It is December once again and for the Filipinos this only means one thing, Christmas is here. With all of the lights adorning the houses, children going around singing Christmas carols and the cold wind that blows in the early light of the morning, it is really hard to miss and mistake it for another event.
And of course the festive season means countless gatherings and parties, which our company is no stranger to. That is why last December 16, 2016, our company’s first Christmas party was celebrated under the name Fujitsu Engineering Technologies Philippines Inc.
The Christmas party theme for this year is Casino Night, which was filled with all the posh and glamour of a hotel casino. All employees were dressed to the nines in shades of black, red and white. Women wore stunning dresses while the men wore dashing suits. You would certainly mistake Bellevue Hotel for a high class casino in Las Vegas.
As a tradition, the party started off with a speech from our President Masanori Takada. The speech was extra special since this is the first Christmas party under the FETP name. After President Takada’s speech, he passed the honor to do the traditional toast to his successor and new President, Ryujiro Nakagawa.
After the opening ceremony by Mr. Takada and Mr. Nakagawa, we started one of the highlights of the party, dinner. After all we cannot enjoy a party with an empty stomach. After eating the scrumptious meal prepared by Bellevue Hotel, we proceeded with the first drawing of prizes.
As excited as everyone was for the prizes, the Employee Events Committee (EEC) immediately proceeded with the next activity after the first draw of the door prizes. After all, the night is young and there are definitely more prizes to raffle off. The next activity was the group presentation. This year’s group presentation theme was “A Cappella Christmas” wherein groups had to sing Christmas songs in acapella. It was evident that every group put so much effort in preparing for the presentation because everyone was awesome. In fact, each presentation was so well prepared that our three judges: Mr. Yazuwa and Mr. Lester, both employees of Bellevue, and our very own Abe sensei, had a very hard time deciding the winner so we had to hold off the announcement until later.
After another round of door prizes, EEC entertained everyone with a little game entitled “Name that Carol”. The mechanics were simple. Every team will have one representative at a time, the representative will then draw two different papers, one containing an onomatopoeia and the other containing a song title. The representative will then sing the song with the onomatopoeia that he/she drew. The team that guesses the most number of songs wins. Needless to say the results were as hilarious as the game sounded.
A Christmas party will never be complete without the exchanging of gifts. Prior to the exchange gift, people did not know who they were giving their gift to, the only clue they had was a code name, which was in a form of a playing card, and the gender of the receiver.
After the exchange gifts, the new members of the FETP family, Ms. Corazon "Cora" De Castro, Ms. Melinda "Lyn" Estuita and Ms. Arianne "Ara" Larwa, presented a special song number.
Next, HRGA announced the employees who will be receiving special awards for this year. First up was the loyalty service award which was given to employees that have rendered 5, 10, 15 and 20 years of service to the company.
After the recipients obtained their respective awards, a special speech was given by Ma’am Aster Rondero, the one of the 20th year awardee who is set to leave FETP by the end of December for an early retirement. It was a tearful moment as one of our beloved FETP family members bid us farewell. Ms. Aster has been an integral part of FETP for the past 20 years. Her contributions will always be valued and remembered. While we are sad to see her go, we wish her the very best as she starts a new chapter of her life.
On a lighter note, the next part of the program was HRGA’s announcement of the promoted employees. HRGA also announced the employee of the year who was none other than Jerome Domingo. Such achievements are what propel each and every employee to grow and strive for more. We congratulate each and every one of you!
After the exciting announcements and the heartfelt speech we proceeded with the first half of the major prize draws. The prizes for this draw were the following: Appliance Showcase, WD 2tb External HD and a Sony Experia Phone. It was an entertaining and thrilling night, to say the least.
As the night nears its end, the judges for the “A Cappella Christmas” group presentation have finally determined a winner. With much excitement, EEC announced that the group Blackjack won the contest. Of course, the best dressed of the night did not go unnoticed. Each employee was asked to vote who they think should win the Best Dressed award. It was really no surprise when the host announced that the winners were our beloved President Masanori Takada and Ma’am Aster. They really brought their A-Game for their last official FETP Christmas party with their Casino Royale themed wardrobe.
The time has come to finally draw the winners of the most-awaited major prizes; a Panasonic Refrigerator and the grand prize, a 40” Samsung FHD LED TV with Samsung Home Theatre system. It was only fitting that we ask our departing President to draw the lucky winners. A warm congratulations to our winners: Ms. Cora and Marvi, respectively.
As this year comes to a close, so does the duty of the 2016 EEC. The EEC is proud to have served its colleagues this year, organizing events that put a smile on their faces. And as they say, out with the old and in with the new. So as we bid good bye with a small video presentation and a speech from our recently appointed chairman Ma’am Geraldine Lacierda. We welcome the new EEC Chairman for the year 2017, Sir Raymond Guevara.
And to finally end the night, an inspiring closing speech on the successful events that happened in 2016 and the exciting plans for 2017 was given by the new EEC Chairman, Sir Mon. It was truly a great way to end an awe inspiring and emotional year end party for the year 2016!