Hundreds of Ilocano Filipinos on Sunday celebrated Christmas in New Taipei City with dance, music, rap performances and an all-male beauty pageant.
In the “Ang Brad Kong Beauty Season 3” competition 13 men dressed as women strutted in casual wear, swimsuits and evening gowns, and gave solo talent performances to the enthusiastic cheers of a crowd of about 500 people at a community recreation center in Banciao District (板橋).
Each contestant represented a subchapter of the event’s organizer, the Taiwan chapter of the Confederation of Ilocano Association Inc Samahang Ilokano (CIASI).
The winner, 28-year-old Allen Guevara of the subchapter in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (岡山), said he prepared for three months for the competition, and enlisted help to find his dresses, makeup and wigs.
The pageant reflected the unity and camaraderie that went into organizing the event, CIASI international sorority president Jacqueline Reyes said.
The event opened with remarks from visiting CIASI heads, including Reyes, who came to Taiwan for the celebration.
She encouraged young Filipinos in Taiwan to save their money and plan for their futures.
“OFWs [overseas Filipino workers] go abroad because they want to elevate the status [conditions] of their families. So while you’re abroad, don’t give everything back home,” she said. “You must save some money for yourself and prepare for the future when you go back home.”
CIASI founder and international chairman Julius Magno said he hoped Filipinos could become a more integral part of Taiwanese society.
He urged members to try to make friends and build connections with Taiwanese, especially those in the business community, and not isolate themselves by only interacting with Filipinos.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
RSS