BAND-AID SOLUTIONS to ease the traffic gridlock in the Philippines — which has fanned inflation and impaired productivity — should be paired with long-term measures in order to completely address the issue, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) official said.
THE DEPARTMENT of Finance (DoF) yesterday reiterated the need to review the country’s entire tax structure instead of amending the system on a “piecemeal” basis in light of Congress’ move to raise the tax exemption cap for bonuses.
THE BUREAU of Internal Revenue (BIR) continuously enhances and develops electronic services (e-Services) to provide faster, more reliable and more convenient services for taxpayers, as well as to improve its tax return data capture and storage. Last Oct. 16, 2012, the BIR authorized the use of the electronic BIR Forms (eBIRForms) through Revenue Memorandum Circular No. (RMC) 061-12. The eBIRForm is a better, more reliable alternative to the manual process of filling tax returns on pre-printed forms because it allows taxpayers to directly encode data, compute taxes, validate information, save progress, and print the tax returns offline.
Take it from Patti Grandidge, release the tension, the pressure, all the emotional culprits that take their toll on your skin.
Devon Seron knew James Reid to be sickly inside the Big Brother house and she’s happy to see he’s now grown healthy and hunky.
By Ronnel W. Domingo |Philippine Daily Inquirer 12:30 am | Tuesday, September 16th, 2014 Thailand and Vietnam are expected to ship in a total of 500,000 tons of milled rice in the next three months, representing the latest import purchase by the National Food Authority. In a government-to-government call for tenders held Monday, Thailand—through its Department of Foreign Trade—offered to supply the Philippines 300,000 tons at $475 a ton. Vietnam—through state-run Vietnam Southern Food Corp. or Vinafood II—offered to cover 400,000 tons but at a higher price of $479 per ton. Cambodia, through its embassy, also participated but was disqualified. NFA spokesperson Rex Estoperez explained that Cambodia could not deliver the goods until April next year. The NFA wants delivery to be made in three tranches—40 percent of the contracted volume by mid-October, another 40 percent by mid-November and the remaining 20 percent by mid-December. Estoperez said Thailand, having submitted a lower price, may have clinched a contract for its offered volume of 300,000 tons. He added that, as for Vietnam, it may be able to secure a contract for the remaining 200,000 tons if it could match Thailand’s offered priced. “These details are still subject to the approval of the NFA Council, which will convene sometime this week,” Estoperez said. Monday’s proceedings were held following an open bidding held in August, which failed because all offers went above the NFA’s approved budget of $456 a ton. Government-held stocks had been dwindling continually and remained at less than 15 days’ Read More …
Street Magician David Blaine looks as if he’s just relaxing while underwater for more than 10 minutes during his Real Or Magic show at the Big Dome last Friday night — MONG PINTOLO For a while, I expected the street magician David Blaine to make the big audience (including the Araneta Empire big boss Jorge Araneta and his wife Madame Stella Marquez de Araneta) at the Big Dome last Friday night disappear with the wave of his hand and it was a big relief that he didn’t do it. Neither did he turn the unborn chick into a live, wings-flapping one when Manny Pacquiao made him eat balut during Blaine’s quick trip to Gensan, nor did he make the monstrous Metro traffic jam melt like ice-cream left out in the sun. Filipinos are magic-lovers and the big turnout at the Big Dome proved it. You can just imagine how they (we!) held our collective breath and wondered how “he did it,” such as when he played tricks with a deck of cards and with a big bowl-ful of puzzle pieces (more than 2,000, he said), one of which perfectly fitted a blank point on the Philippine map; and when he hit a tall plastic cup with his palm that, “fortunately” (heave a big sigh of relief!), wasn’t the one covering an ice pick with which he later let a volunteer from the audience pierce his palm (ouch!), but there was no blood, see! As “gifts” for participating in the acts, Read More …
WHILE Mindanao is recovering from power supply deficiency and possibly will have an excess in the coming years, the Interim Mindanao Electricity Market (Imem), created purposely to ease off the island’s power woes, might “take on a different form.” Romeo Montenegro, director of investment promotions and public affairs of the Mindanao Development Authority (Minda), during the Mindanao Power Stakeholders Dialogue earlier this month at the Marco Polo Hotel Davao, said the Imem was created for “a market for deficiency.” The Imem was implemented to draw out around 150 megawatts (MW) to 200 MW from uncontracted capacities of power generators and embedded capacities of some distribution utilities to be sold outside of its franchise areas so that some electric cooperatives that are in need of supply, on a intermittent basis, would be able to tap the available capacity. Imem was implemented on December 3, 2014 but a market intervention was implemented after the Mindanao-wide blackout in February this year. “But now, we are heading towards a new regime of possible excess of [power] supply in Mindanao, the Imem may probably take a different shape already which is moving toward a market of competition because we are no longer seeing a market for deficiency,” Montenegro said. Based on the Mindanao Power Situation Outlook of the Mindanao Power Monitoring Committee (MPMC), the Mindanao grid will have a projected available capacity of 2,208 MW in 2015, which is more than the projected peak demand of 1,583 MW. Similarly, from 2016 to 2020 the grid Read More …
It’s la dolce vita for the blissfully wedded couple Jericho Rosales and Kim Jones.
The amazing Kreskin predicts: It’s Mannyfist Destiny The amazing Kreskin predicts: It’s Mannyfist Destiny. Photo Credit: Chris Farina/Top Rank NEW YORK – Throughout his two-week, 27.273-mile international media tour with Fighter of the Decade Congressman MANNY “Pacman” Pacquiao, a lot of discussion centered on New York’s undefeated WBO junior welterweight champion Chris Algieri’s belief in the power bracelets and pendants he wears outside the ring. Algieri believes they are a source of strength, energy and life improvement qualities. At their final media tour press conference, which took place at the Liberty Theater in New York last Thursday, Team Pacquiao consulted with The Amazing Kreskin, arguably the world’s foremost mentalist, about Algieri’s cosmic accessories. Here is what Kreskin had to say: “Regarding all the talk about the bracelets and pendants that are being worn by Chris Algieri. Do I feel that they have any power? The answer is very simple – Yes! They can heal and they can increase tremendous energy to an athlete – If the athlete believes in the power of a rock, gold piece, glass of water, marbles – any of which have absolutely have no power at all. It becomes a matter of auto-suggestion. “I was asked to use my “mental powers” to combat the power of these beads. However, there is no need to do that! “If I am correctly reading the thoughts of Algieri, I will tell you what I am convinced is in his unconscious mind. What other reason would he have to look for mystical or occult special outside powers unless, as I believe…Algieri is convinced that Manny is a Read More …