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click on the image to enlarge Just days before his   resignation , tourism undersecretary Vicente Romano III initiated a public-driven collaboration to replace the beleaguered "Pilipinas Kay Ganda" campaign. Surprisingly, the project has taken on a life of its own as Pinoy netizens heeded his call to devise new ways and collaborate online. Project DOT wiki Dubbed as "Project DOT wiki", the initiative was quietly launched by Romano himself via a post on his personal Facebook page on Oct. 19. People who went to www.tourismpilipinas.com   were shown step-by-step instructions on how to join. "[We] have gotten close to 60 responses... since it was announced [and] I am now doing a matrix of assignments so as to optimize contributions," said Evelyn Macayayong, DOT officer-in-charge of tourism information and the main contact person for the project. In his post , Romano said he started the initiative after people began expressing   via Twitter   their eagerness to

New Logo of  Philippines Tourism-Pilipinas kay Ganda In his complaint relayed personally during the APEC summit to leaders of countries that issued a travel advisory warning their citizens about going to the Philippines, President Aquino mentioned about the November 15 launching of a new tourism logo. Less than 24 hours after “Pilipinas kay Ganda” was previewed (it was not yet the launching, Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim stressed) the accompanying site - www.beautifulpilipinas.com -was taken down because they found out that there’s an existing porn website also using the key words “beautifulpilipinas.” Why they didn’t find this out before the preview defies common sense. Tourism Undersecretary Vicente Romano said they have created a new website – www.tourismphilippines.com – to promote the P100 million new Philippine tourism brand that they have created. Anton Diaz of Awesome Planet website, who was at last Monday’s preview said, “It does not help that Beautiful Pilipinas is a double-e

Starting Monday, the Philippines will adopt “Pilipinas kay Ganda" as its new slogan in what Malacañang described as a bid to "reinvigorate" the country's tourism campaign. President Benigno Aquino III said the new slogan to be launched Nov. 15 will replace the existing slogan "WOW Philippines". The slogan aims to "reinvigorate our country’s tourism campaign and double tourist arrivals within the next three years," said a   Malacañang statement posted Saturday night on the Presidential Communications Operations Office website. Aquino, who is now in Japan for the   Asia -Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, said the government will also train tourist police and guides to ensure the safety of local and foreign tourists alike. Earlier this month, the Department of Tourism (DOT) said it would allocate P100 million for new media promotions, including a new website, to reach its goal of doubling tourist arrivals. (See:   Govt to beef up RP tourism using

Photograph shown on the video posted at the gym where Margarito conduct his training This is an edited version already as the original one is showing this message  " This video has been removed because its content violated YouTube's  Terms of Service ".  if you try to look at it.  Antonio Margarito has apologized for the video where he was seen attempting to imitate Freddie Roach's physical condition. If you believe what the Mexican fighter is saying, his actions were in no way an attempt to make light of Roach's affliction with Parkison's disease. During Thursday's press conference introducing the undercard fighters, Margarito issued an apology to Roach and added he hoped the 50 year-old Roach would forgive him. Brandon Rios, Margarito's training partner who will fight in the undercard bout, has also since apologized for his role in the video. Both men were defended Wednesday by trainer Robert Garcia, who claimed he would not allow such behavior in hi

The recruitment and deployment of foreign workers, including Filipinos, for the construction of US Navy facilities in the island of Guam will begin during the last quarter of 2011 and not earlier as previously reported, according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).   In a   statement , the POEA said prospective overseas Filipino workers will have to wait another year for the project’s construction phase to commence. The Department of   Labor   and Employment (DOLE)   earlier reported   that the construction project – a naval hospital worth US$700 million – is set to be awarded by the end of September this year, and the construction will begin by the first quarter of 2011.   According to the POEA statement, the project’s design phase will start during the first half of the 2011 as many of the construction projects are of build-and-design type, and construction activity in the island will begin during the second half.   The statement said initial bids and request

A Facebook fan page with over two million fans that contained critical comments of the Aquino administration was summarily taken down by Facebook recently, allegedly on the initiative of the President's staff. Meanwhile, the recently established official Aquino fan page has received a sudden and as yet unexplained infusion of fans, fueling suspicions that the closed Fanpage's fans were transferred without their consent. GMANews.TV even reported earlier this year that Aquino was the third most-liked politician on Facebook worldwide because of the large fan base of the BSA3 page. According to California-based computer professional, Ben Totanes, he and fellow online volunteer Betty Abrantes set up the BSA3 fan page (at the now-defunct URL http://www.facebook.com/noynoy.aquino ) in 2009 shortly after the demise of former president Cory Aquino. The page was initially meant to show support for the presidential bid of her son, Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, in the upcoming na

Ex-US president   Bill  Clinton faced an audience of elite Filipinos Wednesday and implored them to convince their countrymen abroad to return and help out the country.   “Create a climate where everybody [participates]. Get more people to come home," he said to a crowd in Manila Hotel that included his former Georgetown classmate Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Rapidly growing economies like China, India and Vietnam all benefited from a reverse brain drain, when educated expatriates returned to lend their expertise.   The Philippines needs to reorient the mindset of its people through education and access to employment to keep the population from migrating to other places in search of better paying jobs, Clinton said. "Filipinos have done great around the world, and I think that as an economic model, it's really good for individual people and families," he said, referring to the 8.5 million-11 million overseas Filipino workers who transferred more than $19.7 billion to the

Related Post: The Philippines' Wealthiest MANILA, Philippines—SM Development Corp. will jumpstart its overseas expansion by investing up to 3 billion renminbi (about P19 billion) in two high-rise residential projects in China adjacent to the SM shopping malls in the cities of Xiamen and Jinjiang, both in Fuijian province. Outside of the planned investment in China, SMDC is also investing up to P20 billion in the Philippines for new projects this year and in 2011, top officials said during the listing on the Philippine Stock Exchange of P11.7 billion worth of company shares sold in a recent stock rights offering. “The proceeds of this stock offering will be used mostly to purchase new land and for the continuation of all our buildings and probably some overseas expansion, too. As you know, our sales have been doubling for the last two to three years and we need a lot of funds right now to keep with the pace,” said SMDC vice chair and chief executive Henry Sy Jr. In China, Sy said SM

MANILA, Philippines—However difficult it may be to swallow, the Philippines is perceived as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. According to the latest Transparency International global corruption index, the country continues to be in the “highly corrupt’’ category, ranking 134th out of the 178 countries included in the index. In Asia Pacific, the Philippines occupies the 26th spot out of a total 33 economies. But it is not too late to make a positive change. The Aquino government has six years to make good on its promise to drastically reduce, if not eradicate, corruption in the country. Given the current situation, however, this is quite a tall order. Impossible even, if government will be expected to do the job alone. This is why various business groups have decided to help make this dream of an almost corruption-free Philippines come true. Late last year, the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines and the Makati Business Club banded together to launch the Integ