Press Bits

The SM Store’s Share Shoes Campaign helps children take steps in achievingtheir dreams

Caption: A child from Mangyan Elementary School in Bulalacao Town, Oriental Mindoro walking homewith her new pair of shoes from the SM Store’s Share Shoes Campaign (Photo courtesy of CaritasPhilippines)

Shoes are essential in one’s journey through life. For less fortunate families and their children, a new

pair of shoes will allow them to perform their daily chores in comfort and walk to and back to school insafety. Good shoes can also inspire them to work hard – because with a new pair of shoes, they are notonly able to fulfill their daily tasks but are also taking little steps to achieve their dreams.

Since 2015, The SM Store Share Movement has collected over 900,000 donations composed of shoes, clothing, footwear, book and school kits, disaster kits and toys, which were given to children and families all over the country. This year’s Share Shoes Campaign was able to collect over 40,000 pairs ofshoes, with close to 2-million pesos worth of shoes donated by The SM Store and their generouscounterpart benefactors, allowing them to reach more kids and inspire these children to take thoseimportant steps toward achieving their goals.

The Share Shoes campaign invited shoppers to donate their pre-loved or brand-new shoes to children inneed. In partnership with Caritas Philippines and other NGOs, the shoes collected were distributed toOriental Mindoro and other far-flung communities nationwide.

The SM Store saw how important shoes were to lives of the children. In one of their previous donationturnovers: Rich, 11 years old, took a pair of sandals for his elder sister instead. When asked why, “I still have a pair of shoes,” Rich said, “my sister needs it more.”

These are the kind of stories that inspire The SM Store Share Movement to double their efforts in

reaching out to those who are in need of assistance. SM founder Henry Sy envisioned that every Filipino should have their own pair of shoes. It is a passion that blossomed to what is SM today, a company thattakes every step to make this vision a reality.

According to The SM Store, this project reminded them of their humble beginnings, milestones, legacy, and promise to help communities be better. After all, The SM Store started out with shoes and theyhope to be a part of people’s journeys through life through the gift of shoes.

Over the years, The SM Store has conducted its quarterly donation drive from shoes, to books, toys andhygiene kits for identified poor communities and areas impacted by calamities, through its

#SMShareMovement Project.

Find out more about these quarterly donation drives and know how to contribute to upcoming projects,by liking The SM Store Facebook page and by following @TheSMStore on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

(Pasay City, August 29, 2019) ZEN Rooms, Asia’s leading hotel chain, together with one of its partner hotels in the Philippines, Selah Garden signed off a partnership to host this year’s candidates of the Miss Asia Pacific International.

Now on its 4th edition since its relaunch in 2016, Miss Asia Pacific International is again hosted by the Philippines and promises a memorable one from the pre-pageant events starting on October 04 all the way up to the grand coronation night set to take place on the 9th of October at the Newport Performing Arts Theater of Resorts World Manila in Pasay City. Considered to be one of the most distinguished beauty pageants in Asia, this year’s pageant will surely make its mark with around 80 beautiful candidates from across the continent, vying for the coveted title.

ZEN Rooms immediately welcomed the opportunity to partner with a beauty pageant for the first time. “ZEN Rooms is the number 1 budget hotel chain in Southeast Asia and so is Miss Asia Pacific International when it comes to beauty pageants. For years both of us have been on top of our game so it was natural for us to enter into this symbiotic relationship that signifies high standards and affirms our market leadership.” said by ZEN Rooms Philippines’ Regional Marketing Director, Amit Shukla.

Starting October 01, all candidates of Miss Asia Pacific International 2019 will be staying at ZEN Premium Selah Garden Pasay until the Grand Coronation Night. ZEN Rooms prepared a number of engaging activities for the candidates as well as a visit on their other hotels in Metro Manila such as ZEN Rooms Selah Pods and ZEN Premium Rockwell Makati. On October 03, the hotel chain will formally welcome the candidates from across Asia and present them to the Media through a Press Party. ZEN Rooms is also set to award its recipient of the title “Miss ZEN Asia Pacific International 2019” during the preliminary Swimsuit Competition on October 05 and on October 12, ZEN Rooms and Selah Hotels will be hosting a Pool Party as an after-party celebration for the new titleholders.

“As an international pageant, we are very excited to partner with world-renowned brands like ZEN Rooms and Selah Hotels. Like how their hotels embrace and promote each culture they are located, we celebrate the individuality of our candidates as they represent their respective nations. In that, we are aligned in seeing the beauty in diversity,” explained by Miss Asia Pacific International General Manager, Essa Santos.

In line with all of the offline activities, ZEN Rooms will also be engaging its online community to be part of this partnership through an online competition where the lucky winner can get a chance to stay with the candidates at ZEN Premium Selah Garden Pasay, exclusive invite to all the events, and VIP tickets to the Grand Coronation Night on October 09. The launch of the online competition is on September 09 at www.zenrooms.com and ZEN Rooms’ Facebook page, facebook.com/zenroomsph.

ZEN Rooms, the biggest budget hotel chain in the Philippines continuously disrupts the hotel industry in the Philippines by consistently being in the lead on providing quality accommodation matched with the best hospitality practices. After operating for the past 4 years, ZEN Rooms now has over 4,500 rooms across the Philippines top 50 destinations and 10,000+ rooms across Southeast Asia on its platform. With its constant expansion, the company is set to be in 70 cities by the end of 2019 adding top destinations all over the country. Moreover, ZEN Rooms has just recently opened 400+ new rooms with its recent partnership with Selah Hotels making it the biggest hotel chain in Metro Manila. The company fully manages the newly opened ZEN Rooms Selah Lofts in Harrison St., Pasay City with 205 budget rooms. Just above the property is ZEN Rooms Selah Pods for mid-range accommodation of 108 cozy rooms with access to the rooftop infinity pool with a 360 view of the city's skyline. For a more premium stay, there’s ZEN Premium Selah Garden Pasay on Park Avenue with close to 100 rooms. Michael Raquiza, Country Manager of ZEN Rooms Philippines said, “We are very excited to announce this partnership. When ZEN Rooms expanded here in 2015, our goal was just to fix the fragmented budget hotel industry. Now, 4 years later, being the largest hotel chain in the Philippines, our reach has lengthen and our purpose has deepen. We are here to build relationships with hotel owners and support local businesses and we believe that our partnership with hotels like the Selah group exemplifies just that. Together, we improve value-for-money so that our guest can travel more & pay less.” Jeff Thomas, Managing Director of Selah Hotels, added, “ZEN Rooms has been very effective in terms of tapping the online market and selling our rooms to a wider audience online.” For as low as P499/night, customers can book a room at ZEN Rooms which includes free fast WiFi, hot shower, cool AC, spotless beds, and 24/7 Customer care at www.zenrooms.com

Championing the era of open banking. Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) has become the first local bank to advocate and implement open banking in the country, affirming its position as a digital trailblazer in the financial industry. In a talk on digital transformation delivered during the recent Philippine Digital Convention at the Marriott Hotel, RCBC Chief Innovation and Inclusion Officer Lito Villanueva said RCBC is pushing for open banking to power rural banks, cooperatives, microfinance institutions (MFIs) and FinTech players' transactions via open application programming interfaces (APIs). It reduces barriers to innovation, eliminates the big banks' "walled gardens", and enables small players to be part of the National Retail Payments System (NRPS) ecosystem