Local News: 19 Year old Teen Wonder, breaks UP academic record

John Gabriel Pelias, 19 years old is already holding a degree in Mathematics, nothing unusual there but wait til you read this...He graduated SUMMA CUM LAUDE at the University of the Philippines. Plus, he got a general weighted average (GWA) of 1.016 which is the highest ever GWA garnered in UP history after World War II or make that around 63 years.
Such a remarkable feat from this 19 year old teenager. He is the epitome of what the University of the Philippines is all about.

Pelias, never considered poverty as a hindrance to reaching his goal and fulfilling his dream to study in one of the premier university in the country and with hardwork, his good study habits and some help from scholarships, he not only fulfilled his dream but eventually set up an academic record which to me would take another half a century to be broken or possibly even more.

In one of his interviews, Pelias mentioned that his immediate plans after graduation would be to teach and serve the University that gave him the opportunity to learn and achieve his dreams. Teaching is his passion according to Pelias and it is where he finds fulfillment, also he added that it is his own way of giving back.

A very humble and noble intention considering that with what He achieved, He can opt to go out of the country and work there, but this teen wonder, doesn't have to go far to do that, he already found a place where he can contribute his knowledge, that is his alma mater, his home.

Local News: Uniliver Suspends TV ads on 'all game shows'

Recent development spurring from the 'child abuse' controversy that TV5's Willing Willie received, UNILEVER Philippines, Inc. a multinational corporation and one of the country's leading producer and maker of household products such as soaps, detergents, shampoo etc. is suspending all of their advertisements placed on "all reality-based live game shows across all (television) networks." Unilever mentioned in a press release that "the suspension will be in place until they have observed a stricter and objective self-regulatory guidelines across networks and proper enforcement by the relevant government agencies of existing content regulations"

This is a nice move from one of the companies that can be considered a lifeblood of major TV networks in terms of advertising. Also with the move to suspend their ads, Unilever would also like to see the Movie Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) strenghten their regulations about contents across all live programs, and making sure that TV networks are clear about the potential sanctions for erring programs. I am sure there will be changes in the policies and guidelines of TV networks now that the Willing Willie issue has blown out of proportion. And besides who wouldn't want Unilever pour in millions of pesos in advertising in their stations? Now its just a matter of who implements the changes first (though TV5 have already mentioned that they have already created a regulatory body to oversee this type of issues see my related article about this. http://ch1nelas.blogspot.com/2011/04/entertainment-tv5-feeling-heat-of.html )

Who would have thought that a controversy involving one TV network would redefine the landscape of live programs on network TV? Talking about Unilever flexing their muscles. Good job ei! :)

Local News: Too much drama with the Drug Mule issue

There is too much drama going on with what the Aquino administration has done with the execution of the so called drug mules in china. I have nothing against the family of those who were caught and executed but isn't it that the government is doing too much and focusing on the wrong area? Weird. I seem to not get the attention that they have been giving where in fact there are at least a hundred or even thousand more "documented" and legitimate OFWs working abroad who are being maltreated and that needs more help and are detained due to other reasons not connected to drug trafficking. Heck, the government have even offered scholarships to the family members. I am fearing that our government is sending the wrong signal to the people.
I was just wondering why not our government delve into the real root cause of the problem and nip it from there? One reason I can see is the security measures that our international airport enforces, if a tighter and more efficient security measures are in place then they would not be going gaga over saving someone from a crime which could have been prevented in the first place. There is more than meets the eye here.