Wednesday, April 29, 2015

12 Life Lessons From Filipino Billionaires


  1. Market leaders were once market followers - Every start-up business started as a market follower to other more established companies. The same for Sy. He is the perfect example of how an entrepreneur can grow a small business into an empire. Though he started selling shoes with a small shop in Quiapo, he was able to grow his assets and eventually opened his first mall.
  2. You can fight the odds - Do you remember the 2008-2010 period when the economy was at its worst? Even when the numbers are stacked against you, you could and should still find ways on how to succeed. For Sy, it was a matter of being creative with his investments which led him to earn US$5 billion in 2010 alone.
  3. Diversify your investment - The career of Sy from the 1950s to the present is a story of diversification. What are the different investments made by SM? He was able to become the proponent of malls in the Philippines, plus he transitioned well into the banking and real estate industries. This goes to show how important it is to step out of your comfort zone to achieve greater success.
  4. Your name or family background does not define you - The Gokongwei’s story is not your average rags-from-riches story. He lost everything and had to start from scratch, which was more difficult than not having anything to start with. If you know how to play your cards right, it is possible to increase your assets without relying on your family’s wealth.
  5. Do not be afraid to get that loan - If you really know how to use your capital, it is possible to reach market leadership in your chosen market. A lot of people forget the fact that they need a capital in order to start something big. The bank is willing to help entrepreneurs who have an idea on how to grow that money.
  6. Know what the market needs - During the Second World War, one of the toughest times to survive, Gokongwei managed to start his own company. It was not easy to import goods from anywhere but he managed to do it. His determination to overcome obstacles is one lesson than everyone should try to emulate.
  7. Be practical - During his younger days, he saved up his money by not taking the public transport. This is a lesson that is still applicable today. Why waste your money in buying a car (that will surely depreciate in value) when you have other cheaper options?
  8. Have a dream - Born in Hong Kong, his family started as a struggling small time entrepreneur in Quiapo, Manila. This situation never became a hindrance to him after so many years. He dreamed big and he worked hard to realize it.
  9. Slow and steady win the race - Before Emperador became the number one selling Brandy in the Philippines, he kept a low profile from other well-established brands, such as Ginebra San Miguel and Lucio Tan’s Tanduay. Both brands were built in the 19th century, and going head-to-head with them would mean cut-throat competition for Emperador before it was ready. Patience is definitely Tan’s virtue.
  10. Dare to be different - In terms of marketing, Tan centered the advertising of Emperador by affiliating success to his brand. This is far from the type of imagery that placed Ginebra San Miguel and Tanduay on the map of the liquor market.
  11. Improve on what you do best - It is common for businessmen to diversify their investments. However, Consunji concentrated on what he knew best then, which was constructed and that had built a foundation of his wealth. New entrepreneurs may want to reduce the risks of failure by starting with their expertise first.
  12. Government projects can provide you great opportunities - Entrepreneurs, no matter the size of the business, are exposed to vast opportunities with government projects. Not only does it help with nation building, it is also a good way to grow your business.

The last one for me is the one I mostly agreed of because as a public servant now, I have seen and heard stories of contractors getting successful from being a contractor of small projects.

References:

http://www.imoney.ph/articles/14-lessons-can-learn-ultra-rich-pinoys/

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Filipinos Executed Before 2015


  1. Flor R. Contemplacion (January 7, 1953 – March 17, 1995) was a Filipino domestic worker executed in Singapore for murder. Her execution severely strained relations between Singapore and the Philippines, and caused many Filipinos to vent frustrations at the plight of Overseas Filipino Workers towards both states' governments.
  2. José Ozámiz y Fortich (May 5, 1898 - 1944) was a Filipino politician from Mindanao. His parents were Jenaro Ozámiz from Navarre, Spain and Basilisa Fortich, a Filipino mestizo of Spanish and Cebuano ancestry. He served as Misamis Occidental's first provincial governor then he also served as representative of the Lone District of Misamis Occidental. He was a delegate to the 1935 Constitutional Convention that resulted in the creation of the 1935 Constitution for the Philippine Commonwealth Government. In 1941, he was elected to the Philippine Senate. When the Japanese occupied the country during World War II, Jose was among those who accepted a post in the Japanese government with the blessings of the guerrilla movement who saw that his position would allow him to move discreetly. He became chairperson of the Games and Amusement Board. Then in May 1943 he came to Mindanao to contact Fertig. He came by boat accompanied by Jose Maria and Pelong Campos of Aloran. During his arrival in Mindanao, he met Fertig and Parson, both major leaders of the guerrilla movement. On his way home, his family was under house arrest. Jose went back to Manila in February 1944. He was arrested on February 11 on his wife's birthday. Jose was condemned to be executed. A Filipino nicknamed "makapili" played a part in his downfall along with twenty-nine other fellow Filipino who also got arrested at the same time. They were the core of the guerilla movement in Manila. He was beheaded by the Japanese during their occupation of the Philippines during World War II for his involvement in the Resistance Movement.
  3. Rafael "Liling" R. Roces, Jr. (October 12, 1912 – August 28, 1944) was a Filipino journalist, writer, patriot, World War II spy, hero, and martyr. He is the son of Rafael Filomeno Roces, Sr. (the publishing house owner and proprietor of the Ideal Theater on Avenida Rizal in Manila, Philippines) and Inocencia "Enchay" Reyes. A Manileño, Liling Roces studied at the Ateneo de Manila University. Liling Roces married Leonor “Noring” Varona on January 13, 1937. He had two children, namely Sylvia Roces-Montilla (born January 31, 1938) and Antonio Rafael "Tony" Roces. (After Liling Roces’s death, Leonor Varona later remarried with Aurelio Montinola, Sr.) During the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines, Liling Roces spied for the American troops Commander George Rowe. After a SPYRON courier was caught by Japanese soldiers, Liling Roces, among others, were suspected of providing information to George Rowe and Lt. Commander Charles "Chick" Parsons. Liling Roces was imprisoned and tortured by the Kempeitai in Fort Santiago. On August 28, 1944, Liling Roces, other prisoners, and twenty-three other members of the resistance were boarded onto a truck and brought to the Cementerio del Norte (North Cemetery) of Manila. Roces and his companions were beheaded and buried in one common ground.
  4. Commodore Eugene E. Wing (1844−1944) was the Commodore of the Manila Yacht Club when the Japanese invaded the Philippines in 1941, he sailed the Japanese blockade of Corregidor and was captured and executed with author Hugo Herman Miller for being attached to the Visayan Guerrilla Resistance on Leyte Island. Neither Wing nor Miller were duly honored by the U.S. Government for giving their lives behind enemy lines. In Nov of 1943, Commodore Eugene Wing and Hugo Herman Miller were captured during a major Japanese offensive against guerrilla and resistance forces throughout the Philippines. According to the military affidavits relating to their capture and execution, Wing and Miller were relocated to Samar Island where they were executed, by beheading, for their attachment to the Visayan Guerrilla resistance.
  5. Anacleto Díaz (November 20, 1878 — February 10, 1945) was a Filipino jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Díaz would be one of 2 Supreme Court Justices who were executed by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Battle of Manila in 1945. On February 10, the then paralyzed Díaz and two of his sons were among 300 men herded by the Japanese army and lined up along the corner of Taft Avenue and Padre Faura in Ermita, Manila. Japanese soldiers then opened machine gun fire, killing Díaz and his sons as well as scores of others. Two days later, Diaz's colleague on the Court, Antonio Villa-Real, would also be murdered by the Japanese forces in nearby Pasay. Ironically, the vicinity where Díaz was executed would later become part of the Supreme Court compound when the Court relocated to Padre Faura after the war.
  6. Apolinario de la Cruz (July 22, 1814 - November 4, 1841), known as Hermano Pule or Puli ("Brother Pule"), led a major revolt against Spanish rule of the Philippines based on a struggle for religious freedom and independence. Pule fled to Barrio Gibanga but was captured by authorities the following evening. On November 4, 1841, after a brief trial held at the present Casa Comunidad, he was executed by a firing squad at the town of Tayabas, at the age of 27. After he was killed, the authorities "quartered" his body, cut off his head and placed it on a stake as a warning to those who are similarly inclined. A monument in his honor now stands in Tayabas City, and his death anniversary is a holiday in Quezon Province. Hermano Pule may have influenced secular priest José Burgos - who was executed in 1872 - to demand for racial equality in the clergy.
  7. José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda (June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896) was a Filipino nationalist, novelist, poet, ophthalmologist, journalist, and revolutionary. He is widely considered one of the greatest heroes of the Philippines. He was the author of Noli Me Tángere, El Filibusterismo, and a number of poems and essays. He was executed on December 30, 1896, by a squad of Filipino soldiers of the Spanish Army. Moments before his execution on December 30, 1896, by a squad of Filipino soldiers of the Spanish Army, a backup force of regular Spanish Army troops stood ready to shoot the executioners should they fail to obey orders.The Spanish Army Surgeon General requested to take his pulse: it was normal. Aware of this the Sergeant commanding the backup force hushed his men to silence when they began raising "vivas" with the highly partisan crowd of Peninsular and Mestizo Spaniards. His last words were those of Jesus Christ: "consummatum est",--it is finished. He was secretly buried in Pacò Cemetery in Manila with no identification on his grave. His sister Narcisa toured all possible gravesites and found freshly turned earth at the cemetery with guards posted at the gate. Assuming this could be the most likely spot, there never having any ground burials, she made a gift to the caretaker to mark the site "RPJ", Rizal's initials in reverse.
  8. Mariano Noriel (1864 - January 27, 1915) was a Filipino general who fought during the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine-American War. He was member of the War Council that handled the case of Andres Bonifacio in 1897. He led Filipino advance troops before the American army landed in Intramuros in 1898. History has a way of putting a strange twist to the life story of Noriel. The records show that the doughty Bacoor general, along with the two others, was sentenced to death for the murder of a man in the Bacoor cockpit in May 1909. The Court of First Instance decision on the case was later confirmed by the Philippine Supreme Court, so it was appealed by an Irish-American lawyer named Amzi B. Kelly, to the Supreme Court of the United States which subsequently reversed the decision. But before the final verdict was received from Washington, Noriel and his co-accused had already been executed by hanging in Manila on January 27, 1915.
  9. Macario Sakay y de León (c. 1870/8 – September 13, 1907) was a Filipino general who took part in the 1896 Philippine Revolution against the Spanish Empire and in the Philippine-American War. After the war was declared over by the United States in 1902, Sakay continued resistance and the following year became President of the Republic of Katagalugan. In 1905, Filipino labour leader Dominador Gómez was authorised by Governor-General Henry Clay Ide to negotiate for the surrender of Sakay and his men. Gómez met with Sakay at his camp and argued that the establishment of a national assembly was being held up by Sakay's intransigence, and that its establishment would be the first step toward Filipino independence. Sakay agreed to end his resistance on the condition that a general amnesty be granted to his men, that they be permitted to carry firearms, and that he and his officers be permitted to leave the country. Gómez assured Sakay that these conditions would be acceptable to the Americans, and Sakay's emissary, General León Villafuerte, obtained agreement to them from the American Governor-General. Sakay believed that the struggle had shifted to constitutional means, and that the establishment of the assembly was a means to winning independence. As a result, he surrendered on 20 July 1906, descending from the mountains on the promise of an amnesty for him and his officials, and the formation of a Philippine Assembly composed of Filipinos that would serve as the "gate of freedom". With Villafuerte, Sakay travelled to Manila, where they were welcomed and invited to receptions and banquets. One invitation came from the Constabulary Chief, Colonel Harry H. Bandholtz; it was a trap, and Sakay along with his principal lieutenants were disarmed and arrested while the party was in progress. At his trial, Sakay was accused of "bandolerismo under the Brigandage Act of Nov. 12, 1902, which interpreted all acts of armed resistance to American rule as banditry." The colonial Supreme Court of the Philippines upheld the decision. Sakay was sentenced to death, and hanged on 13 September 1907. Before his death, he made the following statement: "Death comes to all of us sooner or later, so I will face the LORD Almighty calmly. But I want to tell you that we are not bandits and robbers, as the Americans have accused us, but members of the revolutionary force that defended our mother country, the Philippines! Farewell! Long live the Republic and may our independence be born in the future! Long live the Philippines!" He was buried at Manila North Cemetery later that day.
  10. Felipe Salvador (born on 26 May 1870 at Baliuag, Bulacan – died on 15 April 1912), also known as Apo Ipe or Ápûng Ipê Salvador, was a Filipino revolutionary who founded the Santa Iglesia (Holy Church), a messianic society also known as the Colorum and had the aim of defeating and overthrowing the colonial government of the United States in the Philippines. Salvador joined the Katipunan in 1896 upon the arrival of the Katipuneros from Balintawak in Baliuag, Bulacan. He founded the Santa Iglesia in 1900 after fleeing to the mountains when General Emilio Aguinaldo was captured by American soldiers. Salvador and his church gained a significant number of followers in the regions of Bulacan, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Tarlac, and Nueva Ecija. He was captured by the American contingent in 1910. He was later sentenced to death and was hanged in 1912, two years after his capture.
  11. Leo Echegaray (11 July 1960 - 5 February 1999) was the first Filipino to be meted the death penalty after its reinstatement in the Philippines in 1993, some 23 years after the last judicial execution was carried out. His death sparked national debate over the legality and morality of the death penalty, which was later suspended on 15 April 2006. A house painter by trade, Echegaray was accused of the April 1994 rape of his alleged ten-year old stepdaughter, Rodessa (nicknamed "Baby" by the press). He was convicted by Branch 104 of the Regional Trial Court in Quezon City on 7 September 1994, with the death sentence automatically reviewed by the Supreme Court and affirmed on 25 June 1996. Echegaray filed a motion for appeal, which was denied on 19 January 1999. Less than a month later, Echegaray was executed via lethal injection on 5 February 1999. 
  12. Josefa Llanes Escoda (20 September 1898–c. 6 January 1945) Heroine: Spiritual Leader of the Underground during World War II in the Philippines; was a well-known Filipino advocate of women's right of suffrage and founder of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines. During World War II, Japanese forces invaded the Philippines. By 1944, news of the underground activities of Josefa Llanes Escoda and her husband Antonio reached far and wide. As the Japanese Occupation stretched on, Josefa Llanes Escoda and Antonio had intensified their "smuggling" activities of sending medicines, clothings, messages, and foodstuff to both Filipino war prisoners and American internees in concentration camps. Josefa Llanes Escoda's husband, Antonio was arrested in June 1944, and Josefa Llanes Escoda was also arrested two months later, on 27 August. She was imprisoned in Fort Santiago, the same prison as her husband, Antonio Escoda, who was executed in 1944, along with General Vicente Lim, who was imprisoned with him. On 6 January 1945, Josefa Llanes Escoda was then evidently taken and held in one of the buildings of Far Eastern University occupied by the Japanese. She was last seen alive on 6 January 1945, but severely beaten and weak, and was transferred into a Japanese Transport Truck. It is presumed that she was executed and buried in an unmarked grave, either in the La Loma Cemetery or Manila Chinese Cemetery, which Japanese forces used as execution and burial grounds for thousands of Filipinos who resisted the Japanese occupation.

References:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Executed_Filipino_people
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Filipino_people_executed_abroad
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Filipino_people_executed_by_decapitation
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Filipino_people_executed_by_firing_squad
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Filipino_people_executed_by_hanging
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Filipino_people_executed_by_lethal_injection
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Executed_Filipino_women

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Earth Day: 12 Names of Baby Animals


  1. Leveret - A leveret is a young hare, especially one that is less than a year old. The word is a diminutive or "small version" of the Norman French levre for "hare." The addition of the suffix -et denotes that the hare is young or small.
  2. Polliwog - A polliwog is a young frog or tadpole that has not yet grown legs. The word is derived from the Old English polwygle with pol meaning "head" and wygle meaning "wiggle." Idiomatically, a tadpole is a "wiggling head." In mariner slang, polliwog can also refer to a sailor who has not yet crossed the equator.
  3. Kid - A kid is a baby goat or antelope, though the word may also refer to leather made from goat hide. You might recognize the phrase, "to handle with kid gloves" meaning "to handle with care." The first recorded usage of kid as slang for "child" was in 1599, and the verb form to kid (meaning "to joke") entered the vernacular in 1839.
  4. Smolt - A smolt is a young salmon in the midst of its first migration from fresh water into the sea. The word is of Scottish origin, though it grew to prominence in the Middle English. "Smolt" may be related to "smelt" (one of many silvery fishes that prefer cold northern waters) because salmon in this young stage resemble the smelt fish. 
  5. Hatchling - A hatchling is a young alligator, bird, reptile or fish recently emerged from an egg. The word is relatively new--"hatchling" slipped into common usage in 1900--but the first documented "hatchery" for birds operated under that name in 1880. The word originates from the Old English heaccan meaning "to produce young from eggs."
  6. Fledgling - A fledgling is any young bird that has recently grown the feathers it needs in order to fly. In other words, a fledgling is a young bird that is ready to leave the nest. In common usage, a fledgling can be any inexperienced person or someone newly entering a profession, i.e. a fledgling baker or a fledgling pilot.
  7. Shoat - A shoat is a young pig that has recently been weaned off of its mother's milk and onto solid food. Though a definitive origin of the word is unknown, "shoat" may come from the West Flemish schote referring to a pig under one year old. 
  8. Spat - The word spat refers to the spawn of an oyster or similar shellfish, young oysters collectively, or a single baby oyster. "Spat" is also the past tense of "to spit," and in American English a "spat" is a petty argument or quarrel. 
  9. Nymph - If you're picturing the beautiful demigoddesses of ancient Greece and Rome, you're only half right. A nymph is also the young of any insect that undergoes incomplete metamorphosis, like grasshoppers, termites, ticks and cockroaches. Nymphs are born with many of the characteristics they will carry into adulthood, unlike moths and butterflies which undergo a full metamorphosis, liquefying and reforming with wings in the pupal stage.
  10. Eyas - An eyas is a young nestling hawk or falcon, though the word can also indicate a young hawk that has been taken from its nest so that it can be trained for hunting. In Medieval and Renaissance Europe, hawks and falcons were esteemed hunters and the practice of training the birds was known as "falconry" or "hawking." Eyas is a variant of nyas from the Middle French niais meaning "nestling." "Lions, tigers and bears, oh my!" Their children all go by the same baby name. 
  11. Whelp - A whelp is the young of a tiger, lion, wolf, bear, or dog. Today whelp can also be slang for an obstinate or overly vivacious child, akin to "brat" or "whippersnapper." Early forms of the word appear in Old English as hwelp, Old Norse as hvelpr, and Old High German as hwelf, but all of them seem to relate to "the young of the dog." 
  12. Cygnet - A cygnet is a young swan. The word comes from the Latin cygnus meaning "swan" plus the diminutive suffix "-et." The more common English word swan stems from the Old Norse word svanr and its related German equivalent Schwan.
References:

http://dictionary.reference.com/slideshows/baby-animals

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Araw ng Kagitingan 2015


  1. Araw ng Kagitingan (Filipino for Day of Valor), also known as Bataan Day or Bataan and Corregidor Day, is a national observance in the Philippines which commemorates the fall of Bataan during World War II. 
  2. It falls on April 9, although in 2009 it would have coincided with Maundy Thursday and its celebration for 2009 was moved to April 6.
  3. 9 April 2015 is the 73rd anniversary of the Fall of Bataan in 1942.
  4. The theme for the year 2015 is: "Ipunla ang Kagitingan, sa Kabataan, Ihanda ang Beterano ng Kinabukasan."
  5. 6 April 1961, Congress passed Republic Act 3022 declaring April 9 of every year as Bataan Day.
  6. 30 June 1987, Executive Order 203 revised all national holidays in the Philippines, renaming the April 9 holiday as "Araw ng Kagitingan (Bataan and Corregidor Day)".
  7. 25 July 1987, Executive Order 292 revised the holidays anew, but it did not affect the naming of the April 9 holiday.
  8. 25 July 2007, Congress passed Republic Act No. 9492 putting into law the "Holiday Economics" policy of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo; this put the observance of each holiday, with the exception of New Year's Day and Christmas, to the Monday nearest it.
  9. Starting with the administration of President Benigno Aquino III, all celebrations of the holiday have been observed on April 9, instead of being moved to the nearest Monday, and the holiday has been called simply "Araw ng Kagitingan".
  10. At dawn on 9 April 1942, against the orders of Generals Douglas MacArthur and Jonathan Wainwright, the commander of the Luzon Force, Bataan, Major General Edward P. King, Jr., surrendered more than 76,000 starving and disease-ridden soldiers (67,000 Filipinos, 1,000 Chinese Filipinos, and 11,796 Americans) to Japanese troops.
  11. In Maywood, Illinois the second Sunday in September is remembered as Bataan Day. Maywood provided Illinois National Guard soldiers of the 192nd Tank Battalion who served on Bataan.
  12. Our government declares April 5 to 11 as Philippine Veterans Week.
References:

http://lopez-museum.com/2015/04/08/the-fighting-filipinos-for-araw-ng-kagitingan-day-of-valor-2015/
http://www.gov.ph/araw-ng-kagitingan/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataan_Day
http://www.philstar.com/news-feature/2015/04/09/1441984/araw-ng-kagitingan-remembering-veterans

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

12 Things You Needed For A Simple Workout

For a regular workout, these are 12 common things we, the12list authors, have for a simple workout. These are uploaded in no particular order.

Jump rope, for warming up, even if you are not an expert, you should try using this.
Yoga mat, (not for the dog hahaha) but for simple sit-ups, some yoga stuff, planks and other mat workouts that you need to include in your workout.
Treadmill for running inside if you were not able to run outside. Good alternative for endurance and stamina training.
Dumbbells for strength training and for muscle toning. Even women need to use a pair of dumbbells with lesser weights.
Pilates ball for additional workout variations. Plus, the dog (if you have one), for training your patience level because surely your dog will mess with you while you are training. (hahaha)
LPG tank, for additional weight and power training, you can use one so that when an emergency of running out of gas, you can carry an 11-kilogram LPG tank easily and replace an empty LPG tank.
Sturdy bench or any stable chair which you can use for step exercises which are good for training your legs.
Stairs which is a good replacement training area for uphill and downhill running which you need to include in you running exercises.
Drinking water which you need for exercise intervals.
Non Fat milk can help you maintain a good weight instead of skim milk.
Whey protein for proper growth and muscle repair. Also good for supplying high-quality protein for women when losing body fat depending on your body type.
A good old cassette player, radio, laptop, desktop, ipod, mobile phones, mp3 players, and other type of music player that can produce music for motivating you to do more in your workout. 


Remember, TRAIN SMART NOT HARD.