Ashley Ortega is one of the underrated actresses in Philippine entertainment industry. At a young age, she could easily delineate roles, bida-kontrabida, that's really meant for senior actresses the likes of Marriam in “Legal Wives” and as Jackie in "Widows' Web." A professional figure skater, she started skating at the age of 4 competing in different countries like Thailand and Malaysia. But television waved at her at the age of 12 for commercials and eventually she delved on acting with "Hearts on Ice" for her first bida role ever. For her remarkable portrayal as the dreamer Ponggay, Ashley was recognized as the Breakthrough Artist of the Year at the 2024 Platinum Stallion National Media Awards held last February. On May 30, 2024, Ortega won her first international award, as Best Actress in the 2024 Harlem International Film Festival for the 19th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival entry, "As if it's True," opposite the equally talented youn
Land travel to the Queen Province of the North may take a whole day trip or more but it is always worth it. It was my fourth visit to Isabela and my second for the City of Ilagan, the capital city. Every time our group of Manila media travels in this Queen province (named after Queen Isabela II of Spain in 1856), various development and infrastructure projects are evident with new roads and bridges being built while tourism sites being improved especially in Ilagan. With a vast 33,500 hectares of production areas for corn (which were already harvested when the Manila media group of 20 arrived for the recent Mammangi Festival 2024), we can’t help but be amazed how the city government defied the onslaught of the El Nino and makes remarkable progress on the side. And there’s more. Multi-billion development projects await the City of Ilagan as its forward-looking top executive who has earned the moniker,The Working Mayor, in the person of Dr. Josemarie Diaz, was busy meeting investors ev