Another Pinay makes it in global talent search!

Another Pinay may well be on her way to musical stardom. Galing talaga ng mga Pinay! (ehem.)

Mary Margaret Yu of Davao City won second place in the global talent search Voice of McDonald's 2008 where 3,600 plus McDonald's employees from 118 countries competed.

Two other Filipinos made it to the top 14 -- Canada-based Candido Revilles who placed third, and Yu’s best friend, Paulina Susan Bacarat.

Multi-platinum artist Ne-Yo led the panel of judges along with Sony/ATV Music Publishing co-president Jody Gerson, and Goldring, Hertz and Lichtenstein (LLP) senior partner Ken Hertz.

A powerful performance of Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing” became Margaret’s passport to the big showdown, where she received a standing ovation. Aside from her repertoire of Whitney Houston hits, the Pinay music genius is also into R&B, jazz, and ballads.

Congratulations to Margaret, Candido and Paulina! The three of you surely make us all proud. Good news such as this offer relief from all the negative stories written about the country. May your tribe increase!

Half-rice, please...

This afternoon, I went to the grocery with my kids and was shocked to find out that prices of rice have skyrocketed. Just last week, you could still buy a decent variety of rice for less than P30 a kilo. Today, the P34/kilo in SM Hypermarket was like the regular NFA rice. Where has all our rice supply gone? Thankfully, because fewer people buy brown rice, the price is still cheaper. So we decided to shift to eating brown rice. Healthy eating now, by force. Haha! :-) Following the government's appeal to conserve rice, McDo announced it will soon start serving half rice in all its stores. McDo's press statement below:

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Help save the world one half-rice at a time

Quick service restaurant giant McDonald's today announced it will soon start serving half-rice to customers in response to the government's call to help conserve the country's rice supply.

In a statement, McDonald's Vice President for Marketing Margot Torres said the decision came after Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap and Malacanang officials called on Filipinos to help in government efforts to avert a possible rice crisis.

Since early March, rice prices have been steadily rising reportedly because of global shortage in supply.

McDonald's is one of the first restaurant chains to express support to the government's call.

"McDonald's immediately acted upon Secretary Yap's appeal and mobilized a plan to offer half rice in its restaurants, still guided by the brand's commitment to food quality for its customers," Torres said.

Immediately, the fast food mogul acquired half-rice scoopers and developed in-store promotional materials for this campaign.

Half-rice meals will be officially made available in all McDonald's outlets beginning April 17 .

Torres reiterated that McDonald's remains committed to offering only high quality food to its customers.

Torres said the effort will not only help the country in rice conservation, but will also enable the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) to support more children under its Bright Minds Read Program, a reading program under Department of Education's Adopt-a-School. (end)