Maniolas

MANILA, Philippines – The Duterte administration will pitch for the first time for assistance and support from development partners in November, looking at securing funding, while providing avenue to assure investors rule of law is being followed on its anti-drug war. A Philippine Development Forum (PDF) is in the works and is “tentatively” scheduled two months from now, said Editha Martin, executive director of the central bank’s Investor Relations Office. The annual event is held to secure commitments from the country’s official development assistance (ODA) providers, who will have a chance to dialogue with the government’s economic team. At this early though, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez has moved to get support for the new government’s first spending plan, which included more than 80 percent of foreign borrowings sourced from ODA. After meeting with Japan and China, the finance chief met with representatives from the World Bank last Sept. 14, led by Victoria Kwakwa, the agency’s vice-president for East Asia and the Pacific. “It was a very productive meeting with the World Bank officials,” Dominguez was quoted as saying in a statement yesterday. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Among others, the Department of Finance (DOF) secured the lender’s commitment for a technical assistance for tax reform, including “sharing best practices and experiences” abroad as well as strengthening the Bureau of Customs’ revenue collection capacity. Included also in the agenda was an assurance from Dominguez the Duterte government “prioritizes” rule of law and order as well as “strengthening Read More …

IN SEARCH OF A WIN-WIN SITUATION: A high-level meeting on the implementation of the right to security of tenure, participated in by government officials on trade, labor and entrepreneurship, business leaders and selected members of the House of Representatives, was held recently at the Department of Labor and Employment. Photo shows Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez listening to some members of the business sector following President Duterte’s directive to end labor contractualization and end-of-contract (endo) schemes. MANILA, Philippines – The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) is calling for the government to recalibrate its proposal to end labor contractualization and end-of-contract or “endo” schemes to make it a true “win-win” solution. ECOP president Donald Dee said they are backing the proposal presented by Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez last week but said several adjustments should be made. “I’m saying we have to adjust that proposal.  That proposal is good but you need adjust it so that labor can accept it. You cannot be so one-sided (because it’s just the agency that shoulders everything) and unfortunately, the reality is the agencies don’t have the financial capabilities if something goes wrong to pay the workers,” Dee said in an interview yesterday. Under the proposed win-win set-up, workers can be hired by service providers as regulars, receiving full benefits such as leave credits, 13th month pay, as well as retirement, social security and health insurance plans, among others. Companies, meanwhile, will have the flexibility to either directly hire workers as regular employees or Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – PNOC Exploration Corp., the oil and gas exploration arm of state-owned Philippine National Oil Co., favors the scrapping of Executive Order (EO) 556 to help the country’s upstream industry move forward. The EO, issued by former president Gloria Arroyo, mandates government corporations to undergo public bidding to look for partners in service contracts (SCs) in the upstream and downstream industry. However, this has been a “major stumbling block” of the state-owned firm in the upstream industry, PNOC-EC president and CEO Pedro Aquino Jr. said in a recent Senate hearing. “Oil exploration is a very expensive business, highly risky. And it would be absurd for us to ask would-be investors or partners to undergo public bidding. Because if we’re able to sell the area and they are confident to come in…for us to tell them to undergo a public bidding is really very, very absurd,” he said. Aquino said the company is looking for partners to develop eight SCs under a 10-year work program. “We want to share the risk because even the big companies like Shell, they resort to farm-out to spread the risk. But in our case, we cannot do that simply because of this EO, nobody wants to undergo a bidding process just to participate,” he said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Because of the low success rate in the upstream industry, the PNOC-EC official said they can only offer a 10 percent share from the SCs. “Out of 100 is Read More …

President Rodrigo Duterte shows a document listing the names of government officials and law enforcers allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade during his speech at Camp Melchor F. Dela Cruz in Isabela on Sept. 17, 2016. PPD/Toto Lozano MANILA, Philippines — The Duterte administration will pitch for the first time for assistance and support from development partners in November, looking at securing funding, while providing avenue to assure investors rule of law is being followed in its anti-drug war. A Philippine Development Forum (PDF) is in the works and is “tentatively” scheduled two months from now, said Editha Martin, executive director of the central bank’s Investor Relations Office. The annual event is held to secure commitments from the country’s official development assistance (ODA) providers, who will have a chance to dialogue with the government’s economic team. At this early though, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez has moved to get support for the new government’s first spending plan, which included more than 80 percent of foreign borrowings sourced from ODA. After meeting with Japan and China, the finance chief met with representatives from the World Bank last September 14, led by Victoria Kwakwa, the agency’s vice-president for East Asia and the Pacific. “It was a very productive meeting with the World Bank officials,” Dominguez was quoted as saying in a statement on Monday. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Among others, the Department of Finance (DOF) secured the lender’s commitment for a technical assistance for tax reform, including Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The local corn industry has called on the Department of Agriculture (DA) to approve the permits for corn traits that are still awaiting renewal or face further plummeting of the country’s corn production next year. The Philippine Maize Federation Inc. (Philmaize) said farmers fear the country might experience more difficulty in corn production with some Bt corn hybrids still not available for planting this season. “Corn farmers expressed worries that corn yield will plummet come harvest season on the first quarter of 2017 as some hybrid seeds are not yet available,” Philmaize president Roger Navarro said. The group is urging the DA to immediately approve permits for farmers to avail of several corn varieties this planting season that are resistant to corn borers, cutworm and ear worm which are prevalent during the dry season. “We can achieve a more successful agriculture sector if farmers are given more room to decide on critical farming processes,” Navarro said. He added the best strategy to address the challenge in corn production is to provide farmers more corn seed types to choose from. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “Farmers can assess for themselves which seeds will grow best in their farms. Thus, farmers should always be given the freedom to choose what they feel is best for them as certain corn traits are needed to ensure we have increased yields and increased income in the coming harvest year,” he added. Corn is a major component in animal Read More …