JUNE 20, 2011 (Monday) is A Non-Working Holiday (Rizal's 150th Birth Day) -Palace

                                      Image via Wikipedia

President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III announces today that Monday, June 20, 2011 is a non-working holiday throughout the Philippines in celebration of the 150th birthday of Dr. Jose Rizal, Philippines' national hero. The declaration is via Proclamation No. 154.

Rizal Day is celebrated annually every December 30, the date when Rizal was executed at Luneta. This is the first time that the country will celebrate Rizal's date of birth.

iPad 2 Coming to Philippines, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Many More Countries This Week

In a press release, Apple announces that they will be releasing the iPad 2 to 12 additional countries this week. Those countries were Japan, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey and UAE and Philippines. Aside from Japan (April 28), all others will have the iPad 2 by Friday, April 29, 2011 on Apple official retailers.

iPad 2

iPad 2 is the second generation of a Apple's tablet device featuring a major upgrade from its predecessor including, thinner and lighter design, front and back-facing cameras for capturing pictures and videos and video calling, and a faster processor and graphics. Apple also introduced  Smart Covers designed along with iPad 2.

Click here for more details regarding the availability and pricing in the Philippines.

"There is no partisan politics angle or any hidden agenda" - DSWD to Revillame and Lawyers

Willie Revillame. Image by ~C4Chaos via Flickr

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) issued a counter-statement against Willie Revillame and his lawyers regarding the accusation of the latter that he has been a victim of politics regarding the issue of child abuse. In the press release published at the official website of DSWD, the government agency defended their involvement in the case. They said that after the video of Jan-jan was posted on YouTube they received "more than 100 email messages from concerned individuals, mothers, child advocacy/legal groups, and even OFWs from Hongkong and the USA" rousing them to act over the issue.

The department also appealed to the public saying that "there is no partisan politics angle or any hidden agenda as Mr. Revillame and his lawyers alleged." They also made it clear that their primary concern is the welfare of Jan-jan and his family. They also added that Jan-jan's case was "one glaring example of the need of society, including parents, to understand the different forms of child abuse."

Willie Revillame was once again put into the limelight after the incident that happened on his show Willing Willie aired live on TV 5 where a six-year-old boy named Jan-Jan Estrada was made to repeatedly perform dance moves usually done by adult dancers. Copies of the episode was quickly posted on YouTube and met online rage from different concerned citizens and organizations. MTRCB and DSWD quickly acted and investigated the matter immdiately.

The issue reached its climax when the majority of the show's advertisers including Jollibee's Mang Inasal, Procter and Gamble, and Unilever pulled out their TV commercials because of the issue. Revillame defended himself and in his speech on the last episode of the show, he lambasted his critics including several TV and movie personalities and government agencies.

See original press release of DSWD.

5 Tips On Booking Airline Tickets That Can Help You Save Money

Cebu Pacific. Image via Wikipedia

Nowadays, airline promos are as common as "common colds". Almost every airline has their seat sale every now and then. Except for busy seasons like Christmas and Holy Week, there are bunch of low airfares being offered for both domestic and international destinations. Of course, the Philippines' largest low-cost airline, Cebu Pacific is credited to be the trend-setter of this phenomenon.

But in spite of these, many are still complaining that they were not able to book cheap airfares especially during promos. There might be various reasons why but here are some tips based on my personal experience to help you save money when buying airline tickets.

1. Watch for promos several months before your travel period.

Airline promos are usually made available for booking several months ahead of the travel period (three or more months).

I noticed from my readers' comments that they were usually looking for promo fares on flights that are just a month ahead or even a week ahead. The concept is: The nearer the date of your flight, the harder it is to find cheap airfares. That is the FACT of airfare promos.

2. Do not book in bulk; book in small groups.

There are those who book for 5 person or more at a time. Of course, there are circumstances that you cannot break the group especially if there are children. But if you can manage to break your group into smaller ones, there's a big chance that you can get tickets during a promo. Here's the reason why.

When you enter five or more persons in the search query, the system will look for a specific promo flight with five or more vacant seats. What if there's only four left? The search will return "zero" result. Which is better? Four promo fares plus one regular fare or five regular fares?

3. Travel on generally "non-busy" days and times.

Avoid flying on Fridays or Mondays, they are considered to be busy days because most people tend to travel on those days. Because of high demand, there are usually no promos given on those days.

Also, if you can manage to fly late or early in a day, please do so because cheap fares are usually offered on those times.

The principle is, fly when you think there's less people who likes to fly.

4. Be vigilant on promo announcements.

Promos only last for two or three days. Extremely low promo offerings like Cebu Pacific's PISO fare can only last for several hours. And chances are, if you booked several hours after  a Piso Fare-like promo was announced, you will find it hard to enter the airline website due to heavy internet traffic.

To be able to get the earliest news, subscribe to the airlines' email notifications and blogs like this who offers quick reports during promo announcements. The principle is: the quickest to book will likely find a promo fare for the date he/she wanted.

5. Have a Credit Card, Debit Card, or an ATM card that supports online purchasing.

Promo fares are best purchased through the internet. It is both fast and convenient. Some promos such as "Piso Fare" can only be booked online.

If you are not sure whether your ATM Card is capable of booking online, contact your card provider.

Cebu Pacific also offers online reservations and be paid later that day on their ticket office. Please see this article to learn more.

Blogging In My iPad Using BlogPress App

Cross Posted From Technology Logs


I just bought an iPad just a couple of weeks ago. One of the key reasons why I bought this device is for me to be able to post on my blogs anywhere I am as long as there's WiFi connection (i just bought a WiFi model due to cost). So, when I tried to use it to post an article, I was extremely disppointed to find out that Blogger's "Compose Mode" is not working on an iPad. I later found out that the reason was that iOS, the system that runs Apple touchscreen mobile devices (iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads) is not supporting Adobe Flash and Blogger's "Compose Mode" require's Flash to run.

Since I already bought the device and I began to love its other functions, I have no choice but to use it. So, I searched diferent forums and blogs to find the workaround to this issue. There seems to be few suggested solutions. One was 'just use the "HTML" mode' which I don't like. The other one, which is almost unanimously suggested is to use BlogPress.

So after two weeks, I decided to give up $2.99 to purchase this App. Now, I'm testing whether that purchase is really worth it.

Below is a sample picture I embedded using BlogPress. I set all pictures to be medium sized when they are inserted to the article post.