For a lucky guess, a Filipino-American is now $45,000 richer. Emilbert DeLeon, a nursing assistant based in Daly City, California, won the grand prize on Wheel of Fortune on March 19, report the Huffington Post and GMA News. DeLeon, during the final round, managed to bag the three-word grand prize question (“new baby buggy”) on two letters alone (N and E). [See YouTube video here.]
The Bureau of Immigration on denied reports of a stricter policy that requires Filipinos who want to travel abroad to show proof of their financial capability to do so, reports GMA News. Under the standing policy, the Bureau will allow Filipinos to leave the country as long as they can show travel documents including a passport, visa and a roundtrip ticket. However, travelers bound for countries that have a high incidence of human trafficking will be subject to a secondary assessment.
Ambassador Safdar Hayat of Pakistan handed over a check for $1 million to Foreign Secretary Albert F. del Rosario as his government’s contribution to the ongoing relief and reconstruction efforts in the wake of devastation caused by Super Typhoon Yolanda which struck the central Philippines on Nov. 8, reports Inquirer.net.
According to the Food and Agricultural Organization, "the cost to the global economy caused by malnutrition, as a result of lost productivity and direct health care costs, could account for as much as 5 percent of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), equivalent to $3.5 trillion/year or $500/person." This means that the Philippines, with a population of 96.71 million, is losing up to more than P2 trillion/year from lost productivity and health care costs caused by malnutrition, reports Rappler.com.
By the last quarter of 2014, the Philippines will be a mobile-first country—meaning people will likely use their mobile phones to access the Internet rather than the traditional desktop computers, Google said, Inquirer.net reports.
Cherry Bo Fernandez recently bested 23 other international students to receive the 2014 New South Wales (NSW) School Service Award, reports GMA News. Fernandez was recognized by NSW Governor Marie Bashir at the NSW Parliament House last Feb. 25 for her outstanding leadership qualities.
Unemployment in the Philippines worsened in January, which the government blamed on recent natural disasters that disrupted business activities in the provinces, reports Inquirer.net. The unemployment rate inched up to 7.5 percent in January from 7.1 percent in the same month last year, or about 2.96 million jobless Filipinos out of the 39.41 million members of the labor force.
Makati City, known as the financial center of the Philippines, can now boast another distinction: It is the Selfie Capital of the World, reports Time. The city, part of metropolitan Manila and home to 500,000 people, produces more selfies per capita than any other city in the world.
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