Alex Bruce drops infectious new jam “Yakap”

It’s been a very challenging year for the music industry in general, but not for Filipina rapper Alex Bruce, who continues to enjoy commercial and critical plaudits—thanks to her slickly produced, empowering anthems.

Her Wish 107.5 Bus performances of “Mind As A Weapon” and “Pull It Off” have garnered more than a million hits respectively, while the latter earned the young prodigy a record for the youngest female artist to have scored a top 3 on Wave 89.1’s weekly chart. To top it off, the 13-year-old rapper/songwriter has recently teamed up with global hitmaker August Rigo, whose songwriting and production credits include BTS’ “Black Swan” and Justin Bieber’s multi-platinum album, My World 2.0, for the trap banger “Go Crazy.”

Public school teachers get specialized training from Globe

Globe further enhances its support to the Department of Education (DepEd) by helping public school educators keep up with the demands of the new normal through free professional development training designed to provide teachers with essential knowledge and skills on digital literacy, blended learning and 21st century learning methods.

The program is part of Globe’s Global Filipino Teachers (GFT) initiative and is being implemented through a combination of webinars and downloadable self-paced materials for teachers to apply their learnings. GFT was launched in 2009 to deliver information and technology-based training to public school teachers across the country.

With the nation’s shift to remote learning, Globe found it essential to partner with Habi Education Labs and Teach for the Philippines, as both are well known for their exceptional work in forwarding 21st century learning in public schools nationwide. 

Influencer Kiko Ipapo and Actor Jovani Manansala Star in the First Filipino Period BL Series Happenstance

Director Adolfo Alix Jr. revealed new details about his upcoming BL series Happenstance during an online press conference on Saturday evening. Kiko Ipapo and Jovani Manansala will play Wade and Jose Manuel, two people who magically meet although they are living in different periods - one in 1974, one in 2020. Jose Manuel is grounded after his military father learned of his relationship with Luis, an activist. Wade, on the other hand, is recovering from a recent break up with Eric and while on vacation is caught up in the quarantine because of the CoVid 19 pandemic. After the super moon, an opportunity opens for these two heartbroken souls to connect across time and find love once again.

The two leads are relative newcomers. Kiko Ipapo is a social media personality and influencer. He started as a print model before deciding to try his luck as an actor. Happenstance is his first foray into acting. Opposite, Jovani Manansala also started in the entertainment industry by doing several commercial ads. After that, he acted in television shows like ‘Ipaglaban Mo’ & ‘Maalaala Mo Kaya’ and in the independent films Mamu, And a Mother Too and Jolly Spirit.

MVP Group gears up for Typhoon Rolly

The MVP Group of Companies is gearing up for the onslaught of Typhoon Rolly. Manuel V. Pangilinan, in a tweet last Saturday, committed that the network operations centers for telco, power, and tollways will be operational and manned 24 hours, and that the Group has mobilized its foundations to do relief and medical work in the wake of Typhoon Rolly.

A look into education’s new normal-DepEd shares insights on the first weeks of classes

Various industries in the Philippines are already on their slow but steady path to recovery and that includes the education sector. Despite the compromises and major changes made in the educational system to navigate through the now normal, the Department of Education (DepEd) has successfully opened classes for SY 2020-2021. 

“DepEd recognizes the challenges of the school year ahead, but if we opted for an academic freeze, we would have lost many months of the childrens’ learning,” said DepEd Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones. “The opening of the school year has generally been very successful, and we will continue to face any challenge that lies ahead with great resolve to continue education in the country.” 

Critically acclaimed and award-winning film “Quezon’s Game” to be screened in UAE

ABS-CBN and TFC will be screening for the first time in United Arab Emirates (UAE) the film, “Quezon’s Game,” which tells how a leader’s act of kindness and step towards equality saved lives. The film, which will be screening in UAE starting November 12, had a successful run in the U.S. and Asia and Pacific, and a unique film in concert premiere and screening in Europe early this year.

This is just in time after UAE and Israel signed a Peace Treaty, where both countries are “desiring to establish peace, diplomatic and friendly relations, co-operation and full normalization of ties between them and their peoples,” among others as stated in the treaty.

“Quezon’s Game” tells the story of how Philippine President Manuel Quezon, future U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, and several other notable figures set out to rescue Jewish refugees from the ghettos of Germany and Austria. What seems within their power at first, turns out to be fraught with astronomical obstacles and on top of this, Quezon must battle a relapse of tuberculosis. In his final days, Quezon asks if he could have done more, before recollecting one of the least known, but most uplifting stories in Philippine history.

Here are some Halloween ideas from PayMaya!

From dressing up in an IG-worthy Halloween costume to munching on treats from your go-to restaurants. Here are some awesome ways PayMaya can help you spend a fun holiday at home:

• Dress up in a nice Halloween costume (or fabulous loungewear) and enjoy awesome deals with PayMaya. Get a 15% discount when you pay with your PayMaya virtual or physical card at Zalora using the code PYMY2020. You can also order clothes from The SM Store via Call To Deliver and #ScanToPay for your purchase to get up to 100% Balik Bayad, an additional P100 Balik Bayad when you spend a cumulative amount of P2,500 until October 31, plus a chance to win a motorcycle at SM’s raffle!
• Pay with your mobile number when ordering online at establishments like Army Navy, Burger King, Domino's, Boozy, and so much more to get up to 100% Balik Bayad. You will also get an extra P100 Balik Bayad when you accumulate a total of P2,000 for your transactions until October 31.
• Shop for gaming pins at your PayMaya app for a spooky game night with your barkada. When you buy at least P300 worth of gaming pins using PayMaya, you can get a 5% Balik Bayad (with a maximum of P100), and every P300 spent will get you one raffle entry for a chance to win a year’s worth of gaming pins.
• Do a virtual Trick or Treat with your loved ones and gift them with digital vouchers to their favorite restaurants or even prepaid load found in the PayMaya app. Sending prepaid load to your friends gets you 5% Balik Bayad, and extra P100 Balik Bayad when you spend an accumulated total of P600 on Smart and TNT prepaid load until November 17.