Maniolas

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago attends the Blue Ribbon Committee hearing of the P10 billion Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam Thursday, November 7. Santiago reminded Napoles that she cannot just invoke her right against self-incrimination MANILA (Mabuhay) – Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago wants all major establishments and government offices to be required to have diaper-changing stations in their restrooms or common areas accessible not only to women but to men, as well. In her Senate Bill 2704, Santiago said most establishments did not have diaper-changing tables and those that do, have it only in women’s restrooms. She said parents use the sink of a public restroom due to the absence of diaper-changing tables. “This is unhygienic and also inconvenient for other users of the public restroom,” the senator said. She added that to have changing tables located only in female restrooms assumes that only women have the responsibility to care for children and change their diapers. “It fails to consider that even men are or should be involved in taking care of children,” she said. Under the bill, malls, shopping centers, theaters or movie houses, convention centers, sports arenas, auditoriums, cultural complexes, exhibition halls, permanent amusement parks, health facilities, restaurants that can seat 50 people or more, gasoline stations that have restrooms opened to the public, and establishments measuring 25,000 feet or more should have diaper-changing stations. However, the bill does not apply to an industrial building or a nightclub or bar that does not permit anyone under 18 years old to Read More …

MAX’S Group Inc., a listed restaurant group best known for its chain of fried chicken outlets, posted a “pro-forma” net loss in 2014 following expenses related to the acquisition of Pancake House Inc. through a P4-billion deal. Max’s said in a stock exchange filing Monday that its pro-forma full-year losses in 2014 amounted to P56 million. Excluding one-time costs and extraordinary expenses, Max’s said its pro-forma core net income in 2014 would have been P154.1 million. Revenues during the period hit P9.55 billion, it said. “The Max’s Entities-Pancake House integration came with the challenges that are typical of transactions of this scale and magnitude,” the company said in its filing. “Last year was a transformative and preparatory period for the company, anchored on a series of market-moving transactions, beginning with the acquisition of Pancake House Group, post-integration activities and capped off by a successful follow-on offering,” Dave Fuentebella, chief financial officer of Max’s, said in a statement. He noted that the company’s expenditures in 2014 included marketing costs, write-off of doubtful accounts receivables, one-off fees and expenses for kitchen upgrades, repairs and maintenance, along with the revamping of new and key branches of Pancake House, Teriyaki Boy and Dencio’s. The company underwent a comprehensive revamping program to align its portfolio of brands and consolidate operations—which included enhancing top brands and discontinuing underperformers and upgrading service platforms, the disclosure said. This revamping program is currently underway. For 2015, Max’s “expects to benefit from considerable cost savings” as it plans to realize Read More …

MTRCB chief Toto Villareal (center) with Liezl’s family (husband Albert and their children Alyanna, Alfonso and Alissa, and Liezl’s father Romeo Vasquez) and members and officers of MTRCB during the dedication of the Liezl Martinez Hall at the MTRCB Building on Timog Ave., Quezon City. MANILA, Philippines – Asked why she included Anna Lissa “Liezl” Muhlach Sumilang Martinez among her first batch of members of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), Sen. Grace Poe said: “She was a good mother and wife, had a firm grasp of what is right or wrong, with a strong connection and concern for the movie and TV industries,  balanced by her compassion for the welfare of children.” And that is how Liezl will be remembered at the MTRCB: As mother, before anything  else, for she was motherly towards even those older than she, not only to fellow board  members but also to office workers; and fair, even to those deemed difficult to work with. She took charge of the “Matalinong Panonood” sorties to various parts of the country; an able captain of that MTRCB ship, obsessive-compulsive down to the littlest details of who was rooming with whom, to the extent of asking whoever her roommate would be, just before retiring, for the night, “Nagsepilyo ka na ba?” She was designated to take care of physical improvements at the MTRCB Building, a task she relished, and how, down to sighing when the wrong tiles were delivered, or the wrong wallpaper installed. And Read More …