KAI MONTINOLA, KYLE ECHARRI, MARIS, ARTHUR NERY, ADIE Headline ONE ILOCOS SUR Festivities

Ilocos Sur knows how to really party as they did another round of the Ilocos Sur Festival. Imagine, a party for 12 straight days of people enjoying culture, faith, community, all in one place where every Ilocano, Ilocana, their friends, and family would enjoy from sun up to sun down in this province in the north. 

They started with the Ilocos Sur Trade and Food Fair where they set up various booths with the help of local entrepreneurs, artisans, making us all feel that the industry is thriving in this region and gave us reasons to come back. Caoayan won Best Booth and also featured products like Double Cacao Delight, Ube Vinegar, and tons of other things. They also had processions to celebrate the Eucharist, the Los Patrones for the faithful and the clergy. They also did a Grand Parade where they featured floats from different municipalities, and where Sinait, Sigay and Narvacan won best in class. They also did a full on drone show at the Quirino Stadium where ABSCBN stars Kai Montinola and Kyle Echarri performed to the delight of Ilocandia. Mind you, the crowd there went to 40,000 which is a big turnout compared to previous years. 

They also did a few days of homage to fisher folk and farmers, putting those tractors and produce in a parade, plus a program for those who went back to the province and the tourists too. They also did a blackout bingo for a whopping 100K no joke!

They also held a Tattoo Expo called Tinnatoan where Apo Whang Od's descendants did a lot of mambabatok skin work, and several of them won Best in Show in a competition done just on this festival. They also did Mister Ilocos Sur where Aries Patis won for his hometown of Santa Cruz. They also did sea based comps and a motocross plus Ilocos Sur Pride Queen 2026 where Luivie Bitongan won for Candon City. At the Miss Ilocos Sur 2026, gorgeous Nathalie Clarin won for the town of Narvacan. It was absolutely fun to see all of it happen at One Ilocos Sur! 

Foundation Implements Programs: Improves Lives in SOCCSKSARGEN Region

Continuing on their efforts on health and livelihood, BingoPlus Foundation (the social development part of DigiPlus Interactive) is taking their social development work down south, particularly in General Santos City. Choosing this place amongst places that needed help must have been a hard task especially for what they plan on doing.

This means they will be bringing KalusuganPLUS and KabuhayanPLUS which are some of the programs they have successfully implemented in other areas which need access to public health, job opportunities too. After all, they wouldn't be just giving out things, but have them learn to fish correct?

This not only would affect individuals, but more of families and communities. Sanitation facilities were awarded to different barangays like San Isidro, Tinagcan, Ligaya, Bawing and Calumpang. This area alone houses 3000 people, so now they all have access to clean water and proper sanitation which is important in urban living. Some of these towns actually have indigent families from the Badjaos, a sea/shore dwelling tribe in the region. This also coincides with the local government unit's efforts especially in health and sanitation, to prevent folks from getting sick from waterborne diseases which happens a lot in the SOCCSKSARGEN region.   
 
KabuhayanPLUS also gives them proper training so they could achieve skills and use it to earn a living. They even teach people dressmaking and tailoring. They get TESDA certifications which they can use later on if they want to pursue something in the industry. This has also given single mothers/parents opportunities to earn, to put food on their table... and for their families.   

From beyond providing aid, this foundation's programs will not only give them what they need now, but beyond that. It would give them hope, and a future that is stable, healthy, and still living.

More Celebrities, Food, Destinations on the Second Year of FARM TO TABLE

Chef JR ROYOL is steadily becoming a household name in the Philippines through his show "Farm to Table". They are currently celebrating their 2nd year and yes, there are going to be a few changes especially with the way they do the show. 

The confident man who hails from Mountain Province talked to us more about what's going to happen in the next few weeks as they come out with more content from different locations. Farm to Table will visit his Mom's hometown of Barlig in this week's episode. This will start on Sunday at 6:50PM. 

 

He says "Thank you for celebrating our 2nd Farmniversary with us, we are excited to share with you good news about the show. Definitely it's going to be a consistent cooking element, we are going to expand our reach, the places that we plan to go to will have us explore and discover more people week after week. I would hope we can do that in the next few episodes, so we can tell more stories and food adventures too. It's totally a collaborative effort to focus on food we do. We don't limit ourselves with a particular cuisine and always integrate local ingredients that we have in the country and tell the stories about them. We want to start this year with a bang, so this weekend we will have BEA ALONZO as our guest. We will also be having TikTok personalities and other chefs that will also be in the show. As far as guests, we have a lot of stars coming in the next food adventures!"

He is so thankful about the show and adds "The show was able to make me work with very dynamic people, we are not boxed up and the different locations gives us a chance to work with a lot of talented individuals. We also get to create different dishes with not so common produce, we usually encounter them in the local markets and the locals tell us how to cook it."

He wants to introduce a dish internationally and says "Pinikpikan is the number one dish that should be introduced to the world. It's easy, the method can be taught, and I could eat it everyday. If there's anything, it's number one for me because there's nothing like it. You could also see it in other cultures but the process is innately ours alone."

He remarks "I wish the show would last for years, this show could be done til we're sixty, but more than that, to our viewers I hope you watch it every week. We do it purely that this comes from our heart, and I hope our viewers appreciate how we do Farm to Table."

There's certainly more to look forward to in the next few episodes, so if you are into food adventures, get Chef JR ROYOL to take you along different places in the Philippines and see how colorful our food culture is. This show airs Sundays on GTV and their other online channels.