Maniolas

It’s not certified as an urgent bill, so consumers will not be seeing any urgent action on the proposed lemon act that seeks to provide some measure of protection to individuals who have purchased brand new vehicles. But we can always hope it becomes a law within the decade. In the Lower House version that had been passed on final reading last month, vehicles that are bought but found to be defective (thus, establishing them as lemons) may be replaced with a similar or comparable motor vehicle or refunded the purchase price plus collateral charges. As most proposed laws in the country, this will go through the legislative cycle and calendar where the various versions in the Lower and Upper Houses will be approved by their respective constituents, and finally pass through more debates by a joint committee of both houses. What the Lower House has approved, thus, may turn out to be a much-mangled version of what the law will eventually become. This will depend on a lot of things, including how strongly the parties involved (consumers and vehicle industry stakeholders) will react. Definitely second hand purchases excluded Nevertheless, there are some strong clues about the final version. The most glaring, based on the approved bill that passed on final reading by the Lower House, is the fact that there’s going to be a very strong chance that second hand vehicle purchases will be excluded from a future law. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 This Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The government enjoyed a record high budget surplus in April due to an 18-percent increase in revenue collections and a six-percent drop in expenditures, the Department of Finance (DOF) reported yesterday. The government recorded a  budget surplus of P80.9 billion in April, more than double the P36.8 billion in the same month last year. “The month of April sustained the strong fiscal performance we experienced in the first quarter of the year,” Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima said. According to the DOF, government revenues reached P224.4 billion in April, an 18-percent increase from P190 billion a year ago. Expenditures for the month however were six percent lower   at P143.6 billion from a year ago, thus the budget surplus for the period. Despite the April surplus, the government was still in deficit in the first four months at P3.3 billion, albeit much lower than the P29.7 billion a year ago.  Total collections of the Bureau of  Internal Revenue amounted to  P156.1 billion, up five percent from  year-ago levels, while the Bureau of Customs improved its collections by 13 percent to P30.8 billion. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The Bureau of Treasury contributed P30.8 billion in revenues, while other government offices reported revenues of P6.7 billion. Interest payments plunged 43 percent to P13.4 billion, while other expenditures climbed one percent to P130.2 billion. Revenues during the four-month period climbed 12 percent to P622.9 billion, while expenditures also rose seven percent to P626.1 billion. The revenue Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – US-based energy giant AES Corp. is pouring in $2 billion for the expansion of its coal-fired power plant in Zambales and for the development of an energy storage project in the Philippines, its top official said yesterday. In a roundtable discussion with US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, who is in Manila for a visit, AES president and chief executive officer Andres Gluski said as a reflection of US business interest in the Philippines, AES is expanding its 600-megawatt Masinloc plant and investing in an energy storage project. “We’re very impressed with renewed economic growth. We’d like to support the development of the Philippines. We have about $2 billion in projects. Some of them our expansion and some of them are new technologies such as for storage of energy,” Gluski told reporters during the roundtable meeting hosted by the US Embassy in Manila. Of the $2 billion, AES will invest $1.2 billion for the expansion of the Masinloc plant by another 600 MW. “We have projects of up to $2 billion more in the pipeline. One is a plant expansion of Masinloc. Then we have the energy storage project,” Gluski said. The energy storage, he explained, could help support renewable energy projects in the Philippines as this would serve as “batteries” that can work on islands around the country. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “These can help provide ancillary services. Those are interesting. They’re very well adapted to the Philippines. They work very Read More …

THE MAKATI Business Club has backed other major business groups in their call for the “full implementation” of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA) — instead of amending the law — to resolve the country’s energy woes.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and IBM today unveiled a new intelligent operations center to provide a central point of command for disaster management. The new center will help the Philippine government better manage ongoing and future disaster response and recovery efforts following Typhoon Yolanda in 2013. Immediately following the typhoon, IBM donated an impact grant of technology and services. As part of the grant, IBM, in collaboration with trusted business partners, delivered the IBM Intelligent Operations Center (IOC) with an Integrated Communications System (ICS) that will facilitate better and more coordinated disaster management efforts with the DOST and across various government agencies. The integrated solution will pull data from disparate sources into a common view, providing emergency managers with critical information such as; advance warning for extreme weather events, feedback from first responders on the number of casualties and affected families, condition of buildings, roads, and infrastructure.  These distributed data sources provide analytics and scenario planning to streamline and integrate the government’s response to disasters. In addition, the solution will enable advanced communications for first responders and emergency personnel.   “Building on a trusted, long term relationship between IBM and our National Government, IBM acted quickly to mobilize and launch an Impact Grant with two critical solutions: an Intelligent Operations Center for Emergency Management and an Integrated Communications System,” said Science Secretary Mario Montejo.  “IBM’s grant comes with two years of support, including an IBM-led transition team. This will ensure that we have the skills Read More …