President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo wanted more protection for pre-need plan holders.
In a press briefing in Cebu, Philippine Information Agency Director General Conrado A. Limcaoco Jr. said the President directed the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) to assist and protect the interest of pre-need plan holders.
Secretary Limcaoco said the Chief Executive wanted SEC to determine the financial health of pre-need companies and ensure that these firms would meet their obligations.
If necessary, Limcaoco said, government will prosecute wayward pre-need companies.
He explained the move is driven by the President’s deep concern for pre-need plan holders’ welfare especially those have completed their payments and those whose plans have matured.
NEDA sees bright spots for RP even in recession
Global recession is still around but the Philippines has a lot of things to look forward to, a ranking official of the National Economic Development Authority said Tuesday.
In its global resiliency impact news report, Acting NEDA Director General Rolando G. Tungpalan said there are favorable developments happening in economies that were deeply affected by the worldwide slowdown.
In the US, Tungpalan said consumer spending and business confidence is peaking.
He said there are signs that the Japanese economy will rebound by the end of the year while European are predicting better economy by 2010.
Furthermore, Tungpalan is seeing more OFW remittances to come rather than decline and more jobs order are coming from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Guam.
PGMA: surveillance keeps RP free from H1N1 virus
Surveillance is key in keeping H1N1 out of the country, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said Tuesday.
“So far so good,” the President commented on how government is responding to the viral threat that has affected leading economies during an interview in Cebu.
Citing the country’s experience with SARs and how authorities worked hard to keep the Philippines free from the Avian Flu, the President is confident that government will be able to deal with H1N1.
“We’re the only one who did not have bird flu. So we hope to be, among the ones that don’t have the swine flu,” said the President, “Ang Importante ay surveillance (what is important is surveillance).”
The President added that the DOH and other agencies are making sure that thermal screening is done in all points of entry and quarantine protocols are observed on travelers who came from affected areas and those who are demonstrating fever and other signs of sickness.
On its 8th update yesterday, the Department of Health reported that the country remains free from Influenza A/H1N1 virus.
DOH also said the number of cases under observation (CUOs) have risen to 38 but 37 have tested negative of the novel virus.
Thirty-five of the cases have been discharged and only one remained in quarantine pending laboratory results as of yesterday.
Twenty-eight of the CUOs were observed at DOH designated referral hospitals. Twenty-one were admitted at Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), 3 at San Lazaro Hospital (SLH) and 4 at the Vicente Sotto Medical Center (VSMC).
Ages ranged from 1 year to 80 years old.
More than half of the cases were aged between 8 to 40 years old with 61 percent (23) of them were males.
Most CUOs came from Influenza A H1N1 affected countries: USA, Korea, Italy, Canada, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Mexico, Ireland, United Kingdom and Spain.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that the number of confirmed Influenza A (H1N1) cases increased from 4,379 in May 9 to 4,694 in May 10.
Aside from Mexico (48) and the US (3), Canada (1) and Costa Rica (1) have started reporting deaths from this novel virus.
The total number of deaths is now 49. Currently, the US has the highest number of cases (2,532). However, fatality in the US remains low (0.12%) as compared to Mexico (2.95%).
Thirty countries have already reported confirmed Influenza A (H1N1).
These countries include: Australia, Austria, Argentina, Brazil Canada, Hong Kong, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, El Salvador, France, Germany, Guatemala, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the USA.
PGMA signs Climate Change Covenant with Visayan stakeholders
Lapu-Lapu City - President Gloria Macagal Arroyo Tuesday (May 12) signed the One Visayas Climate Change Covenant with Visayan stakeholders, stressing that the environment can no longer take a back seat to economic development.
The signing highlighted the closing of the two-day One Visayas Climate Change Summit at the brand new 557-room upscale Imperial Palace Waterpark Resort Hotel here.
The President lauded the leaders of the three Visayan regions for their united stand against climate change and their initiative in convening the summit which aims to heighten public awareness on global warming and understand its causes.
“Climate change is here. Human activity has caused it,” the President declared citing the changing weather patterns and destructive typhoons like Typhoon Frank that devastated the Visayas and killed a number of people a couple of years ago.
She said climate change is bad for the Philippine economy and particularly bad for the Visayan economy whose future is mainly anchored on eco-tourism.
Humanity, she said, started climate change but it can be stopped and solutions exist, even if there is not much time to waste. “The sooner we fix it, the cheaper it will be. We have to work together,” the President stressed in her address.
The United Nations Framework on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 and the Bali Action Plan 0f 2007, she said, all provide strategies that can be simultaneously activated to address climate change.
The strategies, she said, include “adaptation” involving measures to enable people to cope with the effects of climate change, and “mitigation” to significantly reduce greenhouse gasses released to the atmosphere.
Adaptation measures, she explained, can include reforestation, early warning systems, coordinated action for rescue and rehabilitation in times of disasters and training for people earning their livelihood from degraded forests.
Mitigation measures, she added, include passage of Philippine laws such as Clean Air Act, Solid Waste Management Act and the Clean Water Act.
The Tourism Act of 2009 which she signed here today, she said, will also contribute to efforts to reduce the effects of climate change by giving more teeth to the country’s tourism jobs creation policies which have strong environment protection component.
President Arroyo said there is no reason why “job creation and good, clean and sound environmental policy cannot coexist” as may be evidenced by the country’s eco-friendly tourism industry.
The One Visayas Climate Change Summit was initiated and participated in by governors, city and municipal mayors, officers of Regional Development Councils, leaders from the academe, NGOs and other stakeholders from Regions 6, 7 and 8 in the Visayas.
Tourism Act of 2009 enhances RP's tourism competitiveness
Lapu-Lapu City - President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed a new law makes that Philippine tourism more globally competitive.
The National Tourism Act of 2009 or Republic Act (RA) 9593, signed during the “One Visayas Summit on Climate Change” at the Imperial Palace, declares it a national policy for tourism to be one of the country’s engines of investment and employment, and of growth and national development.
The President noted during the one-on-one regional interview that the signing of the tourism statute in Cebu is appropriate at this time as the province is the “number one international destination in Asia” while the Visayas region is the country’s tourism center.
RA 9593 "declares a national policy for tourism as an engine of investment, employment, growth and national development, and strengthens the Department of Tourism (DOT) and its attached agencies to effectively and efficiently implement that policy, and appropriates funds therefore."
The Act declares that tourism is an "indispensable element of the national economy and an industry of national interest and importance, which must be harnessed as an engine of socio-economic growth and cultural affirmation to generate investment, foreign exchange and employment, and to continue to mold an enhanced sense of national pride for all Filipinos."
The Act also reorganizes the Philippine Convention and Visitors Corporation (PCVC) into the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), a body corporate responsible for the marketing and promotion of the Philippines as a global tourism destination by highlighting its tourism products and services.
Meanwhile, the Duty Free Philippines (DFP) will become the Duty Free Philippines Corporation (DFPC), a body corporate mandated to operate the duty and tax-free merchandising system in the country.
The Act also establishes "tourism enterprise zones" in strategic areas, including Cebu, Davao, Bohol, Laguna, Cavite, Boracay, Palawan and Iloilo, to lure foreign investors and tourists to visit places rich in history and culture.
The new law also provides TPB funding from investment earnings of the Tourism Promotions Trust; appropriation from the national government of not less than P500 million annually for at least five years from the time of its constitution; 70 percent of the 50-percent net income of the DFPC accruing to the DOT; and at least 25 percent of the national government share remitted by international airports and seaports to the National Treasury.
Meanwhile, the DFPC will have a capitalization of P500 million, and funding for its operations will be sourced from its internally generated income and other receipts.
"With the faithful implementation of this measure, the nation can have a better institution to regulate and promote tourism and install the necessary infrastructures to make our country truly world-class," he added.
PGMA defines her desired legacy for Filipinos
The President was asked this question during a media interview Tuesday (May 12, 2009) at the brand new Imperial Palace Waterpark Resort here shortly before she addressed the “One Visayas Climate Change Summit” and the Cabinet meeting in the same venue.
Her answer: the continuity and completion of the many programs she has initiated in the economic and fiscal fronts.
The President also wants to see the continuation of what she has invested in the three E’s – education, economy and the environment.
In her inaugural address in 2004, the Chief Executive stressed that her principal responsibility was to keep the country on track and to focus on her vision of transforming the Philippines into a First World country in 20 years.
Her vision of a modern Philippines revolves around the components of free enterprise, modern agriculture, a social bias to balance the country’s economic development, and enhancing the rule of law and standards of governance.
It was apparently in accordance with this vision that her government focused on efforts to strengthen the country’s macroeconomic fundamentals, strictly observed fiscal discipline, launched an aggressive campaign to re-engage with the world, and assiduously worked on the fulfillment of her ten-point agenda that puts premium on investing in the Filipino.
It may also be accordance with her governance orientation that she dared to sacrifice much of her political capital several times, making unpopular reform decisions that happily proved correct and beneficial for the long-term welfare of the Filipino people.
One indication of her success in economic governance is the country’s unprecedented record of 36 quarters of uninterrupted growth and a record-breaking 8 percent gross national product (GNP) growth in 2007.
Investors flock to Calaca pre-offer conference
The confidence of the investor community in the government’s power privatization program has not waned.
This was again demonstrated during the pre-offer conference for the 600-megawatt Batangas Coal-Fired Thermal Power Plant (BCFTPP or the Calaca power plant) conducted by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) last Thursday, 30 April.
Eleven investor groups participated in the conference to discuss with the PSALM technical working group issues and concerns on the negotiation procedures for the sale of the Calaca power plant. The conference was also held to ensure the transparency, integrity, and fairness of the bidding process for the BCFTPP.
The prospective bidders, consisting of local and international entities, expressed keen interest in acquiring the BCFTPP after Emerald Energy Corporation (EEC), the winning bidder in the third round of bidding for the Calaca facility held on 16 October 2007, chose to terminate its purchase of the asset in January 2009 due to alleged deterioration of the power plant.
In his welcome remarks, PSALM chief of staff and spokesperson Conrad S. Tolentino said the investors’ response was a “pleasant surprise for PSALM.”
PSALM decided to conduct a negotiated sale for the Calaca plant after two failed bids and following EEC’s termination of its purchase.
In a negotiated sale, PSALM can bid out the BCFTPP even if there is only one qualified bidder, and will award the facility to the highest bidder who meets the government’s reserve price.
The privatization of the Calaca facility, which will be conducted in July this year, will clinch the 70% privatization level stipulated in the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, one of the preconditions to usher in the regime of open access and retail competition.
The BCFTPP was first offered to prospective investors on 18 May 2005, but the bidding was canceled after two of the three qualified bidders backed out shortly before the deadline for the submission of offers.
The second round of bidding held on 27 April 2006 was also declared a failure because the price proposals submitted by the two bidders were below the reserve price.
Palinpinon-Tongonan geothermal plants on the bidding block
The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) yesterday (11 May 2009) formally opened the packaged sale of the 192.5-megawatt (MW) Palinpinon and 112.5-MW Tongonan geothermal power plants with the publication of the Invitation to Bid (ITB) for both generating assets.
The ITB, which will be published in local newspapers until Wednesday, 13 May 2009, states that prospective bidders have until 22 May to submit a Letter of Interest to join the bidding.
The deadline for the execution of a Confidentiality Agreement and Undertaking and the payment of a non-refundable fee of USD3,500, which are prerequisites for the issuance of the Bidding Package, will be until 26 May 2009.
Interested bidders will conduct their due diligence on both power plants from 11 May to 10 August 2009, while PSALM will hold the pre-bid conference on 10 June.
The bid submission deadline for the Visayas-based geothermal facilities is on 12 August 2009.
Located in Valencia, Negros Oriental, the Palinpinon Geothermal Power Plant consists of two power stations — Palinpinon I and II — which are approximately five kilometers apart.
Palinpinon I, which was commissioned in 1983, comprises three 37.5–MW steam turbines for a total rated capacity of 112.5 MW. Palinpinon II, on the other hand, consists of three modular power plants: Nasuji, Okoy 5, and Sogongon. The 20-MW Nasuji was commissioned in 1993, while the 20-MW Okoy 5 was commissioned in 1994. Sogongon, which consists of the 20-MW Sogongon 1 and 20-MW Sogongon 2, was commissioned in 1995.
Situated in Sitio Sambaloran, Barangay Lim-Ao, Kananga, Leyte Province in Eastern Visayas, the Tongonan Geothermal Power Plant consists of three 37.5-MW units which were commissioned in 1983.
Both plants use steam supplied by the Energy Development Corporation.
