The Overseas Good Guys | A life lived in service

Published By: Business Mirror | June 14, 2021

From Gloria Ragasa, California-based nurse:

There were times when my family barely had two pesos in our pockets. My parents had seven children. Their earnings were barely enough for all of us. Those were very hard times but we didn’t stop dreaming. With a lot of sacrifice I finished med school in Pampanga. That still wasn’t enough. I took advantage of working in the US as a nurse which enabled me to earn more money than working as a doctor in the Philippines.

There was stigma at that time about doctors giving up their degrees in the Philippines and settling to be nurses abroad. But that didn’t stop me from trying to achieve my dreams. Again, with a lot of sacrifice I was able to work as a nurse at a dialysis clinic. Each day I had to cheer up dialysis patients, telling them not to lose hope and take each day as a blessing.

Now, I’m 59 and living with my husband in the Bay Area. We were not blessed with children but my life is full because I’m able to serve in a clinic, especially during this pandemic.

I also advise people on investment. Seeing how I can bring joy to people who have financial challenges gives me happiness.

I invested at SMDC buying two properties at pre-selling rates. I plan to buy more. I know for a fact that in a few years, I can sell those properties at a much higher price.

Living abroad is hard work. Investing wisely helps me earn more. When there’s a will, there will always be a way. That’s what I Iearned.

Good Guys Bring Great Smiles

Published By: One News PH | June 4, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic is being felt much more this year, as it seems to be hitting closer to home. We are striving to stay hopeful, but there are aspects of our health – mental, physical and even dental – that are feeling the brunt of the outbreak.

The Health and Wellness Caravan organized by SMDC in partnership with the Philippine Red Cross has been doing the rounds of SMDC properties in Metro Manila since last year. The volunteer dentist found that most of the dental problems were caused by the food the residents were eating out of stress and distress: sweets.

What can we do about it? Help the community, in true Good Guys fashion, of course.

Dentists on the web

In December, Dr. Noli Marquez of Trees Residences and Dr. Arden Perez of Grass Residences, who operate a dental clinic in Quezon City together, brought smiles to SMDC communities through a webinar. The goal was to elevate the oral-hygiene level and improve the dental health of patients especially during these difficult times. The webinar attendees were given the opportunity to have one-on-one consultations with the dentists.

“It’s an advocacy and a commitment despite the odds,” says Dr. Perez. The pandemic has made dental-service provision costlier and more tedious, so the dentist duo looked at the webinar as an opportunity to help more people.

“Not all people can go to dental clinics these days due to ongoing restrictions,” says Dr. Marquez. “Our session was interactive. We immediately provided advice to situations and issues that were raised by our participants.”

This meant teaching residents remedies the moment they develop dental issues like toothaches. “We taught them practical steps they could take to prevent dental problems especially while quarantined,” Dr. Marquez adds.

Residents who care

Dr. Marquez practices general and aesthetic dentistry while Dr. Perez specializes in cases that require surgical intervention. To help patients at this difficult time, the duo keeps their fees at a minimum, even with the additional costs of PPEs and with the limit in the number of patients they can attend to.

Not only that. They take in indigent patients and waive consultation and procedure fees.

“We may not be able to fully offer free services, but in our own little way, we want to align with how SMDC reaches out to extend a helping hand not just to residents but also to people beyond our communities,” says Dr. Perez. “It is fulfilling just to be able to help.”

Extending a lifeline is, after all, the core of being a Good Guy. It is about each of us making the commitment to take care of our residents and surrounding communities – volunteering time and services and making a real effort to live green and reduce our carbon footprints. It is about nurturing good hearts and brave spirits that continue to give even while they are experiencing hard times.

When we care for our community, our community cares for us. We then all thrive happily, healthily and securely.

From Good Guys to Great Moms

Published By: Manila Bulletin | May 24, 2021

Some of them do it full-time. By full-time, we mean round-the-clock, 24/7, rain or shine, no holidays, sometimes without a lunch break. But they do it always, with love. And they will do it again, over and over.

SMDC, in partnership with Balloons and Blooms, turned its May 8 and 9 Weekend Markets at Trees Residences in Fairview, MPlace Residences in South Triangle, Grace Residences in Taguig, and Field Residences in Sucat, into a special day for moms. What started out as a simple Mother’s Day tribute became heartwarming stories.

“Mom, you give me all the needs in my life – food, water, and love. I love you!” That short and sweet letter from nine-year-old Harriet Goldfine to her mom Jessa, sums up the very definition of a mother.

The past year and a half had been a very challenging time for the sunny and playful Harriet, who has had to contend with a new normal restrictive lifestyle and the absence of her dad, who could not come home due to flight restrictions. Now, it is just her and her mom doing everything together and providing comfort to each other in these times.

Nothing pains Jessa more than seeing the loneliness and longing of her daughter for her father and their pre-pandemic bonding moments. Harriet loves the outdoors and looks forward to her and her dad’s mall visits and playtimes. Jessa has had to play both father and mother to Harriet during the last year and a half, devoting all of her time to her daughter – helping her with her daily school assignments, arranging meet-ups with her friends from the other units, cooking her favorite sinigang and enjoying afternoon strolls together inside their Trees Residences community. Jessa spends her day taking care of Harriet. In the evenings, she works as an online teacher.

Harriet and mom Jessa

A mother will give – and give up – everything for her children to see them happy and healthy and to give them a sense of normalcy in the midst of a hard-to-grasp, life-altering situation. In their search for a good life for their children, some mothers have to endure being away from them. Other members of the family then become mother figures to them.

Such is the case with five-year-old Angeline Supeña.

On Mother’s Day at Grace Residences, she wrote: “Happy Mother’s Day to my lola. Thank you for taking care of me and Kuya Gelo. Promise ‘di na ako iihi sa bed. We love you. Stay healthy.”

Angeline and Lola Natalia

Lola is 71-year-old Natalia Untalan who has lovingly taken on the task of being ‘the other mother’ to them. Angeline and her older brother Angelo stay in Cabanatauan with their parents, but it is lola who looks after them as both parents are at work full-time. The siblings are so devoted to their grandmother that they still sleep beside her (and lola has to endure the occasional bedwetting!).

Summer vacations are usually spent at uncle Michael Untalan’s Grace Residences home. Pre-pandemic, Michael and the children loved spending time swimming in the condo’s pool, which would be capped by a food treat at Grace Mall. This year, they spent more time at Grace Residences because their online classes enabled them to attend school remotely.

Some children are not as lucky as Angeline who has the company and love not only of her mother but also those of her grandmother.

Precious Ann Guevarra, eight, lost her mother three years ago. The past five years had been most challenging for Precious Ann and her two siblings. At age three, she had to witness her mother battling cancer. At five, she lost her. Adjusting to a motherless life, with a grieving father, had been very difficult for her and her siblings. To help them cope, the children’s extended families welcomed them into their homes on the weekends and during school breaks. Precious Ann’s favorite was weekends at Field Residences with Aunt Ellen dela Cruz, her mom’s older sister.

On Mother’s Day weekend, Precious Ann wrote her mom: “Happy Mother’s Day in heaven. Don’t worry about me, Mimi and Dada are taking care of me. I wish you were here. I love you.”

Precious Ann and her ‘Mimi’

Precious Ann may have lost her mother at such a young age, but she has found a mother in her “Mimi,” her term of endearment for Ellen, and “Dada,” Ellen’s husband Jimmy. True to her name, Precious Ann has been the precious gift Ellen and Jimmy had been praying for. They have been married for 15 years without a child of their own. Last year, they took Precious Ann permanently into their home.

Ellen is thankful that she is working from home as she gets to spend most of her time with Precious Ann, helping her with her homework, designing pancakes, and reading the Bible together. Ellen admits though that Precious Ann is more of a Dada’s girl. They would oftentimes spend afternoons by the oval, the park at Field Residences, where he teaches her karate. They can hardly wait for the re-opening of the pool so Dada can teach her swimming, too. Precious Ann loves her new home’s balcony where she gets to delight in the sight of a rainbow after a rain or a shooting star at night, things that busy adults took for granted in pre-pandemic times. For Ellen, nothing can replace the precious times she gets to spend with Precious Ann.

They can be the biological mothers, adoptive mothers, surrogate mothers, or mother figures. Each one of them deserves as much gratitude and appreciation as the love they give to their children. They never stop working at their full-time jobs hoping to receive the best remuneration: a good life and a good upbringing to mold their children into The Good Guys, not only of their homes, but also of the rest of their communities.

SMDC ‘Happynings’ at Grass Residences

June 24, 2019

What do technology, work, and wall have in common? They all serve to restrict or completely shatter any chance of face-to-face, relatively more personal interaction between people.

Gone are the days when children would excitedly run to the streets to play with other kids their age. They would rather stay indoors and play with their gadgets.

Friends and relatives rarely spend time to go on lengthy and relaxing out-of-town vacations. Or even to have picnics and barbecue parties together. They are too engrossed in their work and other preoccupations.

Neighbors no longer go out of their houses to engage in friendly chats. Worse, they hardly recognize each other when they happen to bump into one another outside of their neighborhood.

SMDC, the country’s fastest-growing residential developer, acknowledges this sad reality and endeavors to address it.

With an objective to enhance SMDC living experience by promoting a more active, happy, healthy and thriving community life amongst its homeowners, SMDC launched SMDC Happynings. Through a series of events held at its various residences, SMDC aims to offer its residents a chance to meet, mingle and engage each other in a day of fun-filled activities.

To kick off the SMDC Happynings series for this year, an Olympics Event was held last May 25 at SMDC Grass Residences Complex in Quezon City, beside SM City North Edsa.

Eight participating teams, with each sporting a different color, challenged each other in friendly competitions. The games that the competitors played included Tug of War, Sack Race, Three-legged Race, Backyard Obstacle Race, Swimming Relay, Badminton, and Basketball (3 on 3, 3-point shootout and skills challenge).

The participants were clearly bristling with energy, the adrenalin was amazing, and the excitement and buzz among the crowd was palpable.

When the participants, spectators and guests alike would find themselves in need of food and fluid replenishment, all they had to do was run to the Food Area where concessionaires like Bagnet Rice Patong, Aling Nene’s Barbecue, and Taneng’s Catering were stationed. On the other side of that area were found the sponsors that helped make the event possible –Pocari Sweat, IVO Faucet-Mounted Water Purifier, Nuat Thai Foot & Body Massage, Marca Piña and the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

For most of the unit owners that participated, the day proved to be exhausting yet extremely rewarding. It started as early as 8:30 in the morning with the Registration, and finished at around 5:00 in the afternoon with the Awarding Ceremonies and Closing Remarks.

The winners for Basketball and Badminton are as follows:

BASKETBALL

3 on 3

– Champion: Purple Team (MVP – John Matthew Del Rosario)

– 2nd Place: Blue Team

3-Point Shootout

– Arman Adviento (Blue Team)

Skills Challenge

– Jordan Surquiza

BADMINTON

– Champion: Kristian Rafols and Cocoy Sta Ana

– 1st Runner Up: Adrian Adriano and Noel Manansala

– 2nd Runner Up: Kat Adriano and Rochelle Aquino

Open to all residents of SMDC Grass Residences and their guests, the SMDC Happynings: Grass Olympics was a venue wherein everyone had a great time meeting and playing with fellow Grass residents. It was a day filled with fun, laughter and kindling of new and old friendships among neighbors. Aside from belongingness and community enjoyment, the event also managed to foster sportsmanship among the participants.

That was exactly what SMDC, through its Happynings series, hoped to accomplish.

For more information about SMDC and its developments, visit www.smdc.com or call 858-0300 or 0917-500-5151 #SMDCGoodLife #SMDCTheGoodGuys.

INQUIRER.net BrandRoom/LA

SMDC x ALAB Pilipinas Basketball Clinic

June 21, 2018

SMDC and Alab Pilipinas teamed up to bring their mutual passion to life through a basketball clinic training young ones on the sport at Grass Residences — just one of the SMDC properties with complete sporting and fitness amenities. It boasts of six swimming pools including a 50-meter lap pool, multiple basketball, volleyball, and badminton courts, and in-house gym.