GUSTO NG MGA NEGOSYANTE ANG KAMAY NA BAKAL

by: Raymond Burgos | Abante Online News

Nagpahayag kamakailan ng pagkabahala ang mga nego­syante at mangangalakal sa Minda­nao na makakaepekto sa itatayong Bangsamoro entity ang naganap na pagmasaker sa 44 na commando ng Special Action Force sa Mamasapano, Maguindanao.


Nangangamba ang mga negosyante na dahil sa mabuway na peace and order sa dating Auto­nomous Region in Muslim Minda­nao ay malamang na magsiatrasan na ang mga nagpaplanong mamuhunan at magtayo ng negosyo sa nasabing rehiyon.


Kasabay ng pangamba at pagka­bahala ng mga negosyante sa Mindanao ang pagkadismaya sa administrasyon ni Pangulong Noynoy Aquino dahil sa kawalan nito ng direksyon at matigas na desisyon laban sa Moro Islamic Liberation Front at Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters na siyang mga nasa likod ng pananambang sa mga miyembro ng SAF noong Enero 25.


Kaya nga ikinatuwa ng mga taga-Mindanao ang pagsulpot ni Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte bilang posibleng kandidato sa pagka-pangulo sa 2016 at hindi nakakapagtakang suporta­do ng mga negosyante ang kanyang kandidatura.


Matagal na naging alkalde ng Davao City si Duterte at sa ilalim ng kanyang pamamahala ay nakamit ng syudad ang kaunlaran sa ekonomiya dala na rin ng kanyang istilo ng pamumuno na “kamay na bakal”.

Hindi naman maikakaila na peace and order ang unang inatupag ni Duterte kung kaya nalinis agad ang Davao City sa mga masasamang elemento gaya ng mga drug pusher, kidnapper at mga magnanakaw na siyang naging dahilan kung bakit naideklara ang syudad ni Duterte bilang “most livable,” “ most peaceful” at “most child-friendly city”.


Wala ring anomalya sa Davao City Hall sa ilalim ng admi­nistrasyon ni Duterte at mga negosyante na mismo ang magpa­patotoo na ang mayor’s permit ay nakukuha ng mga nego­syante sa loob ng 72 oras at walang lagay o padulas na ibinibigay sa mga opisyal ng city hall.


Si Duterte rin ang nagpatupad ng total ban sa mga paputok lalo na pagsasapit ang Pasko at Bagong Taon at lahat ay sumunod dito dahil batid nilang para ito sa kaligtasan ng mga bata at mga residente ng Davao City.


Mahigpit ding ipinapatupad ng Davao City ang speed li­mit na hanggang 60kph lang at ang liquor ban partikular sa mga menor de edad. May curfew din ang mga night spots at night club sa syudad ni Duterte at ito ay hanggang alas-dos lang ng madaling-araw para maiwasan ang sobrang kalasingan na nauuwi sa mga away at basag-ulo.


Maaaring totoong hindi pa desidido si Duterte sa pag­takbo sa 2016 bilang pangulo ng bansa. Ngunit sa natatanggap niyang suporta sa kanyang paglilibot, at dahil na rin sa mga problema ng bansa na kailangan ang isang matapang at may paninindigang mamumuno, malapit-lapit nang bumigay ang alkalde ng Davao City.


Hinahanap ng marami nating kababayan ang “kamay na bakal” na ang ibig sabihin ay pagkakaroon ng matigas na posisyon ng Pangulo sa MILF at ang kagyat na pagtugis sa mga BIFF na hindi kabahagi sa usapang pangkapayapaan.


Kailangan ng bayan ngayon ang “kamay na bakal”. Kaila­ngan ng Pilipinas ang kagaya ni Mayor Duterte na may kamay na bakal sa mga kriminal at malambot na puso sa mga mahi­hirap at biktima ng mga sakuna at pang-aapi.


Hindi sapat ang “tuwid na daan” ng administrasyong Aquino na salat sa pagkakaroon ng matibay na paninindigan at pagiging mapagpasya sa panahon ng krisis gaya ng insidente sa Mamasapano.


source: Abante.com.ph

A night of fright reveals a virtue of Digong

Davao City, Philippines

The heavy downpour last June 5 gave a strong signal that rainy season is around. In fact, it did not come gently. The cloudbursts bathed Davao City with an unusually copious volume of rain that rendered many parts of the city impassable to small vehicles and inaccessible to pedestrians.

That rainy Wednesday night would just have been one of those evenings for incoming City Mayor Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte. The come-backing mayor is known to be a night owl. He prowls the city streets hoping to catch his prey of criminals among them drug pushers, snatchers, robbers, and other menace of society. He does this nightly to keep city residents safe no matter what the weather is. Never did he realize that in that evening will be part of an unforgettable episode to a distress young mother which he encountered that rainy eve.

June 5, 2013 to a mother of four is a night to remember. Annelyn Pongase Paunon earlier went shopping at Gaisano Mall for the school needs of her kids. Because she cannot not leave her toddler child, she tucked the baby with her and off they went to the mall. The weather was not as sunny then but there was no indication of a heavy downpour.

Night caught up with them at the mall not realizing that the light rain that come with dusk took a violent turn. When they decided it was time to go home they looked and waited for a taxi. But everyone else was looking for a cab which had become scarce as flood waters in most of the thoroughfares were no longer "navigable."

Annelyn started to be panicky. She had three small children in tow and a baby which she held close to provide warmth. By 11 p.m. there were no cabs in sight. The kids were jittery and Annelyn was as nervous. Tugging the children, she decided to make a dash to San Pedro Hospital hoping some patients might have taken a taxi to get to the hospital. They braved the rain and the rising water. Before they can make it across however, a black D'Max stopped right in front of them. The occupant on the front seat rolled down the tinted window. "Asa man mo?" The man on the front seat asked.

Annely replied: "Sa Skyline pa mi," she replied to the stranger.

The man in the black pick-up then told her in a much louder voice: "Sakay na kay ihatud ta mo sa Skyline."

Annelyn hesitated for a moment. She looked closer to the stranger who offered her the ride and recognizing who was the Good Samaritan she exclaimed: "Ay si Mayor diay!"

Annelyn and her children packed themselves on the back seat. She felt relieved she has a ride to take them home and safe and secured it was no less than incoming Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who will be conducting them all the way to Skyline.

The pick-up inched its way through the flooded street. But at the corner of Guerrero St. traffic was snarled and then went on a standstill. The Mayor and an aid alighted from the vehicle to man the traffic. He knew that it will take time to deal with the traffic jam, he directed his driver to take Annelyn and her kids to the doorsteps of their home at the Skyline and then to just come back for him.

Safe in the comfort of her home, Annelyn started to email friends about her unforgettable experience and encounter with Mayor Duterte. She can only imagine how the mayor was manning the traffic under the rain. She felt guilty she was not able to thank him enough. Then she remembered, she has a friend whose father is a journalist. She wanted to tell the world how caring is the Mayor of Davao City and how he dispenses his own comfort to extend help to the helpless.

This is her story in a capsule as told to my daughter Kristine.


source: Sunstar.com.ph

By: JUN LEDESMA

First GPS-enabled taxi dispatching system in the country

DAVAO CITY, Philippines
— Recently, three large taxi companies, Sturdy, R & E and Mabuhay Taxi  in Davao City, launched the first Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled taxi dispatching system in Philippines.

The integrated GPS-enabled taxi dispatching system will take job orders received from the call centre and automatically assigns a passenger’s call for service to the nearest available taxis in the area.

Taxi drivers can respond by placing their bid for the order as well as locate their prospective passengers through the GPS system. This results in faster response time from the point of order to passenger pick-up as well as better customer service.

According to SmartTaxi Dispatching Inc. Managing Director Michael Ranola, “The deployment of GPS system aimed towards a better management and efficient usage of our taxi fleets. We also want to help our taxi drivers build a stronger and more stable income.

“With the GPS dispatching system, the income of taxi drivers can increase as much as 50% as they no longer need to drive around aimlessly to look for passengers or compete with other taxi drivers for the same passenger.”

In addition to that, the response from the taxi community towards the GPS enabled taxis has been encouraging since its introduction.

To-date, there are more than 150 Sturdy and RE taxis have been fitted with the GPS system. By just paying a small monthly fee, taxi drivers can subscribe to the SmartTaxi Dispatching system and will be trained on how to use the system.

Mabuhay Taxi owner Ryan Tan said “I am encouraged to know SmartTaxi Dispatching Inc has taken steps to advance the taxi service in our country as well as improve the income of taxi drivers with the GPS system and taxi booking app,” Currently, 100 taxis are successfully operating and hundred more taxis to come.

“At Sturdy and RE, we believe good taxi service comes about when taxi drivers are able to earn a decent income and our aim is to provide a quicker turn-around for taxi booking and a more efficient income generation for our taxi drivers. ,” said Jason Enriquez, President Sturdy Taxi.


copyright: MB.com.ph

Wowowillie the new noontime show

Willie Revillame is back with noontime show programming via the Wowowillie.
This is the new noontime show of TV5 in the Philippines.
It is formerly the Wil Time Bigtime occupying the primetime slot of night time in the Philippines.


Here are some of the Photos below.
Courtesy of TV5 Philippines

Wowowillie host Willie Revilla

From Left : Ava Jugueta, Ethel Booba and Lovely Abella

From Left: Camille Villar, Grace Lee, Mariel Rodriguez, Willie Revillame,
Lovely Abella, Ethel Booba and Ava Jugueta

From left: Grace Lee, Mariel Rodriguez and Camille Villar.

Techies | Global Launching of Windows 8, and Surface Tablet

Live Blogging October 25, 2012, 10:54 AM


New York City, USA.
Microsoft will officially launch Windows 8 in New York today, with an event starting at 11:15 a.m. eastern time.

Microsoft has redesigned the Windows operating system to be tablet-friendly, after being caught flat-footed when Apple AAPL +0.36% launched the iPad and completely took over the market. It’s also launching its own tablet, the Surface, to compete with the iPad.

It’ll be trying to capture the same magic Apple has when it launches its own products. We’ll see today if that ends up being true.

Here’s a full recap of the event during the Live blogging thru  WSJ Blogs  

click here to read the full story

Mr. Sinofsky is talking about apps, and Microsoft's first ever app storefront -- now familiar from the iPhone and Android smartphones. Sinofsky doesn't talk about how many apps are in the Windows 8 storefront. Some critics are griping about lack of familiar apps for Windows 8. But Microsoft just now is starting to pitch developers on the benefits of Windows 8. The big one: Volume. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said he expects 400 million Windows 8 phones, tablets and PCs in a year.

Photos below courtesy of WSJ Blogs

The Surface

Panos Panay is demoing the Surface right now.

"You get perfect clarity and beauty because of the screen size. It's not a standard size you get off the manufacturing line. This panel was designed from the ground up in Redmond."

There are 200 custom components built into the Surface.

The Surface has tons of space thanks to an extra slot for a memory card. "It's important, my library is important because it keeps me sane."

You can have up to 128 gigabytes of storage with that card -- pretty much unheard of in tablets.

He's demoing games now, including a racing game called Hydro Thunder. too bad he crashed into the wall a few times.

"It's great graphics" -- especially the explosion when Panay's boat blows up.

"When I talk about seamless transitions the surface team focused on, this is where it comes to life."
He stopped to pose quickly for a photo with the touch cover and the Surface.




copyright: The Wall Street Journal / WSJ Blogs

Apple unveils smaller iPad Mini at $329

The new iPad mini is shown next to a full sized model at an Apple event in 

San Jose, California October 23, 2012. -Reuters Photo 

San Jose, Calif., USA.
→ Apple unveiled the smaller iPad, the iPad mini, the 7.9-inch tablet computer has made its debut on Oct. 23, 2012, Tuesday morning in San Jose, California, USA.

"This is iPad mini," Apple's senior vice president for marketing said as he displayed the device at an Apple event in San Jose. The device is as thin as a pencil and weighs .68 pounds. The price starts at $329. Its touchscreen screen measures 7.9 inches diagonally compared to 9.7 inches on the original iPad.

"This isn't just a shrunken down iPad," he said. "It is an entirely new design". "It's as light as a pad of paper," said Apple's senior vice president  for marketing chief Phil Schiller.

Here's a video of the Apple Event in San Jose, Calif. courtesy of HonestTechGuys in Youtube.

The Wi-Fi model starts at $329 for 16 GB of storage while its cellular counterpart begins at $459.
The iPad mini will be available for pre-order on Friday. The Wi-Fi version will go on sale on Nov. 2, while cellular versions of the device will arrive two weeks later.

Rumors have swirled for months that Apple was designing a competitor to Amazon.com's Kindle Fire HD and the Google Nexus 7, smaller and cheaper devices that appeal to on-the-go consumers who don't want to shell out for the pricey iPad.

Apple is looking to expand its share in a growing, highly competitive tablet market. The iPad mini stands to target price-sensitive users and the e-reader crowd.

"Given the global economic uncertainty, we think price-sensitive users could gravitate toward an iPad mini instead of making a PC purchase",  said JP Morgan's analyst Mark Moskowitz in a note to investors ahead of the media event.

Apple has sold more than 84 million iPads since its debut in April 2010.

"Bourne Legacy" a huge success at The US box office

Update, Sep. 14, 2012
Universal Pictures has confirmed it plans to release more Bourne films,
following the recent Bourne Legacy.

Bourne Legacy, partly filmed in Manila was a huge success in US box office in its opening weekend.
source: REUTERS

By Lisa Richwine and Andrea Burzynski

| Sun Aug 12, 2012 2:52pm EDT 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Action movie "The Bourne Legacy," with new star Jeremy Renner, raced to the No. 1 spot on U.S. and Canadian box office charts with an estimated $40.3 million in ticket sales over the weekend.

New adult comedy "The Campaign" debuted in second place, winning $27.4 million at domestic theaters. The two new movies knocked three-time box office champion "The Dark Knight Rises" to third place.

"Bourne Legacy" is the fourth movie in the spy franchise that previously starred Matt Damon and has grossed nearly $1 billion around the world. Damon played a CIA assassin with memory loss who tried to discover his true identity while evading the CIA's attempts to kill him.

Universal cast Renner in the new movie in an effort to reboot the series for future sequels. Renner plays agent Aaron Cross, who tries to escape his CIA pursuers with the help of genetic scientist Marta Shearing, played by Rachel Weisz.

Universal and privately held Relativity Media produced "Bourne Legacy" for about $125 million. Opening weekend sales beat Universal's projections for a $35 million debut.

Nikki Rocco, Universal Pictures' president of domestic distribution, said the film performed as expected, and that the studio was happy with its opening weekend.

"It's a validation, it's a successful rebooting of the franchise," she said, adding that it gives Universal an opportunity to continue the Bourne saga.

"The Bourne Legacy" nabbed $48.1 million worldwide over the weekend, bringing its global total to $88.4 million.

"The Campaign" also exceeded pre-weekend forecasts, which had the film debuting with around $20 million. The movie stars Will Ferrell and Zack Galifianakis as two candidates facing off against each other in a race for U.S. Congress.

Dan Fellman, president of theatrical distribution for Warner Bros., said the political comedy played especially well in Washington and Boston as the U.S. presidential campaign gets into full swing.

"We think that the real campaign will add to our 'Campaign'," he said.

"Dark Knight Rises," the final movie in a Batman trilogy starring Christian Bale, took in $19.5 million at North American (U.S. and Canadian) theaters over the weekend. The blockbuster has grossed over $390 million in the U.S. and Canada since its July 20 debut.

"Hope Springs," a new romantic comedy/drama, finished the weekend in the No. 4 spot with $15.6 million. The film stars Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones as an aging couple trying to bring a spark back to their marriage.

"Hope DOES spring," said Rory Bruer, president of distribution at Sony, who expects the film to continue to play well among older audiences.

In fifth place, family film "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days" earned $8.2 million during its second weekend in theaters.

Despite doing well overseas, science-fiction reboot "Total Recall" took in a meager $8.1 million its second weekend, taking a tumble from its tepid $26 million opening.

Comcast Corp's Universal Pictures released "Bourne Legacy." "The Dark Knight Rises" and "The Campaign" were distributed by Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc.. Sony Corp's film studio released "Hope Springs," and News Corp's 20th Century Fox studio distributed "Diary of a Wimpy Kid."

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine and Andrea Burzynski; Editing by Doina Chiacu)


source: REUTERS

The First Cab Company in the Philippines to use Cashless Payment

DAVAO CITY, Philippines
—  Starting today (Friday), Davao City will have the most advanced mode of payment for cabs in the Philippine history. The City is now at par with the rest of the world who is using the cashless payment in riding a taxi cab.

The Mabuhay Black Taxi | Photo courtesy: Davao City Mayor  Sara Duterte-Carpio 

Mabuhay Taxi, one of the biggest and oldest taxi fleet operators here in Davao City, teamed up with China Bank, BancNet and Megalink to pioneer cashless payments for taxis in the Philippines, according to Chinabank.ph

The deal, the first of its kind in the country, is a pioneering project to promote card-based transactions which is already popular in the rest of the world. China Bank Davao - Lanang Branch facilitated the deployment of state-of-the art wireless POS terminals of Mabuhay Taxi, one of its long-time valued clients, aided by the Bank’s Cash Management Services Division.

In an agreement signed by the parties last April 12, at least 20 units of Mabuhay Taxi will be installed with wireless point-of-sale (POS) terminals for the initial roll out. Over 200 units will follow.

The taxis won't even charge a minimum. "Even if it is below P100, the transaction will still be processed,” said Joselito Crisostomo, branch head of China Bank Davao-Lanang.
“I hope that more businesses will be inclined to adopt this technology as a payment channel for their goods and services,” added BancNet Executive Vice President and COO Aris Zafra.

Mabuhay Taxi is the first taxicab company in the Philippines to offer this service to its passengers.
And Davao City is the first City in the country who will experience this high tech ways of paying the taxi cab.

Meanwhile, Davao City Mayor "Inday"Sarah Duterte-Carpio also announced this on her Facebook Fanpage.

Apple Launches iTunes Store in The Philippines and 11 Additional Countries in Asia Today

DAVAO CITY, Philippines
 — The Apple itunes store launched its expansion in Asia today. 
And it  officially  launch in 12 countries in Asia, such as Hongkong, 
Singapore, Taiwan, Brunie, Laos, Macau, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia,
 Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Thailand, and The Philippines read more

Photo courtesy of Apple website

Facebook to pay $10 million to settle suit

San Francisco, United States of America

(by Reuters) 

→  Facebook Inc has agreed to pay $10 million to charity to settle a lawsuit that accused the site of violating users' rights to control the use of their own names, photographs and likenesses, according to court documents made public over the weekend.

The lawsuit, brought by five Facebook members, alleged the social networking site violated California law by publicizing users' "likes" of certain advertisers on its "Sponsored Stories" feature without paying them or giving them a way to opt out, the documents said.

A "Sponsored Story" is an advertisement that appears on a member's Facebook page and generally consists of another friend's name, profile picture and an assertion that the person "likes" the advertiser.

The settlement was reached last month but made public this weekend. Facebook declined to comment on Saturday.

The proposed class-action lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Jose, California, could have included nearly one of every three Americans, with billions of dollars in damages, according to previous court documents.

In the lawsuit, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was quoted as saying that a trusted referral was the "Holy Grail" of advertising.

In addition, the lawsuit cited comments from Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, saying that the value of a "Sponsored Story" advertisement was at least twice and up to three times the value of a standard Facebook.com ad without a friend endorsement.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said the plaintiffs had shown economic injury could occur through Facebook's use of their names, photographs and likenesses.

"California has long recognized a right to protect one's name and likeness against appropriation by others for their advantage," Koh wrote.

The settlement arrangement is known as a cy-pres settlement, meaning the settlement funds can go to charity.

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Angel Fraley et al., individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated vs. Facebook Inc., 11-cv-1726.

Facebook shares closed at $30.01 on Friday, down 21 percent since the company's initial public offering last month. - Reuters

USeP made it to the QS Top 300 Universities in Asia

Update, June 17, 2012:

This is a clarification for the press released on National news and other social media sites in the Philippines, it was not the first time for USeP  in this prestigious survey, but its their second year in a row, read more


“In the Philippines alone, there are already more than 2,000 universities and colleges. It is also noteworthy that USeP is the only state university (outside of the UP system) and the only school from Mindanao that made it to the top five (5) best schools in the country per QS ranking score”, - USeP President Perfecto A. Alibin.

Top 5 Philippine Universities of 2012 by QSIU:
1. University of the Philippines (UP) - NCR
2. Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) - NCR
3. De La Salle University (DLSU) - NCR
4. University of Sto. Thomas (UST) - NCR
5. University of Southeastern Philippines (USeP) - DAVAO CITY

Davao City, Philippines.
— The University of Southeastern Philippines (USeP), a state university in Davao City
made it to the list of QS Top 300 Universities in Asia for the second time around.

The USeP in Davao City joins the rank of University of the Philippines (UP), Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), De La Salle University (DLSU) and  University of Sto. Thomas (UST) in Manila. USeP is the only school outside NCR who made it to the list.

The University of the Philippines-Diliman ranked 68th,
followed by Ateneo de Manila University at 86th, De La Salle University at 142nd,
and the University of Santo Tomas at 148th.
The University of Southeastern Philippines in Davao City, at the 251-300 bracket.

The ranking of Philippine Universities in the QS, except the University of Southeastern Philippines, slipped.
In last year's rankings, UP was 62nd, Ateneo was 65th, UST was 104th and DLSU at 107th.
*QS said on its website that “the QS Asian Rankings identify excellence in higher education in the most dynamic and fast-growing region of the planet”.

These are the following criteria of QS for grading of Asian universities: 
1. 30 percent  of academic reputation from Global survey.
2. 30 percent of  papers per faculty and citations per paper.
3. 20 percent of  faculty student ratio
4. 10 percent  employer reputation from global survey.
5. 10 percent proportion of international faculty and students and proportion of inbound and outbound exchange students.

Top 10 Asian universities of 2012 by QSIU:
1. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
2. National University of Singapore
3. University of Hong Kong
4. Seoul National University
5. Chinese University of Hong Kong
6. Peking University
7. Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
8. University of Tokyo
9. Pohang University of Science and Technology
10. Kyoto University


*The QSIU has not released its world rankings yet for 2012.

Click here for other school in Asia who made it to the QS list : complete ranking of Asian Universities



sources:
Quacquarelli Symonds (QS)
USeP website by MCPagkaliwagan, USePPIO




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Facebook to Acquire Instagram for $ 1 Billion

April 9, 2012

MENLO PARK, CALIF.
→Facebook announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire Instagram, a fun, popular photo-sharing app for mobile devices.

The total consideration for San Francisco-based Instagram is approximately $1 billion in a combination of cash and shares of Facebook. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close later this quarter.


Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, posted about the transaction on his Timeline:

I'm excited to share the news that we've agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook.

For years, we've focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we'll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.

We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram's strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.

That's why we're committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.

We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook.

These and many other features are important parts of the Instagram experience and we understand that. We will try to learn from Instagram's experience to build similar features into our other products. At the same time, we will try to help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook's strong engineering team and infrastructure.

This is an important milestone for Facebook because it's the first time we've ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don't plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.

We're looking forward to working with the Instagram team and to all of the great new experiences we're going to be able to build together.

source: Facebook Newsroom

About Facebook
Founded in 2004, Facebook’s mission is to make the world more open and connected. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.

World’s Largest Dome-Arena to rise in Bulacan

Update: July 2014
Taken 2 weeks before the opening of the much awaited Worlds largest Arena.
Photo below courtesy of Skyline Philippines.

Philippine Arena - Bulacan, PH

Inside the Philippine Arena

MALOLOS CITY, Bulacan, Philippines
— The construction for the world’s biggest dome-arena was recently inaugurated at Ciudad de Victoria, Bocaue town.


Named the Philippine Arena, the dome is a centerpiece project of the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC), which is expected to be completed within 30 months in time for the INC’s centennial celebration in 2014.

It has a seating capacity for 50,000 to 55,000, a floor area of 74,000 square meters and its domed roof is nearly 36,000 square meters which make it the largest dome arena in the world.

The project, which is now starting its civil works, will be conducted in design-build process with an estimated construction value of US$ 212 million or a whopping P9 billion.

Staple Center 

Los Angeles, California, USA.

It is twice bigger than Staple Center in Los Angeles, California with 21,000 sitting capacity and beating O2 Arena in London with 30,000 seaters,” said Andrew James, structural design consultant from Populous.

O2 Arena 

London, UK.

Seoul Olympic Gymnastics Stadium 

Seoul, South Korea.

“The Philippine Arena is three times bigger than the Seoul Olympic Gymnastics Stadium, Korea’s largest indoor arena,” Kim Hyun-chung, CEO of Hanwha Engineering & read more 

Photo courtesy of  their Photographer.


Published in Manila Bulletin News online on September 21, 2011.


Click here to read more about World's Largest Dome-Arena to rise in Bulacan.

Below are some of the Video Clips:

Video courtesy of Youtube uploaded by cayananchris.

Video courtesy of  Youtube uploaded by peludine4ever14.