Seair to impose higher fuel surcharge

 Economy
Feb 092013
 
Seair to impose higher fuel surcharge

MANILA, Philippines – Low-cost carrier Southeast Asian Airlines (Seair), a unit of Tiger Airways Holdings Ltd. of Singapore, is set to impose higher fuel surcharge for all its international and domestic passengers on the back of the continued rise in the price of aviation fuel in the world market. Seair has filed a petition with the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) seeking to impose a fuel surcharge of P500 for all its international passengers and P300 for all its domestic passengers flying within the Philippines except Davao. The budget airline is also set to impose a fuel surcharge of P400 for the passengers of its Manila to Davao flights. The CAB allows airlines to impose fuel surcharge on international and domestic passengers as a temporary relief to help them recover losses arising from the increase in jet fuel prices in the world market. Latest results of the jet fuel price monitor of the International Air Transportation Association (IATA) showed that average price of jet fuel rose 3.8 percent to $132.4 per barrel from a month ago level or higher than the full year target of $130.3 per barrel set by IATA. Seair flies from Manila to Cebu, Davao, Tacloban, Iloilo, Puerto Princesa, Bacolod, and Boracay via the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). Its international destinations include Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, and Kota Kinabalu via the Clark International Airport in Pampanga. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 In August last year, Tiger Airways through wholly-owned subsidiary Roar Aviation II Read More …

Nueva Ecija farmers’ association to subsidize SSS payment

 Economy
Feb 092013
 
Nueva Ecija farmers’ association to subsidize SSS payment

MANILA, Philippines – The Social Security System (SSS), the state-run provident fund for private employees, has signed an agreement with a local irrigators association in Nueva Ecija to subsidize farmers’ contributions to the agency. In an agreement signed last month between Deep Well Sumulong Irrigators Association of Nueva Ecija and SSS covering 185 farmers, the association would provide a counterpart amount that would match its members’ monthly SSS contribution. As a result, the monthly contributions of member farmers to the SSS would double, SSS president and chief executive officer Emilio de Quiros Jr. said. “In effect, the subsidy will double the amount of the farmers’ SSS contributions,” De Quiros said. SSS contributions range from P104 to P1,560 every month depending on the member’s monthly earnings. If, for instance, the farmer saves P156 as SSS contribution a month, the association would add P156 as counterpart subsidy, for a total of P312 that will be credited to the farmer’s SSS account. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “The subsidy serves as additional motivation for farmers to save up for their future. The more they save, the more they will receive in counterpart funds for their contributions,” De Quiros said. Furthermore, the SSS chief said the arrangement with the association ensures convenient and regular remittance of the farmers’ SSS premiums because the association will do it for them. The association will use the cash incentives granted by the National Irrigation Authority (NIA) to associations that have shown efficient collection of Read More …

SkyCable vows to fix GMA signal disruption

 Economy
Feb 092013
 
SkyCable vows to fix GMA signal disruption

MANILA, Philippines – SkyCable Corp., a unit of broadcast giant ABS-CBN Corp. of the Lopez clan, has vowed to cooperate with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to resolve its difference with publicly-held GMA Network Inc. over signal disruptions. “SkyCable, together with GMA Network and NTC, has been working hand-in-hand to explore necessary procedures to be undertaken in order to resolve the signal disruption issue at hand,” the company said in a statement. In the meantime, SkyCable said subscribers who are experiencing the said DigiBox problem could fix this manually by rescanning their DigiBox. “We regret this temporary inconvenience and extend our apologies for any difficulty brought about by this system upgrade,” the company said. GMA has filed a complaint against SkyCable over the unilateral change in channel assignment for the second time in less than four months. Butch Raquel, consultant to the chairman and chief executive officer for corporate communications, said the company filed a complaint before the NTC for the rechanneling undertaken by SkyCable last Feb.1. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “GMA Network expresses its concern as to why it gets to be affected by whatever SkyCable is doing or modifying in its system,” Raquel stressed. Last Feb. 1, SkyCable conducted a system upgrade to enhance signal clarity for GMA from channel 12 to channel 99, Shop TV from channel 13, SKY Preview Channel from channel 21, and ABN from channel 163. In a letter to NTC commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba, GMA vice president for legal Read More …

4-M jobs/yr needed to eradicate poverty by 2016 – Balisacan

 Economy
Feb 072013
 
4-M jobs/yr needed to eradicate poverty by 2016 – Balisacan

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines needs to generate between three to four million new jobs yearly if it is to eradicate poverty by 2016, the country’s chief economic planner said. “That means new investments worth $3 billion a year,” Socioeconomic Planning  Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said in a briefing yesterday. He said the labor force is growing by one to 1.1 million a year, while roughly a million Filipinos enter the employment force every year, on top of is the existing 10 million unemployed and underemployed. “So the employment generating capacity must grow faster than the labor force,” Balisacan, who is also director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), said. Half of those joining the work force are aged 15 to 34 years, or equivalent to 46 percent of the employed population. To be able to generate the huge number of jobs, government must focus to the sectors with the inherent ability to create jobs. Among the favored sectors are tourism, agriculture, manufacturing outside of the electronics and semi-conductor industry, construction and infrastructure. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “We need to sharpen on our focus on sectors that generate jobs. We estimate that if we can get the sectors, mainly the private sector, to bring in $3 billion in new investments,” he said. The economic planning chief said that it is likewise a prerequisite to overcome certain constraints, especially the poor infrastructure situation, which includes power and connectivity, meaning roads, railways, air and Read More …

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