Anything Pinoy

On July 1, 1978, Filipino singer Hajji Alejandro won the Best Singer Award in the Seoul International Song Festival for singing Ryan Cayabyab’s composition “Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika.”

Alejandro sang Cayabyab’s winning entry in the 1978 Metropop and then went on to win the Grand Prix of that year’s Seoul World Music Festival. It was the first time that the Philippines won a top international award in a songfest.

The song “Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika” is a constant reminder that Filipino music is wonderful and the Filipino people should take pride that their country is gifted with great composers, arrangers, singers and musicians.

On this same day in 2005, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo launched the “Natural Gas Vehicle Program for Public Transport” (NGVPPT) implementing the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) as an alternative fuel to diesel.

The government, through the Department of Energy (DOE), initiated the NGVPPTT with the discovery of the Malampaya natural gas that spurred the development of the natural gas industry in the Philippines.

Also on July 1, 1889, Olivia Salamanca, one of the two pioneer women physicians in the Philippines, was born in San Roque, Cavite.

She was chosen secretary of the Philippine Anti-Tuberculosis Society. She became a victim of tuberculosis and eventually died on July 13, 1913 at the young age of 24.

President-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III recently announced the new Philippine Cabinet Secretaries. The list below is the official Philippines cabinet members :

Executive Secretary – Paquito “Jojo” Ochoa Jr.
Department of Foreign Affairs – Alberto Romulo
Department of Agriculture – Proceso Alcala
Department of Budget and Management – Florencio “Butch” Abad
Department of Education – Rev. Armin Luistro
Department of Energy – Jose Rene D. Almendras
Department of Environment and Natural Resources – Ramon Paje
Department of Finance – Cesar Purisima
Department of Health – Dr. Enrique Ona
Department of Interior and Local Government – (Not Disclosed Yet)
Department of Justice – Leila de Lima
Department of Labor and Employment – Rosalinda Baldoz
Department of Agrarian Reform – Virgilio de los Reyes
Department of National Defense – Voltaire Gazmin
National Economic and Development Authority Director General – Cayetano Paderanga Jr.
Department of Public Works and Highways – Rogelio Singson
Department of Science and Technology – Mario Montejo
Department of Social Welfare and Development – Corazon “Dinky” Soliman
Department of Tourism – Alberto Lim
Department of Trade and Industry – Gregory Domingo
Department of Transportation and Communication – Jose “Ping” de Jesus
Commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue – Kim Jacinto-Henares
Chairman of Commission on Higher Education – Patricia Liguanan
Presidential Legal Counsel – Eduardo de Mesa
Presidential Spokesman – Edwin Lacierda
Presidential Management Staff Chief – Julia Abad
Presidential Adviser on Peace Process – Teresita Deles

On this day, June 30, 2010, Senator Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Cojuangco Aquino III is inaugurated as the 15th President of the Philippines at the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park, Manila. He was elected in the country’s first automated polls on May 10, 2010.

As mandated by the 1987 Constitution, the new president is be to inaugurated at noon of June 30, although in the past, there were different dates for the inauguration of the incoming president.

Among the former presidents who also took their oaths of office on this day were Presidents Fidel V. Ramos, Joseph Ejercito Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

General Emilio Aguinaldo, who was the first President of the Philippines, was inaugurated officially on January 23, 1899.

The presidents who were inaugurated at noon of December 30 under the 1935 Constitution were Manuel L. Quezon (first inaugurated as Philippine Commonwealth on November 15, 1935, and inaugurated for a second term on December 30, 1941), Elpidio Quirino (1949), Ramon Magsaysay (1953), Carlos P. Garcia (1957), Diosdado Macapagal (1961) and Ferdinand E. Marcos (1965, 1969). Only two presidents under the 1935 Constitution were not inaugurated on December 30, namely Sergio Osmeña and Manuel Roxas.

To date, former Presidents Estrada and Arroyo were the only ones who took their oaths of office and inaugural addresses in two different places. Estrada delivered his inaugural address at Barasoain Church in Malolos, Bulacan, and Mrs. Arroyo did the same in Cebu City.

Traditionally, the Quirino Grandstand is where most inaugurations of the incoming presidents happen, as in the case of Quirino, Magsaysay, Garcia, Macapagal, Marcos, Ramos and Aquino. Read the rest of this entry »

On June 29, 1626, Juan Niño de Tabora, the Spanish general and colonial official, served as governor general of the Philippines until his death on July 22, 1632.

Notably, De Tabora brought the wooden statue of the Virgin Mary known as Nuestra Señora de la Paz y Buen Viaje (Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage), now placed in Antipolo Church.

Nominated governor and captain general of the Philippines and president of the Royal Audiencia of Manila (a royal court of justice created in the Philippines to protect against the abuse of the officials), De Tabora left New Spain for the Philippines on March 25, 1626 aboard the galleon El Almirante, bringing with him a wooden statue, carved in New Spain, of the Virgin Mary.

During a three-month voyage beset by storms and one shipboard fire, this statue was thought to have protected the ship.

The statue also became the patron of the Manila-Acapulco galleons.

Besides the image of the Virgin of Antipolo, the governor general also brought funds and military personnel for an economically hard-pressed government.

Also on this same day in 1850, Antonio de Urbiztondo who established the Spanish-Filipino bank and leper hospital in Cebu, became governor-general of the Philippines.

Accordingly, Urbiztondo spearheaded the organization of the first bank in the Philippines, established in Manila on August 1,1851 originally called El Banco Espanol Filipino de Isabel 2, which was known first bank in Southeast Asia.

On June 28, 2008, then 29-year-old Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao made world history by becoming the first Filipino, and first Asian, to hold four concurrent world boxing championship belts in four different boxing weight divisions, by defeating Mexican David Diaz at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

Born on December 17, 1978 in Kibawe, Bukidnon, Pacquiao started his professional boxing career when he was just 16 years of age and weighed 106 pounds (1 pound above the minimum lightweight division).

His early light-flyweight division fights took place in small local venues and were shown on Vintage Sports’ Blow-by-Blow, an evening boxing show. His professional debut was a four-round bout against Edmund “Enting” Ignacio on January 22, 1995, which Pacquiao won via decision, becoming an instant star of the program.

His big break came on June 23, 2001 when he grabbed the IBF Super Bantamweight title from African boxer Benedict Ledwaba. Read the rest of this entry »

On June 27, 1974, Filipino Chess Master Eugene Torre became Asia’s first grandmaster by drawing with American Grandmaster Robert Byrne at the Nice World Chess Olympics.

Born on November 4, 1951 in Iloilo City, Torre had been considered the best chess player the Philippines produced during the period spanning the 1980s through 1990s.

The former Business Administration undergraduate from Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT) also has the distinction of being the first Asian player to earn the much-coveted title of International Grandmaster.

Also on this same day in 1863, Ladislao Diwa, one of the founders of the Katipunan, was born in San Roque, Cavite.

The Katipunan was a secret society initiated by Andres Bonifacio, Teodoro Plata, Diwa and other Filipino patriots on July 7, 1892, which primarily aimed to gain independence from Spain through revolution.

Diwa died on March 12, 1930 at the age of 66.

In 1895, Zoilo M. Galang, novelist in English and encyclopedist, was born in Bacolor, Pampanga.

Galang’s 10-volume Encyclopedia of the Philippines was published in 1936. He died in 1959.

On June 26, 1875, a royal decree was issued by the king of Spain authorizing the preparation of a general plan for a railroad in Luzon.

Don Eduardo Lopez Navarro, then head of the Public Works Office of the Philippine Islands, submitted a plan which got royal approval on May 11, 1883. The concession for the Manila-Dagupan Line was awarded to Edmundo Sykies on January 21, 1887, and later transferred to the Manila Railroad Company Ltd. of London.

The cornerstone of the main station building at Tutuban in Manila was laid on July 31, 1887. The entire Manila-Dagupan line, with a total length of 195 kilometers, was completed and inaugurated on November 24, 1892.

Also on this same day in 1908, Pablo T. Tapia, banker and pioneer in cooperative movement, was born in Tanauan, Batangas.

Tapia founded the Philippine Banking Corporation and received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1964.

June 2010 Top 10 Pharmacy Board Passers

Heres the list of the Top 10 successful examinees in the recent PRC Pharmacy Board Exam

1 JOYCE ANNE FALCIS VERZOSA, CENTRO ESCOLAR UNIVERSITY-MALOLOS – 90.75
2 SHERNALYN ADDALINO MUKARAM, OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY-VALENZUELA – 90.73
3 HANIYA RADIAMODA DIMAOCOR, CENTRO ESCOLAR UNIVERSITY-MANILA – 90.50
4 SANNIE TAN GO HO, UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS – 90.28
5 MARY ELIZABETH BANAG REYES, UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-MANILA – 90.05
6 DENLO JAY AGARPAO ASUNCION, CENTRO ESCOLAR UNIVERSITY-MANILA – 89.72
7 CEDRIX LUNA CUADERNO, UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-MANILA – 89.58
7 THESSA MIA GIANAN RIVERA, UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS – 89.58
8 DAVID CREONY HERNANDEZ JAVIER, UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS – 89.48
9 BIANCA LIM DE LA CRUZ, CENTRO ESCOLAR UNIVERSITY-MANILA – 89.42
10 JENNILYN BELLO ARENAS, UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-MANILA – 89.38

Pharmacy Licensure Examination June 2010 Results – Diego Souza Blog

Congratulations to our new June 2010 Filipino Pharmacists. The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) recently announced that 869 out of 1261 or 68.91% passed the Pharmacy Board Exam given in the cities of Manila, Baguio and Cebu this June 2010.

The members of the Board of Pharmacy who facilitated and gave the licensure examination are Mr. Reynaldo Maxlito H. Umali, Chairman; Ms. Jennifer M. Flores and Ms. Marilyn M. Young-Tiu, Members.

The oathtaking ceremony of the successful examinees will be on Wednesday, July 28, 2010, at 1:30 in the afternoon at the Fiesta Pavilion, Manila Hotel, One Rizal Park, Roxas Boulevard, Manila.

June 2010 Pharmacy Board Exam Results Read the rest of this entry »

The Old Bilibid Prison, the first national penitentiary in the country, was established in Manila on June 25, 1865 under a Spanish royal decree. It was divided into two sections — the “carcel” section housing 600 inmates, and the “presidio” accommodating 527 prisoners.

About seven decades later, due to increasing population and crime rate, Commonwealth Act No. 67 was enacted and the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) was constructed in Muntinlupa, Rizal in 1936 with a budget of P1 million and initial land area of 551 hectares.

The old prison’s equipment and facilities were transferred to the NBP in 1940.

The remnants of the old facility was used by the City of Manila as its detention center, known as the Manila City Jail.

On this same day a year earlier, Galicano Apacible (1864-1949), doctor of medicine, newspaperman, founder of La Solidaridad and ambsassador to the United States of the revolutionary government of General Emilio Aguinaldo, was born in Balayan, Batangas. He died on March 22, 1949. Read the rest of this entry »