Another world

I met a six-year-old girl at the Marcela Marcelo Elementary School in Pasay City last Saturday.

She caught my attention because she was half the size of my five-year-old daughter and she couldn't read. My daughter has been reading since...I don't remember anymore.

I was at the public school to write about what our employees were doing -- which was conducting a summer reading program for kids who couldn't read or had difficulty reading.

The magic of Cinderella

I came home to find my five-year-old daughter wearing high-heeled silver sandals that my US-based sister had worn to attend a wedding in Manila and had left behind.

It seemed she'd been wearing it the whole day INSIDE the house instead of slippers. Glass slippers, she called them, much like those of Cinderella's.

"Will you give them to me when I grow up, Mommy?" she asked me. "If it survives," I answer her. Not entirely understanding what I'd just said, she frowns.

Connected in Coron

(Philippine Star, Telecoms section, May 02, 2009)

MANILA, Philippines – More Filipinos are discovering Coron, a small town belonging to the Calamianes group of islands located in the northernmost part of Palawan.

The first-quarter report of the Department of Tourism (DOT) shows that domestic tourist arrivals to Coron and the capital city of Puerto Princesa, grew by a record-breaking 392 percent. The DOT attributes this to the increase in flights from Manila, Cebu, and Caticlan. Coron is an hour away from Manila by plane.

For Al and Mae Linsangan of Calamian Expeditions Travel & Tours, however, getting there and back is just one aspect of the experience. Equally important is communications, says Mae.

Coron enjoys mobile connectivity, dominantly from Smart Communications Inc., which has installed 12 3G/High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and GSM base stations to serve the Calamianes group of islands, with five dedicated to the town proper. Hence, the signal is strong not only in Coron but in the waters and islands surrounding the municipality.