Asia), Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA), Citizens' Council for Human Rights, (CCHR), Waging Peace Philippines, Western Visayas Network of Social Development NGOs (WEVNet,) Center for Community Journalism and Development (CCJD), Institute for Popular Democracy (IPD), and the UP Asian Center.

The event coincided with the 12th National Assembly of Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO). The group held their Development Forum Series with the theme “Change for Good Governance, Good Governance for Change”.

The 2008 Social Development Week Celebration is presented by CODE-NGO in partnership with the Peace & Equity Foundation (PEF) and the Association of Foundations (AF).