PIA Dispatch - Monday, May 18, 2009

PGMA: Asian Region must have a voice in shaping the world

The Asian region can survive global economic slowdown and come out the strongest compared to other continents, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said on Monday.

In her speech at the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and the Philippines, the President said the time has come for the region to have a voice in shaping the world.

“It is time to harness the potential of Asia, to capitalize on its resources and to give the Pan-Asian Region a stronger voice in shaping the world economic order,” the President said, “One way to achieve this is for ASEAN and India to accelerate the negotiations for an ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement.”

The President called on the Filipino-Indian business community and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce, Inc. to make the advocacy for the ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement a mission for the 60th Anniversary of Filipino - Indian relations.

She also urged the Philippine-Indian business community to “ensure that the two countries work together to build a more cohesive regional community that will strengthen the economic clout of all nations in our rapidly growing region.”

President Arroyo vowed to work harder to ensure that the Philippines remains a “competitive player within the region” and to attract investments from countries like India, with the support of the Indian business community and the Indian Chambers of Commerce, Inc. 

“We have invested heavily in improving the quality of the country’s human resources, in lowering transaction flows and the costs of doing business, in developing efficient access to financing, and building a seamless infrastructure network,” the President said. 

She noted the ease now of immigration procedures for the Indian business community and the removal of many other types of red tape which “we did away with because you pointed them out to us.”
The President also pointed out that the government is focusing on developing and strengthening industry sectors such as commodities, business process outsourcing and “niche tourism.”
“One of the niche tourism sectors we identified is to invite Indian movie companies in Bollywood to come and do films in the Philippines,” she said.

Palace gets more support for CARP Law extension

Malacanang gained Congressional support for the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) law. 

Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said Senate and House leaderships vowed in meeting on Monday to prioritize the proposed extension of the law that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had certified as urgent.

CARP law will expire this month.

Among those who attended the meeting were Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman members of the House of Representatives led by Speaker Prospero Nograles, Senate Agrarian Reform Committee Chair Gringo Honasan and members of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

The President is seeking a 10-year extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) to 2018 to allow government to fully cover the remaining two million hectares that would benefit an additional two million farmers.

Some seven million hectares have already been placed under CARP since 1988, benefiting more than four million farmers.

The President said the extension of the CARP law would not only emancipate but empower more farmers to become agribusinessmen.

COMELEC: selection of poll automation contractor to conclude in a few days

The Commission on Elections is working double time to get back on schedule.

Despite the emergence of a supplier with the lowest bid, the commission’s special committee will have to spare time to hear pending motions for reconsideration from previous disqualified bidders such as Sequia Voting Systems, FF Cruz/Gilat and AMA ES&S. 

On Monday, the Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) found the Smartmatic-Total Information Management consortium’s bid compliant with the commission’s requirements after the committee completed the evaluation of the remaining financial bids.

Smartmatic made a Php 7.2 Billion bid for the automation of the 2010 polls which covers 82,200 automated counting machines. 

Its close competition, Indra Sistemas, was disqualified because its Php 11-Billion offer is limited to 52,000 machines units. 

Even though they are seven days behind in the selection of the contractor for the upcoming poll’s computerization, SBAC Chair Ferdinand Raffanan expressed optimism that the commission will recovered to its target timeline by June. 

Raffanan estimated that the selection process will be completed in next two to three days.


Court ready to extend time to government agencies looking into Big 3’s alleged involvement in price manipulation

A Manila court is willing to give more time to government agencies tasked to find out if the three leading oil companies are engaged in predatory pricing and cartelization. 

If the panel comprising the Commission on Audit (COA), Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Bureau of Customs (BOC) would find the three months period inadequate to to produce a report, Judge Silvino T. Pampilo, Jr of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 26 told Radyo ng Bayan that he is willing to grant extension in examining the purchases of Petron, Pilipinas Shell and Chevron in 2003.

The examination will cover documents such as cash receipts, delivery receipts, sales invoices and purchase orders. 

Party-list Social Justice Society (SJS) in April petitioned the court to compel the three big oil firms to open their books for auditing following allegations of violations of the Oil Deregulation Law, monopoly and price manipulations. 

Transport group Pasang Masda, likewise, filed similar petitions.

In last Friday’s hearing, Judge Pampilo said he gave the companies 15 days to file comments on both petitions.