Maniolas

Almost two weeks after that “unforgettable” 13-hour road trip from Manila to Baguio City, I’m back in the City of Pines minus the estimated one million tourists who joined me in making the city a huge parking lot during the last holiday. I look back at that agonizing experience with a promise to myself that I will never, never go back to Baguio during a long weekend, or when there’s a public holiday. But I will be back, but always against the tide. But not everyone who got out of that traffic alive is as forgiving. Senate president Franklin Drilon said he would file a resolution calling for a Senate investigation into the monster traffic that plagued motorists who drove through three interconnected toll ways—North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) and Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX)—last Dec. 26 en route to Baguio. The sheer number of motorists who took advantage of the low fuel price regime, the long holiday, all contributed to the monster traffic. To address the unexpected volume surge, NLEX and SCTEX carried out quick fixes like opening spare lanes and counter flow lanes and deploying ambulant tellers. TPLEX did the same. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 But imagine if motorists did not have to stop to get their tickets and pay the toll separately for these three tollroads. According to Drilon, he can’t understand why the collection of toll fees can’t be integrated, so that only one entity handles the collection. Interestingly, Arnel Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines, Inc. (SEIPI) is keeping its seven to 11 percent growth projection for total electronic exports in 2014 amid positive performance of the sector in the January to November period. “With a month to go, 2014 full-year export growth is expected to be in the seven to 11 percent range.  At the end of the year, the industry is looking at total electronic exports between $23.3 billion to $24.2 billion,” the SEIPI said in an email sent to reporters. The group had an initial forecast of five percent growth for electronic shipments for full-year 2014 from $21.823 billion in 2013. In the third quarter of last year, the SEIPI hiked its industries growth forecast to five to eight percent and raised the projection anew in December to seven to 11 percent, citing strong global demand for electronic products. Latest available data showed that cumulative exports of electronic products grew by 7.95 percent to $23.50 billion as of end-November 2014 from $21.77 billion in the same period in 2013. This, as exports of almost all electronic products increased, except for automotive electronics that decreased by 58.8 percent. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The big gainers are EDP (electronic data processing)  at 30.2 percent, office equipment at 31.7 percent, consumer electronics at 15.9 percent, communication/radar at 41.5 percent, control and instrumentation at 130.2 percent and medical/industrial instrumentation at 92.1 percent. For the month of November alone, outbound shipments Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is reviewing the suggested retail prices (SRPs) for selected basic goods such as milk, bread and noodles, citing lower cost of imported raw materials. Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo has instructed Trade Undersecretary for Consumer Protection Group Victorio Mario Dimagiba to review the retail prices of the selected basic goods. “SRPs for selected basic goods such as milk, bread and noodles should go down due to lower cost of imported raw materials of skimmed milk, powdered milk, and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas),” the department said. Even as prices of Pinoy Tasty and Pinoy Pandesal have been reduced by P0.50 and P0.25, respectively in November. Domingo said any additional price reduction would be welcomed by consumers. Prices of most basic necessities and prime commodities in the last quarter of 2014 reflected the declining cost of petroleum products such as diesel and gasoline for the same period. The DTI said the prices of most of the monitored retail prices of basic and prime goods from October to December 2014 are unchanged or are lower than the published SRPs by 0.06 percent up to 23.53 percent. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Prevailing monitored prices of 51 brands of basic and prime goods remained at SRP levels, while products whose prevailing prices are lower than the SRPs are: Milkmaid Full Cream Sweetened Condensed Milk 300 ml (millilitre) – lower by P2.85; Alaska Evaporated Milk 370 ml – lower by P1.20; Alpine Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) has started evaluating the technical proposals of Filinvest Land Inc. and a group led by Megawide Construction Corp. for the proposed P2.5 billion integrated transport system – southwest terminal. The DOTC has opened the technical proposals submitted by Filinvest Land and Megawide’s MWM Terminals for the Public Private Partnership (PPP) project. “The DOTC will conduct a detailed evaluation of the group’s technical proposals before the financial proposals are opened,” the PPP Center said in a statement. Both groups were prequalified by DOTC’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) early this year. A total of 16 companies bought prequalification documents for the PPP project but only Filinvest Land and MWM Terminals submitted qualification documents last Dec. 22. Aside from Filinvest and Megawide, other companies that bought bid documents include San Miguel Corp., Ayala Corp., Ayala Land Inc., Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., Robinsons Land Inc., D.M. Wenceslao and Associates Inc., Vicente T. Lao Construction, French-owned Egis Projects Philippines, Megaworld Corp., State Properties Corp., Expedition Properties Corp., MGS Construction Inc., Altus San Nicolas Corp., and Tutuban Properties. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The proposed terminal to be situated in a 4.6-hectare property at the Coastal Road Terminal along the Manila-Cavite Expressway would connect passengers coming from Cavite to other urban transport systems such as the future Light Rail Transit line 1 (LRT) South Extension to Bacoor in Cavite, city bus, taxi, and other public utility vehicles plying Metro Manila. Earlier, Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Philippines) urged the Department of Energy (DOE) to increase the share of renewable energy (RE) in the country’s power mix. The WWF believes that while the DOE has increased the installation targets for solar energy under the so-called Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) program, the next step is to commit to specific targets for wind energy. “WWF believes that with the increase in solar, an additional increase in wind energy installation targets is a firm, next step that the DOE can commit to,” the group said. FIT is a set of incentives given to renewable energy players. Under the FIT system, renewable energy companies are entitled to the following FIT rates: P9.68 per kwh for solar power, P8.53 per kwh for wind and P5.90 per kwh for run-of-river hydroelectric power. WWF said that about 70 percent of Philippine electricity is currently generated from fossil-fuels, with 90 percent of coal and oil resources imported at varying prices from other nations. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 On the other hand, the group said that clean and renewable sources of energy such as geothermal, hydro, wind and solar energy are among the Philippines’ few competitive advantages, especially since the country has no significant deposits of fossil fuels. “Its continued reliance on imported fuel has made Philippine electricity rates among the highest in Asia,” it said. If the country relies more on renewable energy than on imported fuel, consumers may benefit from lower electricity Read More …