GCash announces more cash in options to serve Filipinos during the pandemic

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Cashing in to the GCash wallets can be done easily online and for free in the GCash app.

The importance of digital transactions during this time of the pandemic has been very crucial for every Filipino, be it for remittance, bills payment, online deliveries, groceries, medicine, food, allowance, and the like. GCash, the leading mobile wallet in the country today, remains true to its mission of providing financial access for all, especially during this health crisis. It aims to provide services to Filipinos every day, leveraged on its extensive digital ecosystem present across the country. 

To enable these various transactions, GCash has established key partnerships across the country and the globe for users to Cash In to their GCash wallets. 

Cashing in can be done easily online and for free in the GCash app via a linked BPI or UnionBank account. For clients of other banks, users have the option to cash in conveniently from their bank apps via the InstaPay and PESONet fund transfer networks.

GCash continues to expand its over-the-counter network as well for its unbanked users. From the 17,000 Cash In doors in 2019, GCash has expanded to what is presently over 40,000 doors. Major partners include the likes of Alfamart, Ministop, Puremart, Puregold, Robinsons Department Store, SM Store, Waltermart, and Southstar Drug among others.

Freelancers and entrepreneurs can easily access their funds from their Payoneer and PayPal accounts by linking them right in the GCash app. Likewise, Filipinos can now also receive their International Remittances directly in the GCash app, without having to step outside their homes, with GCash’s growing list of global remittance partners including Western Union, MoneyGram, AlipayHK, Skrill, SBI Remit, Wall Street Exchange, and more. 

The mobile wallet and its importance have been highlighted during the series of lockdowns the country has experienced. From basic financial services such as GCash to GCash and inter-bank transfers, bills payments, receiving of remittances; and opening of savings accounts to more sophisticated services such as investments, insurance, and credit, GCash has enabled these services in order to help Filipinos, both banked and unbanked, cope with these trying times. One can even use the app to shop online, pay for store purchases via QR, and buy products from partners in GLife among others!

With this increased demand, GCash in continues to gain traction as it now services over 38 million Filipinos from 20 million in 2019. As the business grows, the GCash team is committed to expand and ensure that the services they bring are top-notch and are accessible to as many Filipinos as possible by forging partnerships with like-minded organizations, businesses, and the government.

“GCash will remain true to its purpose to serve the financially underserved and expand financial services access to all Filipinos from different walks of life. We feel empowered by the overwhelming reception of the market and Filipinos to our platform. We will continue to service all Filipinos through our platform even beyond this pandemic,” said Martha Sazon, President and CEO of GCash.

To enjoy the experience, download the GCash App for free today on App Store, Google Play Store, and the Huawei App Gallery. For partnerships, media inquiries and other synergies, please contact the Corporate Communications Department at chito.maniago@mynt.xyz.

 

 

I Am Hope Org Founder Rina Navarro with Bea Alonzo and Vina Morales first to respond to PGH Fire

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Fire hit the government medical facility of the Philippine General Hospital past midnight today that lasted for 5 hours, prompting the transfer of some patients to several facilities.

Most affected major parts of the Hospital especially the pedia care for the newly born babies.

PGH posted the pictures of babies that were transferred temporarily to the PGH Chapel to keep them safe and away from the fire. 

Rina Navarro, founder of I am Hope Org saw this, and quickly, with her co-founder Bea Alonzo, and friend Vina Morales donated diapers, milk, snacks, mineral water, fruit juices and electric fans directly to the PGH Pedia resident Dr. TJ Ablaza. 

Bea Alonzo, Rina Navarro and Vina Morales

Rina, also the founder of Unfiltered Skin Essentials, posted call to help on her timeline and friends who wants to be anonymous will be donating another batch this coming Wednesday some 20 electric fans, 100 blankets, 50 boxes of diapers and 50 boxes of mineral water. 

Thank you to the kind hearted empowered women who are the first responders of the PGH fire. We hope there will be more courageous men and women who can share and lend a hand to the affected innocent newly born young babies at the PGH Pedia Care.

Huawei partners with DOT to showcase the beauty of Philippines worldwide

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HUAWEI has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Tourism (DOT) today to promote the Philippines' tourist destinations, arts and culture to its more than 600 million users around the world.

Attendees present at the signing ceremony were Department of Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat, DOT Assistant Secretary Howie Uyking, Huawei Philippines Vice President Daniel Guo, and Huawei Hong Kong Service COO, Mr. Wang Zhihui.

The partnership aims to showcase the Philippines' world-class tourist spots, Filipino products and tourism-related events to HUAWEI Themes users in over 170 countries and regions. Under the MoU, HUAWEI Themes users can explore the Philippines curation series now under the “Pinoy Favorites” category on the app homepage.

The DOT will be the photo contributor under this partnership to provide source images related to the Philippines’ arts and culture. Among others, the popular tourist destinations in the Philippines such as beaches, islands, heritage towns, and deep seas will be featured in the app. Moving forward, DOT will also offer domestic tourism vouchers for hotels, attractions and tours to HUAWEI Themes users.

In her speech, DOT Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat expressed her gratitude to Huawei for supporting the DOT's efforts in handling the pandemic's effect on the tourism industry by lending its wide reach of smartphone users.

"Our strategy for the safe and gradual reopening of tourism in the Philippines will be greatly supported by this digital content partnership as it will offer Huawei users anywhere in the world with glimpses of our country's beautiful destinations and allow them to customize their mobile devices with images of our tourism offerings," Romulo-Puyat said.

The Tourism Secretary hopes that through this project, Huawei smartphone users will be inspired to visit the Philippines once the government resumes international travel.

Meanwhile, Huawei Philippines Vice President Daniel Guo emphasized that Huawei's collaboration with the DOT is in line with the "glocalization" approach of Huawei Philippines and Huawei Mobile Services (HMS). "Huawei has established an extensive cooperation with the government, local businesses and communities, to continuously bring innovative digital services to consumers and create greater social values," he said.

"Through the collaboration, we will curate a series of Philippines-centric wallpapers and smartphone themes, including the scenery landscapes and tourist attractions of the Philippines, as well as creative themes created by local artists, photographers, cartoonists and animators," Daniel Guo added.

The MoU will not only help promote beautiful places in the Philippines but will also open a door of opportunity for talented Filipinos. Mobile themes created by passionate marine environment artist AG Saño and digital artists Mariel Garcia, Nelvin Supilanas, Rehts Merejilla and Mark Magnaye are now available in HUAWEI Themes.

HUAWEI Themes is one of the first self-developed apps by HMS, In 2020, it achieved over 1.8 billion total themes download. By end of 2020, 96% of the PH local top apps, including Gcash, Paymaya, BDO Digital Banking, UnionBank Online, and SSS Mobile, have integrated with HMS Core and onboarded to AppGallery.

Through the open HMS Ecosystem, Huawei shares a number of innovative capabilities with its partners from various sectors, including tourism, which enable high-quality, convenient and safe applications to reach every Huawei device user in a more direct way. Through this, Huawei is able to lower the connectivity cost and expand service coverage, bringing modern digital services to a wider user base. By providing localized service applications in more countries and regions, Huawei makes All-Scenario services more accessible to users, jointly improving service efficiency and digitization level of services.

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About Huawei

Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. With integrated solutions across four key domains – telecom networks, IT, smart devices, and cloud services – we are committed to bringing digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world.

Huawei's end-to-end portfolio of products, solutions and services are both competitive and secure. Through open collaboration with ecosystem partners, we create lasting value for our customers, working to empower people, enrich home life, and inspire innovation in organizations of all shapes and sizes.

At Huawei, innovation focuses on customer needs. We invest heavily in basic research, concentrating on technological breakthroughs that drive the world forward. We have more than 190,000 employees, and we operate in more than 170 countries and regions. Founded in 1987, Huawei is a private company fully owned by its employees.

For more information, please visit Huawei online at www.huawei.com or follow us on:

http://www.facebook.com/HuaweiPhilippines

https://e.huawei.com/en/publications/global/ict_insights/201907041409/talent-ecosystem/huawei-ict-academy

Fashion and function: Things to love about the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip

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Samsung #withGalaxy in collaboration with @condenast

Samsung changed the smartphone landscape with its portfolio of foldable smartphones. Galaxy Z Flip, for example, did not just define a new form factor. Lauded as a luxury smartphone that functions as both a mobile device and fashion accessory, Galaxy Z Flip’s stylish body designed for trendsetters used to the finer things in life is a fresh take among sleek and futuristic powerhouses.

Samsung #withGalaxy in collaboration with @condenast

The Galaxy Z Flip’s Mirror Black and Mirror Purple exterior can be compared to a gem, shifting colors as it catches the light when in motion. It’s the final touch to any outfit worthy of best-dressed lists. When not in use, it is compact enough to be stored in the pocket or a fashionable clutch.

When folded, a minimalist cover screen alerts its user when a call, text, or notification comes in. App Continuity lets users tap the notification and seamlessly transitions to the app when the cover screen is tapped and the smartphone is unfolded. Samsung’s Hideaway Hinge gives a graceful folding motion, inspired by the elegance of lotus blossoms. 

The small body reveals a full-screen 6.7” Infinity Flex Display with minimized bezels and no notch. The barely-there borders offer less distractions, making the smartphone experience more immersive, especially with the Dynamic AMOLED screen. This delivers incredible color quality and reduced blue light to make photos and videos look as vibrant as the Galaxy Z Flip’s jewel-like exterior.

Its design innovations don’t stop there. The device is the first-ever Galaxy smartphone to come with Samsung’s Ultra Thin Glass. The durable folding glass screen makes the Galaxy Z Flip smooth when laid flat.

Samsung’s Hideaway Hinge unlocks Flex Mode, which adjusts the fold so the smartphone can stand on its own like a laptop. Its flexibility offers adjustable angles for Google Duo video calls, now part of the new normal. Multi-hyphenates juggling their 9-5 job with their passion projects can use App Pair to combine programs and launch them simultaneously when needed. Multi-Active Window can run both apps at the same time by splitting the screen.

The split-screen can turn the top half into a viewing area and the bottom as a control center. This makes the Galaxy Z Flip a productivity tool, but this feature can also be used for fun. Pair it with the 10MP Front Camera for hands-free selfies. Simply prop up the Galaxy Z Flip at the desired angle and strike a power pose.

The Galaxy Z Flip is the embodiment of form and function. From the outside, it looks like an ornament meant to be displayed. When used, it unleashes Samsung’s revolutionary innovations in the foldable category.

The Galaxy Z Flip is at Php 50,990 SRP in Mirror Purple or Mirror Black variants. 

Avail of the Trade-In, Trade-Up promo where customers can trade in one or more smartphones for the Galaxy Z Flip and get additional tokens worth Php 6,000 on top of the traded-in device. For flexible payment terms, pay as low as Php 2,124.58/month at 0% interest for 24 months in participating Authorized Samsung Stores. 

Customers can get the first installment month for FREE when they pay at 0% interest for 24 months using a PNB credit card in select Samsung Experience Stores.

For more information about Samsung’s foldable devices and available offers, visit samsung.com/ph.

Safe Samsung Shopping

Health and safety protocols are strictly followed in Samsung Experience Stores to keep consumers and employees safe. Adhering to the guidelines set by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Samsung has limited the number of its customers to 50% capacity, implemented the mandatory use of face masks and face shields, and performs frequent sanitation in all stores. 

Samsung Experience Stores also has unique QR health declaration codes to promote a safe and contactless contact tracing process. Product demonstrations are done side-by-side instead of face-to-face while keeping the required safe distance of one (1) meter to make sure everyone is socially distanced.  

To find the nearest Samsung Experience Store, visit samsung.com/ph/samsung-experience-store/locations.

Young Cebuana hailed Grand Superstar in ‘Born to be a Star’

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Eighteen-year-old Cebuano talent Jehramae Trangia of Talisay City in Cebu was the grand winner in the second season of Born to be a Star, the reality singing competition of Cignal Entertainment, Sari-Sari Network and TV5 under the production of Viva that concluded last May 8.

 Jehramae Trangia, Grand Superstar of ‘Born to be a Star’

Jehramae bested two other hopefuls to bag P1 million and a five-year recording contract from Viva management. Fifteen-year-old Hans Paranda of Antipolo City ended up as first runner-up who took home P50,000 and 18-year-old Jannah Faye Bocatiya of Manila was second runner-up with P25,000.

Jehramae rendered the ballad, “Sana,” of I Belong To the Zoo as her winning piece.

“The three of us had different genre in our performances,” Jehramae offered. “I would always convey the message of my song to the Star Agents. I gave my best throughout the competition.”

Andrew E, Sam Concepcion, Katrina Velarde, Janine Teñoso and Georcelle Dapat-Sy served as the Star Agents of “Born To Be A Star.” The singing competition was hosted by Matteo Guidicelli and Kim Molina.

“Ang daming competition na dumaan sa buhay ko,” Jehramae shared. “Madami din akong natutunan sa pagkatalo ko, but I managed to improve and rise above my losses.”

Even when she was still in Cebu, Jehramae would persistently join singing contests from the time she was only 12 years old. At 14, she went to Manila to compete in major league singing contests on TV, making her a true-blue kontesera. By the time she was proclaimed grand winner in Born to be a Star, one can truly say that the time was ripe for Jehramae to finally bask in the limelight.

Jehramae is grateful that Born to be a Star provided her with a venue to showcase her singing talents to a wider audience, a unique experience that could very well pave the way for a professional singing career. By staying focused on her goals all throughout the competition, Jehramae was able to consistently shine the brightest, a fact that did not escape the discerning eyes of the Star Agents.

She told herself, “Ito ‘yung dream mo, Jehramae. Ito ‘yung passion mo. So just keep on going. You won’t reach your dreams if you just wish for it. You have to work hard for your dreams.”