Traffic Plan Dry Run For LRT-2 Project Set on August 29

Wazzup Pilipinas!

At a press conference earlier today, August 28, 2015, at the LRT-2 Depot located at Santolan, Quezon City, a panelist composed of spokespersons from the LTO, LRTA and DOTC announce the traffic management plan for LRT-2 Masinag East Extension. There will be a dry run to initiate on August 29, 2015.

We also made a quick tour of the actual site were the extending viaduct along Marcos Highway will be constructed. There will also be two (2) additional stations to be constructed — one to be situated in front of the Robinsons Metro East and Sta. Lucia East Grand Malls, and a second one at the Masinag Junction in Antipolo City.

Since the dry run is already scheduled tomorrow, we will post the press conference video coverage and video invites on a later date, and just proceed in sharing to you their official press release sent to us earlier this morning. We were out all day until late at night covering other event so we could only share this right now. Watch out for the videos soon at http://www.YouTube.com/wazzuppilipinas and the photos at http://www.Facebook.com/wazzuppilipinas

State Universities and Colleges' Budget at All-Time High

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Acknowledging the vital role of education in nation-building and economic development, the education budget has grown tremendously under the Aquino Administration. The budget of State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) actually doubled from PhP23.8B in 2010 to an all-time high of PhP46B in 2016. Comparing the 2016 against the 2015 budget, there is an increase of PhP1.6B or 3.6%.

In the 2016 budget hearing at the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson Dr. Patricia B. Licuanan defended the agency’s and the SUCs’ budgets. Reports on that hearing have been inaccurate. In response to reports that more than 50 SUCs received budget cuts for next year, it must be pointed out that in truth, only 10 SUCs will sustain net decreases in funding with Philippine Normal University (PNU) getting the largest reduction of 19%, University of the Philippines System (UP System) 16%, and the rest single-digit decreases ranging from 0.59 to 7%.

In the case of PNU whose 2016 budget of PhP558M is lower by PhP132M from its 2015 budget of PhP690M, the decrease is due to a one-time congressional insertion in 2015 of PhP100M and its low utilization rate.

On the other hand, the 2.2B decrease in the 2016 budget of the UP System, from its 2015 budget of PhP13.7B is due to a one-time allotment provided for medical equipment of the UP-Philippine General Hospital amounting to PhP3.1B. Without this one-time allocation in 2015, UP’s 2016 budget actually increased by almost PhP1B.

GOAB Organizer Says Launch of Startup Roadmap is Just the Beginning

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The Philippine Startup Roadmap, launched at the just concluded third Geeks on a Beach (GOAB) in Boracay, looks forward to spawning some 500 startups with an estimated cumulative valuation of $2 billion by 2020.

Deputy Executive Director Mon Ibrahim of the Department of Science ande Technology-Information Communication Technology Office (DOST-ICTO) led the launch of the roadmap which he described as a list of what the Philippine startup community needs to do.

The roadmap declares that its “main goal is to produce the next billion dollar tech startup from the Philippines.”

​“The launch of the roadmap is just the beginning,” said Tina Amper of TechTalks.ph, the community that organized the annual Geeks on a Beach conference.

“The next steps of implementing, funding and constant collaborating are critical to positive impact to the Philippine economy,” she said adding that GOAB 2015 generated inquiries to take GOAB to other parts of the country.

“We are open to partnering with like-minded companies who can bring this happiness business to other parts of the world,” Amper said.

According to Amper, “Year 3 produced lots of positive feedback from participants about connections made, lessons learned, dreams re-discovered, and passions stirred.”