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Outgoing Cebu Mayor Strips Office of Tiles and Ceilings, Toilets Left with No Bowls

A lot of netizens are calling the actions of outgoing Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña as the highest level of pettiness after he stripped the Mayor’s Office of tiles, ceilings, furniture, and everything else, including the bowls in the toilets, sinks, and plumbing fixtures!

Photo credit: ABS-CBN News

Cebu City Mayor-elect Edgar Labella will assume office this Monday inside a room that looks more like an abandoned construction site than the Mayor’s Office.

Photo credit: Gerard Francisco / Cebu Daily News

While the Mayor’s Office used to be the hub of activity located on the eighth floor of the Cebu City Hall’s Executive Building, with glass dividers and comfortable sofas that warmly welcome visitors, Osmeña also took all those away.

How the Mayor’s Office looked in the past:

Photo credit: Sun Star Cebu

Today, raw concrete can be seen on the floors of the rooms, even in the toilets. Moreover, aside from taking the ceiling out, the lighting fixtures were also removed. From a vibrant, busy office, this one looked like the contractors changed their mind and just abandoned the project.

Photo credit: ABS-CBN News

In a report on Cebu Daily News, a staff member of the Mayor’s Office who refused to be named said that the former mayor is “just taking out what he personally paid for”.

Photo credit: Sun Star Cebu

According to this person, the mayor had asked the council for a budget to renovate the office when he started his term in 2016. When the council rejected the budget request, Osmeña supposedly had the eighth-floor office renovated, spending Php2 million in personal funds. Thus, now that he’s going out as mayor, Osmeña is simply taking along what he had paid for with his own money.

Photo credit: Sun Star Cebu

Former City Administrator Bimbo Fernandez confirmed this to ABS-CBN News, saying that Osmeña has the right to remove all the fixtures because he paid for those things himself. It is up to the next administration to do what they want with the eighth floor, he added.

Photo credit: Sun Star Cebu

But Labella was surprised with the move.

Photo credit: Sun Star Cebu

Incoming City Legal Officer Rey Gealon said they would initiate an investigation, especially because Labella was not informed about the changes to the Mayor’s Office.

Photo credit: Sun Star Cebu

Mayors’ Term in the Philippines

The mayor is the highest ranking official in a town or city. In the Philippines, mayors serve a term of 3 years determined by the midterm and national elections. A mayor can only serve for three consecutive terms or a total of 9 years.

It is possible for the mayor to come back for another term (and for re-election for the next two terms) as long as another person sat as mayor after he/she served the last three consecutive terms.

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“Yaya” Ad Goes Viral over Requirement for University Diploma and Teaching Experience

A “yaya” (nanny) ad recently went viral over the requirement for university diploma and teaching experience! And while the salary is certainly quite good (nearly 3x) the standard rate, many netizens still think it’s degrading to college graduates…

What do you think?

University Diploma and Teaching Experience for “Yaya”

Being a “yaya” or nanny in the Philippines isn’t exactly considered a good job. After all, the pay is quite low and many aren’t even treated well.

Although most get free food and accommodation, many aren’t provided enough meals – and a lot don’t have the same food that their ward/s or employers eat.

Also, the nannies are usually on-call nearly 24/7, and they aren’t paid for the overtime hours they spend taking care of their ward.

Recently, there’s a nanny ad that has gone viral on Reddit. It’s reminiscent of the “yaya” ad post that required the nanny to have extremely high beauty standards.

In this new viral ad, the family offers a salary of Php15,000 to their prospective nanny. Now, that’s actually a great thing (for this part, at least)! The post declares that the nanny will work in Makati, so this isn’t an OFW posting for work abroad.

Photo credit: Coconuts Manila

The post also declared that the nanny will be given free food and will have two days off a month.

What irked netizens is that the yaya is required to have a college degree and teaching experience! This person is supposed to be responsible for the education of a 5-year-old.

At this rate, the salary is actually good, yet many netizens felt that it was “degrading” to college graduates who are supposed to find a job within their career path.

Why in the world would anyone need a university degree to be a yaya? It’s basically babysitting. These people who want university degrees and only give 2 days off a month amaze me with their entitlement,” one netizen commented.

This is basically a live-in job, like you’re on-call 24-7. They have no control over their time. At least blue collar workers can get away from their job after 5pm and actually go back to their families,” another wrote.

What’s the Minimum Wage in NCR?

According to the National Wages and Productivity Commission of the DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment), the minimum wage for domestic workers in the NCR (National Capital Region) is Php6,000 per month.

Meanwhile, workers in the Non-Agriculture sectors have a minimum wage rate of Php570 per day, and the other sectors at Php533.

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Pinays Join in Breaking the Guinness World Record for Multilingual Reading

Two Pinays join in breaking the Guinness World Record for Multilingual Reading – and they received recognition for helping the international team achieve this feat.

Isn’t that wonderful?

Pinays Help in Breaking the Guinness World Record

We are all in awe of people who are able to break world records, particularly when the feat is recognized by the experts in the field – the Guinness World Records.

Filipinas Maria Corazon Cabrera and Janine Cabrera Mendoza (Maria’s daughter), participated in the multilingual reading aloud relay broke the Guinness World Record for Multilingual Reading last February 26, 2023 at the Bib Sophia library in Schaerbeek, Brussels.

Photo credit: Philippine Embassy in Belgium

The new world record was achieved by the international team by doing the relay with 65 languages, with the team comprised of children and parents from different schools in the community.

They broke the previous record held by the Museum of Islamic Culture in Qatar for reading in 55 languages.

Photo credit: Philippine Embassy in Belgium

To ensure that the new world record for “most languages used in a reading relay” is authentic and official, the event was judged by a jury of experts, including professional translators from the European institutions as well as professors and staff from the universities of Ghent, Brussels, Louvain-la-Neuve, and Antwerp.

For this event, participants were tasked to read one sentence from “Mister René,” a book written by Leo Timmers about the Belgian painter Rene Magritte.

Photo credit: Philippine Embassy in Belgium

In the reading relay, the participants had to read in these different languages, with just a maximum of 10 seconds of waiting time in between.

Aside from Filipino, languages used to read the line from the book include Welsh, Hebrew, Swahili, Akkadian, and Urdu.

It was another Filipina, Ms. Maria Alicia Reyes Amarga, who attested to the correctness of the Filipino translation that the Cabreras read during the event.

Photo credit: Philippine Embassy in Belgium

We share this achievement with all Filipinos. We should be proud of our language and culture,” the elder Cabrera said.

How Many Languages are There in the Philippines

The Philippines is a very diverse country, with as many as 120 spoken languages.

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Russian Stuck in PH, Sells Bottled Water after Losing Valuables to a Pinay

A Russian stuck in PH had resorted to selling bottled water after losing valuables, including his passport, to a Pinay he met before his flight.

Russian Stuck in PH Sells Bottled Water

Millions of tourists visit the Philippines each year. Sadly, many of them lose valuables, including important documents like passports and ATMs, to locals who have bad intentions.

One of them is Igorevich Vladislav Saulev, a 43-year-old Russian national from St. Petersburg.

His situation went viral after a concerned citizen, John Carlo Villaruel, shared about on Facebook via Cebu Daily News Online last March 7, 2023.

According to Villaruel, he met Saulev in downtown Cebu. He was surprised to see the foreigner selling watered bottles in the streets with a placard around his neck, asking for help because he lost his passport.

Photo credit: John Carlo Villaruel / CDN Digital

It turned out that the Russian had met a woman before his flight. He had taken up residence in a town in southern Cebu and had arrived at the city at 2AM on February 25.

He met a woman on one of the city’s streets. They ended up spending a few hours together before returning to the spot at around 10PM.

While riding a taxi together, the woman asked the driver to stop – but she quickly grabbed Saulev’s backpack as she got out of the cab. It contained all his valuables.

With no money, phone, or anything, he ended up living on the streets. The vendors in the area took pity on him after noticing him wandering around.

Although though gave him money for food at first, they also have limited funds. That’s why they invited him to sell water for commission – and that’s how he met Villaruel.

Photo credit: Vhenna Mantilla / Cebu Daily News

Thanks to the kindhearted vendors, he was able to survive in the streets. And thanks to Villaruel, his plight went viral and he’s now receiving help from netizens and the authorities so he can go back home.

How to Avoid Losing All Valuables & Documents While Traveling

Everywhere you go, there’s a chance of losing your stuff because some people have made a living out of taking valuables from other people.

Here are some tips to avoid losing all your valuables:

  • Buy anti-theft bags or packs that prevent people from slashing your bag to get your valuables
  • Separate your documents and valuables so you can have a backup when you lose something
  • Don’t bring a lot of cash; online banking and other digital options are now readily available as your backup
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