Carmina in ‘raw, honest’ podcast with long-time showbiz pals  

Carmina Villarroel admits she can be talkative and is willing to share her thoughts on any topic that interests her. But she is not willing to talk about something she deems sensitive.

Carmina, Gelli de Belen, Candy Pangilinan and Janice de Belen headline the talk show “Wala Pa Kaming Title”, their podcast that can be accessed thru Spotify.

She also shared that she became friends with Gelli when she was only 12 and they became close since then. She also became tight with Janice and the friendship has endured through two decades.

“Since I am the youngest in the family, Gelli and Janice became my sisters,” she shared during the digital press conference for “Wala Pa Kaming Title.”

Since the four of them are close and their friendship became even stronger thru the years, their talks in their podcast are very raw and honest.

“It is just like overhearing the conversation of your titas on the other table. Just small talk over coffee but we hope that those who are watching can pick up insights about our experiences,” said Carmina.

If not for schedule problems, they hope they can do more material for their future podcast, like enough for three to four episodes.

“We really enjoy talking with each other and sharing ideas on just about any topic which we hope people will find entertaining as well.”

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While the world is experiencing jitters over the crisis between Ukraine and Russia, local LPG market players are logging steady market growth.

Just like other petroleum products however, the country has no influence over contract prices of LPG. This is attributed by the Energy department to the relatively small domestic requirement versus the world demand.

Amid this backdrop, market player South Pacific Inc, (SPI) still registered a hefty market share along with Liquigaz Philippines Corp.(LPC) as shown in the latest year-to-date-figures as of September 2021. LPC got 30.2 percent and SPI covered 28.4 percent respectively in Luzon market share. SPI got the biggest share in the National Capital Region with 38.6 percent while LPC cornered 35.5 percent in Northern Luzon. Both companies had one-quarter share each of the Southern Luzon market share.

These figures confirm that global liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is moving towards growth at a compound annual growth rate of 4.9% from the 2020’s $109.5 billion to $153 billion in 2022. The Department of Energy figures as of September 2021 also reveal that total country LPG demand reached 15,479.2 MB with Luzon taking the bulk of 11,947.3 MB. Visayas and Mindanao combined was only 3,531.9 MB.

Petron Corp.’s share in Luzon dropped to 15.2 percent but was still dominant in the Visayas and Mindanao regions. In the Visayas, Petron got 31.3 percent of the share, while registering 29 percent in Mindanao.

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Milo Sandig, Chief Executive Officer of Digitalinnov Marketing, sees the need to highlight the power of social media and digital technology in this odd period in our history.

“Digital technology is at an all-time high as more and more screen times are recorded for each Filipino,” he noted when sharing his thoughts on this year’s election.

Election 2022 owes much to social media more than ever, especially that we’re still dealing with a new normal caused by COVID-19.

Sandig explained, “Social media works in two ways. With how I observed things these past few years, digital technology has bred more people to be victims of misleading information. Yet, we also cannot discredit the fact that there are people who became informed due to the emergence of getting readily available information right at their fingertips.”

Sandig pointed out the distinction of Filipinos as netizens, saying, “You’ve seen just how lively the conversations are on Facebook, Twitter, and community pages. Pinoys are very opinionated. We don’t just ‘like’ or ‘share’ a post, but we also want to be part of the conversation and speak our minds.”

The game-changing platform of social media, powered by digital technology, can actually make or break a society.

Sandig also shared his thoughts on the generational gap between old schoolers and today’s hipsters, and how something as important as a national election is affected by the mindset difference.

“Younger generations nowadays rarely open traditional media unlike its predecessors. They source their information from social media and engage their opinions from forums and groups they belong to. If next in line leaders don’t prioritize the main medium where people can be communicated to, then there will be a strong disconnection in getting their message across.”