Maniolas

Erickson Nangkil,  technical manager of the Bohol FabLab at Bohol Island State University, talks about the facility during a media tour.  (SUN.STAR FOTO/KAT O. CACHO) TAGBILARAN CITY–The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) 7 is pushing to enable more micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to supply products to the Bohol tourism industry with the help of the country’s first fabrication laboratory (FabLab) based in the province. DTI 7 director Asteria Caberte said the FabLab is an important platform to enhance the sector’s product development for Bohol’s burgeoning tourism industry and to upgrade product competitiveness in the global market. An average of 435,000 local and foreign tourists arrive in Bohol every year. At least 3,000 MSMEs in the province which depend on tourism activities for their livelihood. “The Bohol FabLab is a shared service facility for small enterprises to produce quality souvenir products that can be supplied to tourism facilities,” Caberte said during the “Multi-Stakeholder Briefing and Media Tour” held in Bohol yesterday. Prototypes “It will enable local designers, in partnership with the local MSMEs, to come up with high-value and high-quality product prototypes. The facilities can also further assist MSMEs through short run production of prototypes that can be used in market testing before full blown commercial production,” she said. Since its launching five months ago, the FabLab has already benefitted 25 groups composed of MSMEs and organizations in prototype development and design, among other services. The Bohol FabLab is a P9.15 million shared service facility (SSF) project funded Read More …

Question: We’re three marketing and advertising professors at an Association of Marketing Educators (AME) member school of business. We learned about your talk at the College of Business, De LaSalle Taft on Qualitative Research. We wanted to attend but we heard about it after the talk. We’re writing because your topic came as a surprise to all of us. We’ve attended many of your conference talks but they were all about your quantitative nationwide market research like your consumer coping behavior survey. We’ve also attended your marketing research seminars that were almost all quantitative. So please tell us why you are now shifting to qualitative research? Have you discovered lately that qualitative is better than quantitative? Answer: It must have been this image in your minds (the three of you) of myself as a quanti researcher that’s responsible for your deciding to attend only those conference talks and seminars of mine that are quantitative. I have many qualitative conference talks and seminars. They’re on FGDs (focus group discussions), IDIs (in-depth Interviews), ethnographics (or observation research), and others. In both talks and seminars, quantitative research and qualitative research are covered not in isolation from one another but together as co-working insighting methods. You mentioned the nationwide quantitative survey on consumer coping behavior. Consider the portion when the subject of “staple” product categories was taken up. A “staple” is a product category that the surveyed housewife considered something she “cannot live without, or cannot do without.” When I showed that the survey Read More …

MANILA, Philippines—Housing developer 8990 Holdings Inc. plans to sell P1.15 billion worth of residential units at Urban Deca Towers in Mandaluyong, the first and only low-cost high-rise condominium project in Metro Manila that offers units priced at less than P1 million. The 42-storey Urban Deca Towers, located at 69 Sierra Madre St. Brgy Highway Hills in Mandaluyong, offers 1,148 units priced between P990,000 up to P1.25 million. The project, which is undertaken by subsidiary Foghorn Inc., is the first high-rise condominium project of 8990. SCREENGRAB from www.8990housing.com “Urban Deca-Tower Edsa is not meant to be a primary residence, but rather targets a growing niche market of urban dwellers who are currently renting,” Januario Jesus Atencio, president and chief executive officer of 8990 Holdings said in a press statement. “This will afford them the opportunity to convert already existing budget into a monthly amortization,” he added. Atencio also said: “Sales have been encouraging with at least 250 letters of intent that signifies a growing need for this type of housing in the metropolis.” The residential units have a footprint of 13.06 square meters each in line with the “micro-living” concept. The project promotes the “half-way” house concept, targeting workers and students who are looking for decent, clean, safe, secure, and flood-free place to stay near their place of work or school. The low-priced condo units are pitched as an affordable half-way house for people who live as far as Laguna, Cavite and Bulacan. Having their own condominium units is seen providing Read More …

The Office of the Ombudsman is set to file malversation and graft charges against former Comelec Director for Finance Services Gideon De Guzman for allegedly failing to liquidate P44.3 million he received from 1998 to 2007. According to a press statement, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales ordered the filing of 46 counts of malversation of public funds, and violation of Section 3(e) of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act against De Guzman. The Ombudsman found that De Guzman failed to liquidate cash advances worth P44.3 million for “various expenditures ranging from expenses for conferences and meetings, and food allowances to gifts and tokens.”  In 2008, a series of demand letters to liquidate the amount were sent to him, but were ignored, it added. “[De Guzman’s] failure to settle and liquidate the P44,332,613.67 despite repeated demands raises the presumption that he has either appropriated, took, misappropriated or through abandonment or negligence allowed another person to take them,” the Ombudsman said. “Malversation is committed when a public officer, who has custody of funds or property by reason of the duties of his office and to which he is accountable, appropriated, took, misappropriated or consented or, through abandonment or negligence, permitted another person to take these funds or property,” the Ombudsman explained. Section 3 (e) involves, “causing any undue injury to any party, including the Government, or giving any private party any unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference in the discharge of his official administrative or judicial functions through manifest partiality, Read More …

Vice President Jejomar Binay (left) is given a tour of the Toledo copper mine in Toledo City, Cebu on Thursday, November 6. Binay did not attend the day’s Senate probe on the alleged overpriced Makati City Hall Building II. He is in Cebu to attend the Philippine Scouting Centennial Jamboree and meet with local officials to check their housing programs. Also in photo is Adrian Ramos (right), COO of Carmen Mining Corp. (MNS photo) MANILA (Mabuhay) — The camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay on Friday said one of his accusers used “flawed logic and fuzzy math” in his allegation that the P1.33 billion Makati Science High School Building is overpriced. Joey Salgado, head of the Office of the Vice President media affairs, said Bondal is the same person who perjured himself for claiming that birthday cakes given by Makati to senior citizens were overpriced at P1,000, only to admit later that the amount was just a “guess.” Bondal on Thursday said the Makati Science High School Building is overpriced by as much as P862 million or 283 percent, making it the most expensive national high school building in the country. Salgado, however, said Bondal “conveniently overlooks the fact that the total construction cost includes the cost of the school’s foundation, finishing, and facilities.” “If we go by his fuzzy math, then all public school buildings are overpriced,” the spokesman said in a statement. Salgado said Bondal had earlier cited data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) in claiming that Read More …