Maniolas

MANILA, Philippines – The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) is seeking to put a cap on the litigation period of intellectual property rights (IPR) cases to not more than two years. IPOPHL director general Josephine Santiago said in a briefing yesterday the limitation would form part of its proposed revisions to the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Violation of Law Involving Intellectual Property Rights. “In litigating a case, I don’t remember seeing a provision that it should be five years only or six. So I said why don’t we limit it to two years. So we will be coming up with a revised IRR limiting the litigation part of the intellectual property to two years and by then there should be a decision. Perhaps that will be shorter than that of the courts. Certainly they will be assured that in two years’ time there is a decision already,” Santiago said. According to Santiago, cases in the country take time to be resolved as one or two parties usually delay it. Santiago said implementation of the revised IRR is targeted by the first quarter of next year once a series of public consultations are completed. “This is going to evolve after the public consultation, particularly as to what will happen and what will we do if it is not concluded within two years. So we have to consult. The revisions are still being crafted but in principle, that is going to be the direction,” the IPOPHL chief Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Tourism (DOT) plans to forge tie-ups with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for the promotion of tourism products and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for the capacity building of non-English speaking tour guides. Tourism Undersecretary for regulation, coordination and resource generation Alma Jimenez said this was part of the various convergence initiatives being considered by national agencies under the new administration. “One of the convergence programs which will surface soon, is the signing of an agreement between the DTI and the DOT for the mutual promotion of tourism products,” Jimenez said.  “Tourism will be considered a product of the DTI, the same way we consider the products being espoused by the DTI,” she added. Under the partnership, the DOT will showcase the various products of the Philippines in their showrooms, while the DTI will promote Philippine destinations and tour packages. Jimenez said the DOT was also considering taking part in the reintegration program of DOLE for returning overseas Filipino workers to convert them into tour guides once back in the Philippines. Instead of training tour guides in various languages, such as Chinese and Japanese, the official said the DOT would hire returning OFWs and capacitate them as tour guides. “It’s harder for us (DOT) to teach language training. Incidentally, I removed the language training in the industry and manpower development (of DOT) because what I wanted was our returning OFWs, who already have conversational ability to speak languages of their Read More …

In their desire to improve their lives, many Filipinos sacrifice their time with their families to work abroad and earn a decent income. Hopefully, in the next few years, our modern day heroes will not need to work overseas in order to help their families. Last Tuesday was the 6th OFW and Family Summit. The summit was organized by Villar Sipag Foundation and Go Negosyo to promote entrepreneurship among OFWs and their families. For the past few years, the summit has featured different business opportunities OFWs or their families can consider and invest on. I met one former OFW turned entrepreneur, Imelda Dagus. She has been an OFW for more than 20 years and worked as an executive secretary in an oil company in Oman. She has always been enterprising. She has read business books and attended business seminars. In fact, she attended one of the first seminars abroad of Go Negosyo in 2013 held in Bahrain where she met some of our angelpreneurs and learned about the Go Negosyo advocacy. Her family has a coffee shop established by her grandmother in 1962. The family has managed the business, but because of lack of focus, the business did not grow. Imelda decided to improve the business and upgrade the products and services they offered. In 2015, she opened Dennis Coffee Garden which originated in Jolo, Sulu, but is now in Zamboanga. It is one of the most visited coffee shops in the province. Their coffee shop offers organic coffee called Read More …

Under Circular Letter 10-2016, the Department of Budget and Management lifted the 24-hour waiting period required before checks could be encashed or funds credited to contractors’ accounts. File MANILA, Philippines — State contractors may get their payment earlier than usual beginning next month as the government aims to unload more funds before new budget obligations clog agencies. Under Circular Letter 10-2016 dated November 14, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) lifted the 24-hour waiting period required before checks could be encashed or funds credited to contractors’ accounts. “(This is) in order to facilitate settlement of valid government payables within the current year and avoid spillover pressure of outstanding payables to the incoming year…,” the circular said. If possible, agencies were even asked to pay their obligations by December 22, although they would still be allowed to issue checks until December 29. “Agencies are encouraged to settle their due and demandable obligations as soon as possible,” the circular said. Once obligated, funds for projects are deemed already under contract, and therefore, will be paid even once a new budget takes effect by January 1 of next year. Under the budget process, obligated funds could be disbursed through the issuance of notices of cash allocation which allows agencies to secure checks from the Bureau of the Treasury. The checks are governed by the modified disbursement system, which originally instructs agencies to deposit them to their payee’s accounts “not earlier than 24 hours after due date.” The latest order, which had also been issued Read More …

Winston Damarillo during the OCEAN 16 press conference. Philstar.com MANILA, Philippines – There are a lot more opportunities to use technology to improve Philippine agriculture and farming, according to digital enterprise transformation consultant Winston Damarillo. Damarillo, executive chairman of consulting firm Amihan Global Strategies (AGSX), said there is a lot more energy in the Global Shapers, the young version of the World Economic Forum, where many of the members are farmers. “It’s also the area where we can apply technology,” Damarillo, co-chair of OCEAN 16. The Open Collaboration with East Asia New Champions or OCEAN is a biennial gathering in the Philippines that brings together leaders across sectors to connect, discover new ideas, and shape a more creative and innovative future together. Damarillo said that areas where technology can be applied will bring interest. And interest can bring investors. Aside from investors, Damarillo also mentioned doing crowdfunding or crowd sourcing – raising money by asking a large number of people for smaller amounts and pooling it together – or going to independent private investors. “There is a lot of interest and a lot of activities in rural electrification. How do you bring power to rice fields, right? And this is where we have a lot of opportunities because technology is like plasma gasification, solar batteries… These are things that you can bring to the farm,” Damarillas said. “And any energy input to agriculture has a multiplying effect. Hopefully, we’ll see more of that,” Damarillas added. OCEAN will be holding a summit to promote the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” also known as “Industry Read More …