Free Highlands Coffee for Health Workers

During a crisis, there are those who step up and take on the burden of saving lives, usually at the cost of their own safety. These are the frontliners: medical practitioners, service professionals, and members of law enforcement who ensure that peace, order, safety, and health standards are upheld in these trying times. 

As dedicated as our frontliners are to ensuring the safety of the general public, sometimes they miss out on the little things that can help provide mental respite in the face of challenges. In order to make sure that they are taken care of, Highlands Coffee has pledged to supply their product free of charge to frontliners.

After a successful run of providing free Vietnamese Iced Coffee to VRP Medical Center and the Medical City in Ortigas, Highlands Coffee will be providing the same service to other key hospitals around the city. They have partnered with the delivery channel, Happy Move, in order to facilitate delivery of the products to the frontliners who have been working tirelessly for the good of all. Furthermore, thanks to efforts on social media, Highlands Coffee has started to provide coffee to fronliners based on recommendations from users and customers. This is an ongoing social media program, open to all via their social media pages www.facebook.com/highlandscoffeeph  and www.instagram.com/highlandscoffeeph. 

Highlands Coffee urges the public to use social media to nominate frontliners to receive a batch of Vietnamese Iced Coffee while on duty at the hospital.  

“We’re committing to supplying coffee to our frontliners until the end of the lockdown,” said Francis San Gabriel, Group Head of Highlands Coffee. “When it comes to fighting the spread of COVID-19, we trust the experts. When it comes to coffee, we are happy that our expertise can assist them in our own small way,” he concluded. 

Craving for Dalgona coffee? Alfamart has all the ingredients

If you are feeling bored with nothing else to do at home, this lockdown may be the best time to try out new things.

Ever heard of Dalgona coffee? Its become one of the most popular challenges recently and everybody has been sharing their own versions on YouTube, Instagram and Tiktok.  

The good thing is you can buy all the ingredients in convenience stores like Alfamart. This DIY coffee drink is a mixture of coffee, sugar and hot water served on top of cold milk. 

In case you want to whip one now, here are the ingredients and how you can whip up your own Dalgona coffee. 

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp instant coffee or espresso powder
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp very hot water
• 400 ml/ 14fl oz milk 

Directions: 

1. Add the instant cofee, sugar and hot water to a medium mixing bowl. 
2. Using an electric hand-held mixer, whip the coffee mixture until its light brown and smooth and holds stiff peaks when the whisk is removed.
3. Heat the milk, if desired, and divide between 2 heatproof glasses. 
4. Spoon dollops of the frothed coffee mixture on top and smooth out with a spoon. 
5. Serve with gloves while observing social distancing. (better to be sure!) 

While medical personnel are at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19, it is also worth commending those serving in groceries, convenience stores, and super minimarts.

We are just thankful that Alfamart remains open during this COVID19 pandemic with their frontliners ready to serve us during  these challenging times.  Besides their store staff, we also have to applaud the distribution center personnel and truck drivers that keep the supply chain going, ensuring that all groceries, convenience stores, and super minimarts are well-stocked.

Netizens all around Luzon, wherein the government's enhanced community quarantine is in full effect, praised the efforts of the other frontliners for giving them a sense of "normalcy". Like  @Oh Jet's tweet.

  

Other areas also have free shuttle service for the employees. A netizen snapped this photo of the shuttle van parked outside the employee entrance waiting to pick up passengers.

Alfamart management said that part of its mandate is to keep the working environment safe and comfortable, so it also works hard to supply disinfectant, sanitizers, and PPEs to their staff.

In this time of crisis, anyone who is still reporting to work, whether it be medical or any other service, deserves support from everyone. So don’t forget to thank the ones that serve to meet our day-to-day needs despite the looming threat of disease. Let us make sure that all our frontliners know that their service is greatly appreciated.

Palacio de Memoria offers virtual tour

Art and history enthusiasts can now go on a virtual tour of Palacio de Memoria, the resplendent Colonial Revival mansion, and marvel at its luxurious facilities and hundreds of Euro-Filipino paintings, sculptures, art displays, and historical pieces online. 

The virtual tour offers a highly detailed and interactive presentation of the heritage house. If you haven’t visited Palacio de Memoria yet and are looking for a more "enriching" activity during the COVID-19 lockdown, now is the perfect time to explore and “walkaround” the place through 360-degree videos as if you are there in real life.

“Many Filipinos are ordered to stay home at the moment to protect themselves from the coronavirus pandemic. With most of us being isolated from the outside world, we hope that Palacio de Memoria’s virtual tour will not only give them respite during these uncertain times but also keep them productive as they learn and get a glimpse of a significant time in our history that was once Manila’s prime,” said Palacio de Memoria general manager Camille Lhuillier.

The tour will begin with an aerial and outdoor view of the estate which shows the restored pre-war mansion. It then leads to the first floor which shows the Los Tamaraos Ballroom and its Murano chandelier, as well as the terrazzo floor by National Artist for Architecture Juan Nakpil.

It also shows the showroom of Palacio de Memoria’s auction house, Casa de Memoria or the Casa, which houses the Lhuilliers’ unrivalled collection of antiques. Other highlights include the Mosphil Lounge, a passenger plane that that was refitted to be a lounge for special occasions; the bridal suite which is perfect for weddings; and the recently opened museum which also serves as a chapel for intimate weddings and religious gatherings.

To view the complete Palacio de Memoria’s virtual tour, visit https://www.palaciodememoria.com/tours. For more updates, follow @thepalaciodememoria on Facebook and @palacio.de

Araneta City enforces social distancing in Farmers Market

Farmers Market in Araneta City is arguably the best wet market  in Metro Manila for those who want the freshest meat, seafood and other food products for their  cooking needs. 

With the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) directive  to arrest  the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), Araneta City has rolled out strict measures to ensure a safe environment for both the customers and lessees  at Farmers Market.

The Araneta City management has installed “X” floor markings, both at the McArthur and Center Avenue entrances, which customers have to stand on to keep a three feet distance from the other customers when falling in line before entering the market.  This procedure will be enforced until the pandemic is over. 

In addition, guards at both entrances are equipped with face masks and face shields to protect themselves from potential exposure to the virus. The security personnel are also provided with temperature scanners  to check if a person is sick, as well as spray bottles of alcohol for disinfecting customers.

For increased protection of everyone, individuals who have body temperatures of 37.6 °C and above are prohibited from entering the market. Customers are advised to wear face masks not only for their safety but for the safety of others.

Inside the market, the management has dispatched roving security personnel with megaphones to remind customers to remain at a safe distance from each other as much as possible while doing their shopping. The proprietors have also been briefed as to how they can minimize their physical interaction with customers.

Farmers Market  in Araneta City is open daily from 5 AM to 6 PM,  making available the freshest products sourced from the best farms all over the country. To get updates regarding business hours during the ECQ, visit the Araneta City Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/AranetaCity

MVP Group provides assistance to health workers, communities

The Tulong Kapatid, the corporate social responsibility consortium of companies, foundations and affiliates under the leadership of Manuel V. Pangilinan, conducted a series of relief efforts and activities to help frontline health workers, government response teams as well as some underprivileged and homeless families in Metro Manila.

“We are fully committed to supporting our frontline health workers who are working tirelessly to save lives and to combat this pandemic. We will continue to pour in resources to address the needs and demands of our frontline workers, including PPEs and relief packages,” said PLDT Chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan.

To date, here are some of the efforts of the Tulong Kapatid:

• Frontline health workers and government hospitals also recently received 14,000 Liters of 70% Ethyl alcohol donation from the Tulong Kapatid. The ethyl alcohol donation was from the Roxol Bioenergy Corporation, a company under the Roxas Holdings, Inc. These were transported and distributed to Metro Manila through the assistance of the Metropac Movers, Inc., PLDT-Smart Foundation (PSF) and the Makati Medical Center Foundation. 
• Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC), along with Metro Pacific Investments Foundation (MPIF), provided personal protective equipment (PPEs) such as nitrile gloves, goggles, and coveralls, as well as boxes of vitamins to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and the Philippine Genome Center. Initial donation of 500 units of 1,000 virus specimen collection tubes were also turned over to RITM.
• 200 PPEs, 100 boxes of Clusivol, and 10 Tulip Tabletop Water Filters were also donated to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.
• MPIC and MPIF will also provide 1,000 full PPE kits containing surgical face masks, N95 face masks, disposable head caps, disposable shoe covers, disposable coveralls, disposable surgical gowns, and anti-fog goggles to frontliners in s
• everal hospitals and healthcare centers within the region.
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• One Meralco Foundation (OMF) turned over their PPE donation which consisted of goggles, surgical gloves, face shields and face masks to the Rizal Medical Center, Philippine Heart Center, Philippine General Hospital, Lung Center of the Philippines, Lourdes Hospital and Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital.
• PSF and Alagang Kapatid Foundation Inc. (AKFI) turned over hygiene kits and care packages which included N95 and surgical masks to frontline health workers at the Philippine General Hospital and East Avenue Medical Center, National Center for Mental Health, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP), Philippine Children’s Medical Center, National Children’s Hospital and Veterans Memorial Medical Center.
• PSF in partnership with Makati Medical Center Foundation (MMCF) also turned over 12,500 reusable facemasks to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and hospital health workers and 14,400 pcs of Ascorbic Acid to the Lung Center of the Philippines. Along with that, PSF and MMCF decontaminated facilities of AFP General Headquarters and LCP.
• PSF is continuously preparing to distribute grocery packs, hazmat suits, ascorbic acids and reusable face masks to several hospitals and communities in Metro Manila and other regions.
• Subscribers of PLDT, Smart, Sun and TNT also continue to convert their MVP Rewards to donations to the PSF.
• AKFI distributed relief packs, hygiene kits and bottled water to street dwellers and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).
• In coordination with the Philippine Marine Corps, AKFI distributed almost 3,800 servings of cooked food and water bottles from Maynilad to various hospitals and troops.
• AKFI also provided over 4,000 eggs to various communities and hospitals through the Ronald Mcdonald House of Charities. Through various donors, AKFI also turned over several relief packs, masks and plastic rolls to several hospitals in Metro Manila.
• OMF also partnered with AKFI to provide relief packs to homeless families in Quezon City and in Baseco Compound, Manila. Food packages were also provided to marginalized families in Brgy. Buting, Pasig City, in partnership with the Philippine National Police, and in Bacoor and Ternate, Cavite; Las Piñas City, Malabon and Pateros. 
• Meralco provided flood lights to illuminate the parking area of the Lung Center of the Philippines that has been converted into patients’ triage and queueing area.
• Meralco’s electric vehicle subsidiary eSakay also supported Pasig City by providing and operating six electric jeeps to help transport healthcare frontliners to and from Pasig City General Hospital. The initiative began last March 19, 2020.
• Meralco employees raised P1M and has turned over the funds to PDRF’s Project Ugnayan to help feed homeless families in Manila through Caritas Manila’s Project Damayan.
• To help in the mission of the Philippine Genome Center (PGC), Meralco through OMF donated 20 desktop computers to the organization. In order to provide scientists with crucial information to mitigate the spread of the disease, the PGC is sequencing samples from COVID-19 patients admitted at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), The Medical City, and PGH. PGC will also serve as the operations center of a bayanihan effort of various groups within the University of the Philippines system to help respond to the COVID crisis. Around 200 volunteers are expected to participate in this effort.
• Maynilad also provided around 27,000 bottled water to frontline workers from the Philippine Navy, Philippine National Police, Metro Manila Development Authority, National Capital Region Police Office, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, Philippine General Hospital, Lourdes Hospital, several local government units, and to various checkpoints in the metropolis. Maynilad also partnered with DPWH in the disinfection of national highways by providing watering points for its disinfection tankers.
• Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation, through NLEX, SCTEX, CAVITEX and CALAX, continues to do its work to ensure unhampered movement of goods and transit of personnel of industries allowed to operate amid the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine.  It has also supported and cooperated with the Joint Inter-Agency Task Force Covid-19 SHIELD in the set ups and smooth operations of its checkpoints. MPTC also continuously provides shuttling services to health workers of various hospitals. 
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The Tulong Kapatid continues to do its part in empowering Filipinos in the time of the COVID-19 crisis. Its commitment to provide a nationwide service is anchored on its core value of malasakit. The Tulong Kapatid fuels sparks of hope as it reaches out to various sectors and communities, including frontline health workers, government response teams and the underprivileged.

Above all, these efforts are ultimately inspired by the frontline workers who are working tirelessly to combat this pandemic. The commitment to serve is now seen through the lens of every frontline worker – a doctor, a nurse, a checkpoint officer, a janitor, a food delivery personnel. Each one of them changing the narrative of what resiliency means into something deeper – one that encompasses bravery and strength. One that can only be aptly described as being a hero.

Here’s to our frontline heroes.  

Parokya Ni Edgar, Gloc-9 and Shanti Dope Drop Rocking New "Pati Pato" Remix

After releasing the highly-anticipated hip-hop collab  "Pati Pato" in October 2019, Chito Miranda, Gloc-9, Shanti Dope, and DJ Klumcee are teaming up once again for a rockin' new remix. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6Go-8ordLE

The "Pati Pato (Parokya Mix)" not only includes the four artists, but also brings the rest of Parokya Ni Edgar to join the rock reimagining. Now enhanced with with blasting and bold guitar and percussion backings, fans of the Parokya rock vibe and the fiery hot OPM collab will be on their toes with this new mix.

Pati Pato (Parokya Remix) is now available for streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, and all digital stores under Universal Records.

Sarah Geronimo is now a TNT Ka-Tropa

TNT, the Filipino people’s brand, is welcoming the country’s Popstar Royalty into its family. Sarah has also joined TNT to help in its goal to provide relief and optimism in these particularly trying times — not only to her millions of Popsters, but also to every Filipino doing his or her best to make it through these challenges.

“Ako po ay masaya at bahagi na ako ng TNT Family. Maraming salamat po sa pagkakataon na maging bahagi ng isang misyon to keep Filipinos connected and entertained all the time,” said Sarah. 

 “We welcome Sarah Geronimo to the TNT family, and with her, we hope to continue uplifting Filipinos through our services. Sarah is also the personification of TNT in the sense that she grew up entertaining the public and kept her fans connected because of her songs and movies," said Jane J. Basas, SVP and Head for Consumer Individual Wireless Business of Smart.

Geronimo also understands that Filipinos need more encouragement at this time, which is why she plans to use her new status as a TNT endorser to be an inspiring figure, doing what she can to help Filipinos cope with the current situation.

“Sa panahon ngayon, importante po na meron pa rin tayong kaunting tawanan, kantahan, sayawan para po mas mapagaan ang pagdala ng ating buhay sa araw-araw,” she says in a teaser video addressed to TNT subscribers. “Ako po at ang TNT ay may solusyon para diyan para bigyan po kayo ng saya kahit kailan kahit saan abangan po ninyo.”

Enjoy TikTok with TNT Giga Stories 50

Amid these uncertain times, TNT subscribers can get a dose of happiness and entertainment every day through TikTok, the latest social media app that’s got everybody — from your friends and family to all your favorite celebrities, influencers, and online personalities — sharing their dance covers, dubs, and more, just being fun online.

Watch everyone’s TikTok videos and upload your own as much as you want when you subscribe to TNT’s GIGA Stories promo for as low as P50 for 1 GB per day of TikTok, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram, valid for three days. To register, simply dial *123#.

You can experience great entertainment anytime, anywhere on your phone with TNT’s mobile internet, which is powered by Smart LTE, the country's fastest mobile network, as certified by global internet testing firms Ookla and Opensignal.

For more info and updates on TNT and its promos, follow TNT on Facebook at fb.com/TNTph, at @tntph on Twitter and Instagram, or visit tntph.com. 

Hygienix helps stop the spread of COVID-19

There now exists a definite duty for every Filipino to help stop the spread of COVID-19. And one of the simplest things we can do as individuals is to sanitize- either by washing our hands thoroughly with soap and water on a regular basis or by using alcohol if handwashing is unfeasible. 

Even before, and more so at this time of COVID-19, Hygienix has been making products that aim to protect people from disease-causing bacteria. Hygienix products effectively eliminate viruses, kill germs, and destroy harmful bacteria, while keeping the skin energized and moisturized at the same time!

In the frontline for Hygienix in the battle against COVID-19 is the Hygienix Germicidal Soap. Hygienix Germicidal Soap kills 99.99% of germs and common disease-causing bacteria with every use! And because it has a non-drying formula and refreshing scent, frequent handwashing with Hygienix Germicidal Soap turns out to be a pleasure, not just a necessity.

Apart from soap, Hygienix also has two alcohol products that’s proven to fight off COVID-19. 

Its two alcohol variants: the Hygienix Germ Kill Alcohol and Hygienix Germ Kill Alcohol with Moisturizer both effectively kill 99.9% of germs. That’s because both variants also boast of disinfectant and antiseptic properties! What’s more, it’s safe for frequent use because it does not dry the skin. Hygienix Germ Kill Alcohol is available in 60ml, 150ml, 250ml, and 500ml sizes, while Germ Kill Alcohol with Moisturizer is available in 250ml and 500ml–– perfect to keep handy around the house or bring with you wherever you go. 

Hygienix assures that it is working double time to keep pace with the stronger demand for soap and alcohol. More than ever, Hygienix fully knows how crucial its role is in helping arm people with the best defenses possible to help stop the spread of COVID-19. 

Smile Train Philippines Announces Virtual Speech Camp 2020

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Smile Train Philippines will be holding their Speech Camp 2020, a series of virtual speech therapy classes for cleft patients during this enhanced community quarantine period (ECQ).

The world’s leading cleft organization will hold live sessions with its local experts through Facebook, which will run from April 1 to April 8, 2020.

Interested individuals may refer to the schedule below and follow the Smile Train Speech Camp page for updates: https://www.facebook.com/SpeechBySmileTrain/

Virtual Speech Therapy: April 1, 2:00-3:00PM

●      By Speech Language Pathologist Veronica Yu from the University of Sto. Tomas

DLSU Telecamp: April 4, 9:00-10:00 AM and 1:30-2:30PM

 April 8, 9:00-10:00AM

●      By the College of Rehabilitation Sciences, De La Salle University Health Sciences Institute

“Speech Camp 2020 is an initiative to enable our patients to continue their learning and speech sessions throughout the ECQ. We hope that this will also serve as an opportunity for other patients who are unable to physically attend sessions during the year,” said Smile Train South East Asia Area Director Kimmy Flaviano.

Smile Train hopes to hold more classes in the coming weeks. For more information about Smile Train’s global efforts and to donate, please visit smiletrain.org. To learn more about Smile Train’s local programs in the Philippines, please visit smiletrain.ph, follow Smile Train Philippines on Twitter and Instagram @SmileTrainPh, and like us on Facebook at @SmileTrainPhilippines.