This new store in San Pedro, Laguna, offers a variety of entrées with Chinese influences, including the bestselling dish, The Original Orange Chicken®, which is prepared with crispy boneless chicken bites wok-tossed in Panda’s signature sweet and spicy sauce. The new branch will also serve other famous dishes such as the Honey Walnut Shrimp, Beef Broccoli, Kung Pao Chicken, and Savory Shrimp. 

A long queue of excited drive-thru customers started lining up as early as 8:30am. To celebrate the store opening, Panda Express’ Pacita restaurant treated guests with exciting promos. The first 50 drive-thru customers received a Panda Bear, and free medium Orange Chicken for those with a minimum order value of P750. A fun activity also awaited dine-in and takeout customers where they had a chance to win exciting prizes and freebies. 

Panda Express Pacita is the fourth store to be opened in 2023, following the opening of the Sumulong Highway, WalterMart Makati, and SM Tanza restaurants earlier this year. To date, Panda Express has a total of 18 stores in the Philippines. 

Fans can enjoy their favorite Panda Express dishes via dine-in or take-out, and by ordering through delivery via order.pandaexpress.com.ph, foodpanda, and GrabFood. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/PandaExpressPH/ (Facebook) and @PandaExpressPH (Instagram).

     

On a mission to inspire better lives, Panda Express® is the largest Asian dining concept in the world. Family-owned and operated since 1983 by co-founders and co-CEOs Andrew and Peggy Cherng, Panda Express is best known as a trailblazer for creating a wide variety of industry-first recipes, including its best seller The Original Orange Chicken® and award-winning Honey Walnut Shrimp, which have defined the category of authentic American Chinese cuisine. Each entrée at Panda Express, including the Wok Smart selections, is thoughtfully crafted with quality ingredients, and inspired by bold Chinese flavors and culinary principles. The restaurant brand has more than 2,500 locations and has introduced American Chinese cuisine to twelve international countries.

 Visit www.facebook.com/PandaExpressPH/ (Facebook) and @PandaExpressPH (Instagram) for more information.

Complete with Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos and automatic FilmMaker Mode,

LG OLED TVs are set to shine a light on the action of Prime Video’s latest hit series.

Starting this week, LG Smart TV owners worldwide can enjoy Citadel, Prime Video and Amazon Studios’ epic spy-thriller series and the latest global sensation in streaming television. With LG OLED TV’s self-lit technology allowing for deep blacks and life-like color, viewers are placed at the center of the action-packed Citadel universe and can enjoy the show with intended color, aspect ratio, and frame rate, thanks to Automatic FilmMaker Mode1. LG OLED TVs also feature Dolby Vision® for stunning ultra vivid picture and incredible immersive Dolby Atmos® sound, which further elevate the cinematic experience when enjoying your favorite titles available in Dolby.

Starring Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Citadel is set after the fall of the titular spy organization, as two spies attempt to piece together what happened. The two spies embark on a mission that takes them around the world, all while contending with a relationship built on secrets, lies, and a dangerous-yet-undying love.

Citadel premieres exclusively on Prime Video on Friday, April 28, with two adrenaline-fueled episodes, followed by a new episode released weekly every Friday through May 26. Citadel will be available in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

To mark the launch of the cinematic new television series, Prime Video and LG teamed up to bring the characters and high-tech world of Citadel closer to its fans, through a series of exclusive visuals, rolled out across multiple channels, including online, in-store, in New York’s Times Square and London’s Piccadilly Circus.

This is not a first for Prime Video and LG, as it continues a long relationship between the streaming service and smart TV manufacturer. Both have a combined goal to deliver the best viewing experience to millions of customers across the world who stream Prime Video’s great content with the LG OLED evo superior technology.

From launching the first 4K HDR streaming experience on LG OLED TVs in 2015, to enabling Filmmaker Mode on Prime Video’s movies and series in 2021, to bringing opted-in personalized recommendations on the LG home screen for customers to discover the best Prime Video content in 2022, LG’s long relationship with Prime Video continues to lead to innovations in the home watching experience.

“At Prime Video, we are always looking for new ways to innovate and provide our customers the best viewing experience,” said Andrew Bennett Head of Global Video Partnerships for Prime Video, MGM+ and Amazon Freevee. “Our relationship with LG and joint commitment to customers has allowed us to continuously raise the bar with new technology that enhances the overall user experience”

This comes as LG aims to boost marketing efforts designed to offer customer value through the delivery of unique experiences across a variety of touchpoints. Prime Video was a natural partner to expand LG’s marketing relationship given their global reach, continued tech innovation, and engaging content. LG plans to introduce more exciting collaborations like this in the future.

“LG is actively collaborating with its content partners like Prime Video to provide customers with an engaging experience on the big screen at home, and beyond,” said Chris Jo, senior vice-president of platform business at LG Electronics Home Entertainment Company. “We are happy to kick off this initiative with Prime Video, whose global partnership and shared passion for innovation through the years helps us provide a best-in-class experience for customers”.

For more details, follow @LGPhilippines on Facebook and @LGPhilippines on Instagram. LG products are available in all authorized dealers nationwide both in-store and online. Visit lg.com/ph for a complete list of our retail partners. You can also visit LG's Official Flagship Stores in Lazada and Shopee.

Available on LG 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020 4K and 8K TVs

LG OLED: A Decade of Leadership Built on Unparalleled Excellence and Innovation

Celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2023, LG OLED TVs have pioneered and continue to lead the premium TV market, earning many accolades from journalists, and industry experts. LG OLED TVs are synonymous with superb picture quality, vibrant, accurate colors and deep blacks for images that are remarkably lifelike. As such, LG OLED TVs have become the preferred TV for many creators and studios. The company is committed to exploring the broad possibilities presented by its self-lit technology as it starts a new decade of OLED leadership and innovation. For more news on LG, visit www.lg.com.

While access to quality healthcare continues to be hampered by challenges, medical missions have become an increasingly vital source of support for low-income communities. Through time, they have gone beyond providing medical care and have taken up a new role: transforming the lives of individuals and communities.

The SM Foundation, Inc. (SMFI) recognizes just this, so it has made its mission to travel from Luzon to Mindanao to provide free medical care and services to thousands of patients from various hard-pressed communities. 

Just recently, the medical mission team headed to the cities of Tuguegarao and Cauayan in Northern Luzon and provided services to thousands of low-income families. Two of them are Roland Bariuan and Angeline Cacanindin.  

Strength to do more

Roland Bariuan takes home free medicines after his medical check-up.

Roland has been a tricycle driver in Tuguegarao City since 1994. But, two years ago, he suddenly felt weak and had to spend money on medical consultations and examinations.

“Napansin ko na kahit malakas ako kumain, namamayat ako at nanghihina. Nalaman ko na may diabetes na po ako. Pero hindi pwedeng pabayaan ko ang sarili ko. Hindi pwedeng maging tamad ako dahil may sakit ako. Kung tamad po ako mamasada, wala kaming pangaraw-araw at gagastushin pambili ng gamot,” he shared.

Determined to care for his health, he goes to the city health office for his routine checkups. The same drive to boost his health is also what led him to SM group’s medical mission, led by SMFI: “Dahil magastos po magpagamot, kadalasan po akong pumunta sa city health office para sa lahat ng aking checkups. Ngayon, nataon pong nalaman kong mayroon medical mission dito sa SM City Tuguegarao.”

Through the medical mission, he received free consultation, blood tests, x-ray, and medicines–services that would break the bank if he had it done elsewhere. With the assistance extended to him, he had his scheduled checkup without worrying about the finances and even managed to put aside money originally allotted for medicine and laboratory tests.

“Ang kinikita ko sa pamamasada ang ginagamit ko at ng pamilya ko para sa aming pangangailangan. Kaya mahalaga sa akin ang aking kalusugan. Ang magandang pangangatawan ang nagbibigay sa akin ng lakas para mas lalo pang pagsumikapan ang pamamasada,” he said.

“Pero bilang tricycle driver, hindi namin maiiwasang magkasakit dahil usok ang kasabayan namin sa pamamasada. Kaya malaking tulong ang libreng check-up sa ang libreng gamot mula sa SM Foundation. Malaking tulong ito dahil kahit papaano, hindi ko muna iisipin ang pang gamot ko,” he added.

Making quality healthcare attainable

Metro Manila is comprised of 16 cities and 1 municipality - is the economic, political, and cultural capital. 

Metro Manila’s forecast of becoming a global power city is challenged by the consequences of rapid urbanization. The UN-Habitat lists the effects of climate change, natural disasters that hamper urban infrastructures and city competitiveness, unequal livability, job creation, and poverty reduction. 

Is there a way out of Metro Manila’s challenges? Architect and urban designer Chintan Raveshia, and urban  planner and sustainability consultant Tony Chan of Singapore-based Arup emphasize urban development should also consider people’s aspirations, its changing needs and expectations, and the national identity of the residents. 

Finding the identity of the city

Raveshia inspires responsible stakeholders to ask themselves first the most fundamental question: “What’s the identity of the city and how do we make its residents proud?”

He quips, “Singapore, a city that is high on everyone’s liveability list, is also working with citizens and grass roots organizations to inculcate a sense of ‘lovability’ for the city. This helps to strengthen the societal bond, increase equity, improve community safety, and exude pride and a feeling of ownership of the city amongst the residents. The balance of liveability, efficiency, and lovability paves the way for a true success of our cities in this climate emergency era”. 

For his part, Chan believes that a successful sustainable urban development goes hand in hand with the capability to enhance people’s quality of life.  “We must develop and harness models of development that have low-carbon targets, which are also of a human scale, thriving and inclusive; models that are also just, secured and enhances the quality of life for all its residents. In addition, we should look at creative ways to increase local citizen participation as well as new technologies or products that can support the overarching vision and development objectives”, says Chan. 

Melbourne is considered by many experts as one of the most liveable cities for the past decade.

2. Open green spaces for a healthy and 

sustainable living environment

Despite land scarcity, Singapore manages to be one of the greenest cities in the world with over 400 parks, more than 3,300 hectares of nature reserve, and over 300 kilometers of park connector network.

Studies shows that Metro Manila has only 5 square meters of green space available per person, this number is well below the 9 square meters set by the World Health Organization.COVID-19 had the entire world reassess their health conditions, lifestyle practices, and environmental situations. The impact was even more drastic in Metro Manila due to population density, crowded space, and insufficient parks and open areas. 

Aside from improving air quality and enhancing biodiversity, green spaces also moderate temperatures during the warm season. 

3. Enhancing Human health and wellbeing 

Cities with sufficient healthcare facilities, access to health coverage, and infrastructures that enhance well-being and promote a healthy lifestyle, produce prosperous societies. 

The way cities are planned, designed, and executed has a crucial impact on how people live as it presents opportunities and effects on their lifestyles and overall well-being. While there is evident progress in Metro Manila’s health sector, rapid urbanization continues to pose risks in communities due to challenges in overcrowded neighborhoods, vehicular emissions, heavy traffic, pollution, and flood-prone areas.

4. Resilient community

Resilience is the capacity of individuals, communities, and systems to adapt, survive, and grow in the face of stress and shocks, and even transform when conditions require it. Relevant dimensions under the City Resilience Index (https://www.cityresilienceindex.org) by the Rockefeller Foundation & Arup, other dimensions include Health & Well Being, Economy & Society, Infrastructure & Environment as well as Leadership & Strategy

As Philippines and Manila grows, we face a dual challenge of adapting to climate change and the need to alter development strategies that are increasingly contributing to global warming. Philippines is among the top 10 countries in the world most affected by climate change in the past 20 years, according to the Global Climate Risk Index As an archipelago, impacts resulting from climate change are immense. In addition, metro Manila’s safety and resilience are endangered by various natural disasters. 

Natural disasters persist every season due to our geographical location. 

Well-planned and executed urban designs have the power to build safe and resilient communities in Metro Manila.  Infrastructures like proper bike lanes and walkable streets ensure residents’ safety, accessibility, and comfort, whereas science and technology-based solutions that can build flexible structures, multi-use systems, and technologies can help residents adapt and prepare for changing conditions. 

5. Global and competitive city 

In 2022, Singapore is placed 3rd in the World Competitiveness Ranking – the small country out of Asia even placed 1st in 2019 and 2020.

SM Supermalls, in collaboration with its corporate social responsibility arm, SM Cares, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), local government units and partner schools and organizations joined the rest of the world in celebrating Earth Day at SM malls nationwide on April 22, 2023.

With the theme "Invest In Our Planet, Invest In Our Youth," SM Supermalls and SM Cares lined up various activities that aimed to raise awareness among children and their families about the importance of coming together across various sectors to take care of the environment. SM malls nationwide simultaneously held relevant and impactful celebrations with activities such as Children’s Storytelling, Coloring, and Sustainability Tours, gathering 1700 children and 350 employee volunteers. These activities aimed to encourage everyone in the family, particularly the young ones, to protect and respect Mother Earth.

Earth Day is an annual celebration led by the Earth Day Network that puts the spotlight on issues that are affecting the environment. First held in 1970, Earth Day was the result of a need for a unified response against various environmental problems like pollution and resource depletion. Today, the event is considered the biggest environmental movement in the world, with millions joining celebrations every year.