GMA arriving Tues. to kick of airport
ALL SET. The time capsule laying ceremony for the proposed P4.2 billion Panglao Bohol International Airport will be on this site in Tawala, Panglao where Pres. Arroyo (inset) will be the guest of honor on Tuesday, 10 a.m.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will lead the capsule-laying rites Tuesday to break ground for the P4.2-billion Panglao Bohol International Airport Development Project (PBIADP).
The President Management Staff (PMS) confirmed the President’s attendance in the activity after she decline the May 8 schedule set earlier because of other equally pressing commitments.
Ms. Arroyo was supposed to be the guest of honor and speaker during the Bohol-Jiangxi Friendship Day celebration. The day commemorates the singing of a friendly province relations agreement on May 8, 2006 in Nanchang, the capital city of Jiangxi. Aumentado and then Gov. Huang Zhiquan signed the document.
This agreement “sealed” the memorandum of friendly exchange and cooperation between the two provinces that Aumentado and Meng Jian Zhu, then chair of the Standing Committee of the Jiangxi Provincial People’s Congress on September 6, 2005 at Metro Center Hotel in Tagbilaran City. Meng is now the PROC minister of public security.
Aumentado and a delegation returned to Nanchang City where, on October 28, 2006, he and Huang signed the framework agreement on further enhancing friendly exchange and cooperation between the two provinces, this time witnessed by President Arroyo and Meng.
He said the framework defines in clear terms the areas of cooperation in tourism including the establishment of a sister-mountain relationship between Bohol’s Chocolate Hills and Jiangxi’s Mt. Lushan, agriculture, mining, education, culture and sports.
At the capsule-laying ceremony, Ms. Arroyo will be assisted by Transportation and Communications Secretary Leonardo Mendoza, Aumentado, General Manager Alfonso Cusi of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) and Panglao Mayor Benedicto Alcala.
Cusi has committed that the P3 billion payables of the Philippine Airlines (PAL) to MIAA will form part of its corporate funds to be spent for the Panglao Airport. During the last meeting of the Panglao Island Tourism Estate Inter-Agency Task Force at the Panglao Island Nature Resort (PINR) in Bingag, Dauis, Bohol, DOTC committed to shoulder the balance of P1.2 billion.
As the major funder, MIAA sought to be the lead agency in the implementation of the project and subsequent operation – a request that the President approved – thereby ironing out what was perceived to be a kink before.
Most Rev. Leonardo Medroso, bishop of Tagbilaran has been invited to deliver the invocation while Alcala will give the welcome remarks.
MIAA Assistant General Manager for Airport Development and Corporate Affairs Tirso Serrano will give the project brief while General Manager Alfonso Cusi and Aumentado will deliver messages.
Mendoza will introduce the President who will deliver her keynote speech. A joint press conference will follow.
Cabinet meeting not only Mendoza is expected on Tuesday. As in her April 29 visit, Ms. Arroyo will also hold a Cabinet meeting.
But contrary to last month’s venue, which was the ferry that brought the President party to Camiguin, the PMS is now finalizing the meeting place, which is gravitating towards the PINR.
Preparations indicate that the Cabinet meeting will be in the afternoon, capped with a luau in the evening.
Barring changes, the President will rest overnight (RON) in Bohol, and participate in a private diving activity at the Balicasag Island Dive Resort – one of the Top 3 dive sites in the world, Aumentado quoted her as saying.
She is slated to leave for Mindanao at lunchtime or in the afternoon.
DTI BOHOL PURSUES VALUE CHAIN APPROACH IN DEVELOPING PRIORITY SECTORS: PROCESSED FOOD (PASALUBONG), RAFFIA-BASED PRODUCTS AND FASHION ACCESSORIES
The Department of Trade and Industry – Bohol in partnership with the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and local stakeholders/partners organized and conducted a value chain workshop (second level) to three priority sectors in the province namely processed food (pasalubong), raffia-based products and fashion accessories sectors last May 5 and 6, 2008 at the Soledad Suites Function Room, 4th Floor of the Soledad Suites Building.
The main purpose of the value chain workshops is to help partner public and private agencies and concerned producers in the sectors assess the value chain links of their respective businesses and sectors that will be the basis in formulating the development plans of the sectors. The value chain maps that were developed during the first workshop conducted last February 2008 at the Metro Centre Hotel were given deeper analyses and treatment as to value adding, and cost and revenue efficiency along the value chain links of the industries. Findings of which will be the basis of the program interventions for the sectors.
Twenty (20) micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMES) attended the workshop with lead facilitators from the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), Ms. Rita Pilarca, Senior Adviser GTZ and Ms. Miriam Bacalso, Regional Coordinator GTZ. The GTZ facilitators were assisted by sector facilitators from DTI Bohol, Blair Panong, Jerome Gabin, Jess Bernasor, Sungsoo Jin and Lucille Autentico.
DTI Bohol Provincial Director Nannette Arbon emphasized the importance of employing the value chain approach in the development of the three priority sectors.
Next steps will be the focused sectoral workshops for the three sectors. ***
DTI assures price watch to boost money power
Will the reported pay hikes be enough to boost the purchasing power of consumers in an economic crunch?
If not, then the local Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said no unreasonable price increases of basic goods should happen, to allow consumers to mount the rising tide of prices in basic commodities.
Concordia Erano of the local DTI price monitoring team claimed that assuring people of fair prices [in basic goods] is the best thing they can do, so a tight price watch is in order.
DTI is now warning unscrupulous businessmen who overprice basic commodities.
An overprice which is essentially profiteering is pricing goods more than 10% of its average price in the preceding month, states Republic Act 7581.
Consumers have been wary about price increases following weekly price adjustments in fuel and petroleum products.
“This should not be enough reason for entrepreneurs to get opportunistic,” DTI said. To keep the tags in these things, Erano reported that the DTI is poised for another round of price monitoring activities, in an effort to implement the law so that prices will remain stable and good available to the consuming public.
Opportunists could get between a month to 5 months in jail or a penalty of P1T to a million when caught profiteering. The law also provides tougher penalties for overpricing basic goods.
The country has noted weekly adjustments of 50 centavos on petroleum prices recently. The DTI monitoring activities will put price coordinating council members in markets to make sure that any movement [in price] is justified.
This, following reports that daily wage earners are expected to get pay hikes starting June 1. State workers on the other hand are reported to get 10% salary increases by the following month.
On this, Labor Secretary Marianito Roque assured the June wage hike for daily wage earners, as regional wage boards are expected to decide how much, by mid-May.
Roque also cited the mandatory 15-day publication of rates before the wage hike is implemented.
Every last week, Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (PGMA) instructed Rgional Wage Boards to work overtime to finally set the rates of increase in the respective regions.
By law, the government set up the tripartite wage boards to determine the cost of living in areas so as not to kill investors who choose to put up country side businesses for cheaper costs. This also happens just as the President urged companies to package non-wage benefits for workers while the government was yet to decide on the raise by May 1, Labor Day.
“Non-wage benefits are non-taxable, so workers tend to enjoy it to the hilt,” Malacanang was once quoted as saying
For state workers, PGMA has recently okayed the 10% basic raise when she signed an executive order to that effect lately.
The fund has been incorporated in the 2008 national budget, which legislators passed. The allocation also included P41B share for state workers’ miscellaneous benefits.
As to the executive order, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. said it would be similar to last year’s issuance which granted civilian employees of the national government a 10% increase in their basic salary.
Last year’s EO granted a P1,200 increase in the monthly subsistence and other allowances of policemen, soldiers and other uniformed personnel.
As to the June raise in daily wage earners’ pay, the National wage Productivity Board believes it should not cause layoffs or businesses to close.
“The basic pay hike is expected to have minimal effects on inflation rate and business since there are only 2.7 million minimum wage earners,” it said.
Much earlier still, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), in a study bared that a big across-the-board wage increase would have a devastating effect on businesses.
The same study revealed that some 800, 000 to 900,000 workers might be laid of if a significant across-the-board wage increase is implemented.
Realtors tighten anti-colorum drive
The days of people brokering and selling real estate without a license are maybe over.
The Philippine Association of Realtors Boards (PAREB), Inc., the country’s oldest and largest realty service group, is strengthening its national campaign against colorum realty practitioners.
During the 12th Visayas-Mindano Regional Conference held at the Betel House in Dumaguete City last month, PAREB re-affirmed its trust to go after persons engage in real estate brokering without even passing the real estate brokerage exam or acting as realty brokers and salesmen without a license from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) through the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB).
The drive is spearheaded by PAREB national president, Daisy J. Kokseng, and chairman of the board, Pilar Torres-Banaag.
In the different PAREB boards or chapters around the country, cases have been filed against violators which resulted to conviction and subsequent imposition of the penalties.
Presidential Decree No. 957, which complements R.A. No. 2728, 3715 and 3969, penalizes any person who engages in real estate transactions without securing the proper license.
The DTI through Administrative Order No. 6 has recently increased the files on unlicensed dealer, broker and salesman. The minimum penalty pegged at P40,000, medium at P80,000 and maximum at P120,000.
In addition to paying the fine, anybody caught selling or leasing real estate without the proper license may, upon convection, be punished by imprisonment of not more than ten (10) years, according to PD No. 957.
A person can only secure a license as a real estate broker if he has passed a rigid real estate brokerage licensure examinations conducted twice a year by the DTI.
Meanwhile, a person may also get a license as a real estate agent or salesman if he works directly under the supervision of a licensed real estate broker.
BOHOLANO DELICACIES FOR IFEX
by: Jess Bernasor
The Province of Bohol will be carving its name as a new source of ethnic food delicacies in the upcoming International Food Exhibition (IFEX) on May 16-18, 2008 to be held at the new SMEX Convention Center, Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City, Philippines. This was made possible thru the Partner Region Program (PRP) which was developed by the Center for International Trade, Expositions and Missions (CITEM), an attached agency of the Department of Trade and Industry, to assist promising food enterprises gain wider access to domestic and international markets. Aside from the IFEX participation, the Boholano community in Manila and other parts of Luzon will now have the chance to savor the best of Boholano food products as these will soon be made available in some leading department stores and supermarkets. The establishment of potential market outlets will be spearheaded by the Boholano Processed Foods Business Association, Inc. or BOHOL ProFoods.
Under the program, select food companies from the identified region were given assistance in food packaging development/enhancement in order to make their product more competitive in both domestic and international markets. Trainings and seminars were likewise given to company owners in Good Manufacturing Practices, Brand Management, Process Cost Management, Package Design and Labeling, Marketing, Visual Merchandising and Negotiation Techniques to help them improve their production to meet quality standards and equip them with knowledge in negotiating better with both local and foreign buyers. The products, in their enhanced packaging and labels, will be showcased in a special setting during the exhibition.
For this year’s edition, the Central Visayas Region (covering Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental and Siquijor) had been identified as the Partner Region for IFEX 2008. The PRP program consisted of nine (9) months of preparation which started last September 2007 to May of 2008. One-on-One Consultancies and In-Plant Assessments were likewise provided by the PRP experts to these firms.
The PRP Team is composed of experts from the Center for International Trade, Expositions and Missions (CITEM), Department of Science and Technology-Packaging Research and Development Center (DOST-PRDC), Philippine Trade Training Center (PTTC) and San Miguel Packaging Products. Of the 48 prospective firms, only 3 from Cebu, 8 from Bohol, 4 from Negros and 3 from Siquijor were selected to participate under the program.
For the Province of Bohol, the following food enterprises were selected to join the IFEX 2008 with their identified best food product namely: BUCAREZ Food Processing Corp. (Peanut Kisses), BQ Breadbasket (Calamay and Ube Jam-retort pack), Jojie’s Bakeshop (Caycay), Bohol Quality Pastries (Tajada), Bohol Bee Farm (Mango Spread, Pesto, Tea ), Candabong RIC Multipurpose Cooperative (Ginger Powder), Tienda Boholana (Oatmeal Cookie w/ Mango Tidbits) and Tessie’s Sweets and Pastries (Broas).
Bohol DTI Provincial Director Maria Elena C. Arbon is confident that the Boholano food products would make it very well in the exhibition as all participating firms are well prepared and gearing up for the activity not to mention the support and patronage of the Boholanos who are now residing in that part of the archipelago. (ends)
