MANILA, Philippines — For students, back-to-school is an occasion to look forward to, when children show off their new goodies to classmates and friends. The first day of school will see children donning their well-pressed uniforms, their new shoes and socks, bags and carry-all for their "baon".

For college students, it is all about seeing their friends from vacation --- the first week will be a parade of the latest fashion ---from jeans to shirts, shoes and bags, accessories, even cellphones, laptops and iPads.

But with the rising costs of school tuition fees, gasoline, transport fare, and even basic necessities, parents are on the continuous look out for better ways to cut costs.

Festival Supermall in Alabang, Muntinlupa offers the solution with its annual back-to-school sale that provides shoppers with big discounts, up to 50 percent, offered by top brands and retail stores. The mall-wide sale is set today, June 4 and tomorrow, June 5.

College kids can stock up on their apparel for the rest of the school year as hip brands offer new styles at amazing discounts. Among them are Rusty Lopez, Mossimo, Freeway, Pabder Uomo, Genevieve, YRYS, Tribal, Preppy, The Flower Collection, Kashieca, Celine, Unica Hija, Bench, The Red Shop, Get Laud, The T-Shirt Collection, American Boulevard, Human, Ensembles, Studio AK, Officine, Lee, Jag Jeans, Kaboosh, Hang Ten, Bayo, Von Dutch, Fossil, Ducks Unlimited, Solo, Studio Ritratto, Dickies, PD & Co., Dockers, Levi’s, Think Pink, Collezione.

Discounted prices on school shoes and athletic footwear are being offered at Suki Shoes, Centropell, Skechers, Umbro, Merrel, Ecko Unltd., Leaveland, Reebok, Rockport, Puma, Alberto, Toby’s Sports, Zoo York, Hush Puppies, Mendrez, Sebago, and Cushe.

Also saluting our returning students with surprises are Sarabia Optical and JP Sabater Optical, Body Shop, Illustrazio Packshoppe, Kameraworld, Let’s Face it Salon, The Travel Club, and JP Sabater Optical.

Festival Supermall is your one-stop-shop for back-to-school shopping, with over 600 specialty stores, boutiques and kiosks, including bookstores, apparel, footwear, bags and leather goods, computer equipment, footwear; sporting goods, and many more. Festival Supermall also has National Bookstore, Power Books, Office Warehouse branches.

It is a premier development of Filinvest Corporate City, the only mall with five anchor stores: Shopwise Supercenter,

SaveMore, Robinsons Department Store, Ace Hardware and Handyman. It has over 700 shops, a total of 2,300 multilevel parking slots, various food outlets, indoor amusement rides, a dinosaur exhibit, and 10 cinemas.