Maniolas

“That website will be interactive. Everything will be made transparent. We’ll be doing, either big or small companies, DENR Secretary Gina Lopez said. ABS-CBN PR/File/Released MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is set to come out with a website where all audit findings concerning mining companies will be made public, its top official said. “That website will be interactive. Everything will be made transparent. We’ll be doing, either big or small companies, DENR Secretary Gina Lopez said. Apart from mining permits issued to companies, all the environmental compliance certificates will also be subjected to audit and review. We will not be selective,” she added. Lopez also plans to put up her own blog to document and discuss the audit being done by the department, as well as other activities of the DENR. She reiterated the DENR would not hesitate to shut down all mining operations that will be found to have violated environmental and health and safety laws and regulations. “If you break the law, you face the consequences of breaking the law. Whatever the law says that’s what we should follow. If you break the law, there are penalties,” Lopez said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 So far, the DENR has suspended operations of 10 mining companies. The three which were recently suspended include the Bulacan-based Ore Asia Mining Development Corp., and Mt. Sinai Exploration Mining and Development Corp. and EMIR Mineral Resources Corp. both in Homonhon, Eastern Samar. Ore Read More …

People smile when I make fun of famous luxury brands and attach a “Triple A” after it. They know I am referring to knockoffs. Fakes. Replicas of expensive brands mostly French or Italian and the reason why they smile is because they know that there is a world of difference between the real thing versus the fake. Everybody wants the real thing. But sometimes they are not willing to pay the price or maybe they cannot afford it, yet they want to be seen having it so they settle for knockoffs. They try to get away in impressing people with their “fakes.” Do you know that I see people doing the same thing today but not with bags, shirts, shoes or watches, they do this online? They create an online persona which may be totally different from their offline personality. The literal meaning of the word “Persona” in the Greek is to put up a mask. We have an online personality and an offline personality. “Persona” in Latin refers to a masked character played by an actor. This is why I have always maintained that Facebook is a billboard and not a diary. Most people post good things in there but rarely can you see the real story behind the picture. Marketing guru Martin Lindstrom says “This is understandable. We’re living in an era in which our online behaviors and communications are haunted by subtext and obfuscation. The German word “maskenfreiheit” can be translated into “the freedom conferred by masks,” Read More …

For President Duterte, one of the most difficult challenges he probably had to overcome was choosing the persons who were going to head what he considers the most corrupt agencies in government. And so when he appointed Nicanor Faeldon, a retired captain of the Philippine Marines who gained attention as one of the alleged leaders of the Magdalo group which staged the Oakwood mutiny, as the new commissioner of the Bureau of Customs (BOC), a lot of people have discovered a new-found optimism that change is indeed coming, even to the corruption-plagued customs bureau. After all, how can someone who decried alleged military corruption during the Arroyo administration and who is a self-proclaimed reformist not be trusted with reforming the BOC? His appointment, however, could not be a source of envy. The President has been very vocal about his bid to put an end to corruption, tax evasion, and smuggling and he would be expecting Faeldon to produce immediate results. And with the BOC being one of the country’s two biggest revenue collection agencies, the other one being the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Faeldon is also expected to improve collections, especially with plans to lower tax rates and to increase infrastructure spending to pump-prime the economy. To put an end to corruption in the bureau, Faeldon has said he will appoint 20 Magdalo members to the BOC as he implements President Duterte’s order to rid the agency of corrupt officials. Earlier, the customs chief revealed that he plans to create Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – Achieve that mastery of spoken English – be it British English or American English. When you enroll at the Center for Global Best Practices pioneering seminar-workshop, “Master Class on English Pronunciation and Effective Presentation,” they will teach you how to speak using the global English standard: with correct phonology, accurate diction, proper enunciation, and precise articulation. The superiority and your confidence in speaking in English comes with your awareness and practice that you are saying it the right way. You will also learn presentation best practices that can transform you to become a more effective speaker. This new program is scheduled on Sept. 1 and 2, 2016 at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel, Mandaluyong City. This unique program will feature professor Louie Agnir-Paraan Ph.D.,the course director and lecturer of best practices communication programs of CGBP. She took her doctorate degree at the University of the Philippines in Diliman majoring in English Studies where she garnered the highest grade of 1.04 and was awarded the outstanding dissertation. She earned her Masters in Language and Literature at the University of the Philippines in Baguio where she graduated with a 1.01 GPA. She also has a master’s degree in Educational Psychology from UP Diliman. Her AB in Philosophy was also earned at UP Diliman. She graduated high school at the International School of Kuala Lumpur where she was the first Asian and first woman editor-in-chief of the school paper. For more details about this program and other upcoming best practices seminars Read More …

Electricity rates will drop to P8.50 per kilowatthour in August, Meralco said. Meralco/Released MANILA, Philippines – Meralco announced that the residential rate for a typical household will go down this August by around P0.11 per kilowatthour (kWh), bringing it down to P8.50 per kWh. This translates to a reduction of around P22 in the electricity bill of a household with monthly consumption of 200 kWh. The reduction is due to the downward movement in the generation charge, which more than offset a higher transmission charge.  This month’s overall rate is lower by P0.62 per kWh compared to August 2015’s P9.12 per kWh. Meralco also responded to President Rodrigo Duterte’s call to provide electricity to marginalized households through an ongoing partnership with the Department of Energy and the National Housing Authority. To further help its customers manage their electricity consumption, Meralco’s prepaid electricity service will be available to residents of Makati, Mandaluyong and Pasig starting October 2016. With the support of the Energy Regulatory Commission, Meralco continues to deploy its prepaid service in more areas. For more information, watch this month’s Meralco Advisory: