Five-star milestone

My grandparents used to bring me to The Peninsula Manila as a kid and they told me it was the first Peninsula built outside Hong Kong.

During my college days, it was at the hotel’s lobby where I would eat after partying with my friends. I fell in love with its then newly renovated lobby with the beautiful Napoleon Abueva Sunburst sculpture on the ceiling.

Genevieve Go and Mark Choon.

To this day, I still hang out at The Pen. I am glad that it finally got its much-deserved recognition — a Five-Star award from the Forbes Travel Guide. Since 1958, the travel guide has been known for being the gold standard in the international hospitality industry.

In response to receiving this accolade, hotel general manager Mark Choon said, “It’s a milestone event in our 43-year history for The Peninsula Manila to be named a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star hotel, the only one in the principal central business districts of Makati and Fort Bonifacio Global City to receive this coveted ranking. We are delighted and immensely proud to join our sister hotels in Hong Kong, Shanghai, New York, Tokyo, Chicago, Beverly Hills, Paris, Beijing and Bangkok in this Five-Star rating. We are a Perfect Ten!”

Mike Yutuc, Peter Kressaty and Ryo Koike.

With this milestone, the hotel threw a fun thanksgiving party for all its partners in the business community, press and society.  Forbes Travel Guide CEO Filip Boyen flew in to join the celebration along with EVP for partner services Peter Kressaty and VP for partner services Ryo Koike.

As the event fell on the same day as the International Women’s Day, the hotel gathered five of Manila’s most exciting female talents to perform at the party:  DJ Badkiss, violinist Princess Ybañez, saxophonist Nicole Tejedor, harpist Heloise LaHarpe and singer Nicole Laurel Asensio.

(From left) Zambia Consul Luis Ablaza and Guatemala Consul Mellie Ablaza with Jen and Mark Choon.

During the event, the hotel also announced the wonderful news of its long-awaited soft room renovation. The second quarter of 2019 will see all the hotel’s guestrooms and suites refurbished with lighter colors, materials and fabrics, as well as updates on technology touch points.  It will be completed by October this year. In addition, The Gallery will be converted into a 100-seat The Gallery Club Lounge, making The Peninsula Manila the city’s only all-club hotel.

 (For more information, visit www.peninsula.com/en/manila/5-star-luxury-hotel-makati.)

(From left) Tess Reyes, Janina Dizon, Iza Calzado-Wintle and Candy Dizon.

Do good deeds for kids

Help the children and you help them build their future.

Good Deeds Day volunteers do a clean up along Las Pinas-Paranaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area, also known as Freedom Islands.

Hands on Manila Inc., (HOM)  brings Good Deeds Day to the  Philippines with a carnival-themed celebration on April 7 at the covered court of Bel-Air in Makati City for the benefit of 200 children from the Bahay Maria Children’s Center, St. Andrew the Apostle Parish, Pangarap Shelter and Timoteo Paez Elementary School.

“We are very pleased to organize for the first time Good Deeds Day (GDD) in partnership with Brgy. Bel-Air, Women of Bel-Air Foundation and Bel-Air Village Association. This is a global movement that unites people from 100 countries to do good deeds for others and for the planet,” says  lawyer Gianna Montinola, president of HOM. To date, volunteers from Bel-Air, HOM, families and corporations have signed up to make this day a happy one for the children.

Good Deeds Day volunteers listen to a lecture on urban gardening.

“Apart from a day at the fair, children will be taught how to segregate and  recycle waste.  There will be games supporting this theme and encouraging all to become Earth Volunteers,” say HOM trustees Mia Villanueva and Gina Aboitiz, co-chairs of GDD Philippines 2019.

Each ticket (worth P500) includes a GDD t-shirt, access to the fair and coupons for sandwiches, drinks, cotton candy, and dirty ice cream for the child beneficiary.

HOM-GDD is made possible with the help of BPI Foundation and  Zendesk. 

Volunteers read stories about environmental protection to day-care center pupils.

Formally established in August 2001, HOM brings to the Philippines an innovative and alternative model of volunteer service. HOM is the first Points of Light, USA affiliate in the world. It is committed to empowering individuals to act as citizens and to realize their ability to contribute to the community in meaningful ways. By providing a variety of flexible and tangible volunteer opportunities, HOM seeks to enhance citizen capacity to effectively serve the community.

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(Follow me on Instagram @pepperteehankee.)