OVER 50 renewable energy (RE) contracts will be canceled by the Department of Energy (DoE) within this semester, an official said last week, after making insufficient progress in moving their projects forward.
Mar 122015
Mar 122015
MANILA, Philippines – The latest high-octane action movie starring Academy Award winner Sean Penn in his first action role in The Gunman that pits him against Academy Award winner actor Javier Bardem where Penn headlines as Jim Terrier, an ex-special forces government contractor who is betrayed by the organization he once worked for and goes on a relentless cat-and-mouse game across Africa and Europe. Helmed by director Pierre Morel, the director of the Taken films where Liam Neeson was catapulted to full action star status, Pierre once again launches and elevates the action genre and takes on Penn as his latest action hero to beat. The Gunman is a dynamic and exciting action film produced by Silver Pictures that reinvented Hollywood blockbuster action movie with Lethal Weapon and Die Hard franchises, with Matrix that pushed the genre even further. Now, with The Gunman, the producers, director and actors create a whole new challenge upping the action genre a notch higher than its predecessors. Based on the bestselling novel The Prone Gunman by Jean-Patrick Manchette, The Gunman follows Terrier on a wave of rush on a nearby beach of an African village. He runs Jim Terrier rides a wave on nearby beach of an African village. He runs towards the NGO office where he’s assisting with providing clean water to the villagers. Soon the piercing sound of a bullet exits a sniper’s rifle. Shortly after, news reports flood the TV with images of the assassination of the minister of mining. Genocide Read More …
Mar 122015
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Agricultural Journalists Inc., Calabarzon Chapter, will hold a seminar on “Media and Inter-agency Collaboration on Climate Change” as it celebrates its 9th anniversary at SEARCA, Los Baños, Laguna today. The invited panel speakers are deputy director for Communication and partnership Dr. Bruce Tolentino of the International Rice Research Institute and Laguna provincial director Lionel Dalope of the Department of Interior and Local Government. The seminar aims to enhance public awareness on the importance of agricultural reportage in furthering collaborative initiatives among government-private sectors, nongovernment and civic organizations towards environmental protection and development. A general assembly and election of new officers will also be held after the seminar. The outgoing PAJ Calabarzon officers and directors are Johnny Goloyugo (Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication), president; Severino Flores (freelance), vice president; Luisa Gelisan (UP Open University), secretary; Liza Gutierrez (PCARRD), treasurer; Dr. Nenita de Castro (UPLB), auditor; Apolinario Lantican (UPLB), public relations officer; and board members Dr. Matilde Maunahan, Florante Cruz and Lerma Moran (UPLB).
Mar 122015
MANILA, Philippines – Megaworld Corp. will launch three more residential projects in the Makati central business district (CBD) until next year. Eugene Em Lozano, Megaworld vice president for sales and marketing for Makati CBD, said the new residential towers will be part of the company’s efforts to increase its portfolio of property developments in the country’s premier financial hub to more than 30 towers by 2016. “As Makati continues to establish itself as the top location for real estate investment, Megaworld is poised to aggressively expand its residential condominium portfolio in this premiere city,” he said. Lozano said Megaworld remains bullish on Makati CBD ‘s residential market following a “remarkable” take up of its residential units in the area over the last three years. “The good economic condition that the country enjoys since last year is largely felt in Makati CBD. The office spaces are getting filled up and the retail industry is on its all-time high. That is why our residential condominiums, all located in premium addresses, are also on high demand,” Lozano said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1
Mar 122015
MANILA, Philippines – Aboitiz Land Corp., the property arm of the Aboitiz family, has earmarked P5 billion as capital expenditures this year to support mostly acquisition of more land. Andoni Aboitiz, Aboitiz Land chief executive officer, said the company is currently in negotiations for additional property in Southern Luzon and is expecting to close one within the year. “For us, Southern Tagalog area would make sense because there’s already Lima. So that’s where it makes sense for us,” Aboitiz said. Aboitiz Land last year acquired full ownership of Lima Land Inc. after buying out Marubeni Corp.’s 40-percent stake in the Batangas-based company. Lima Land is the owner and operator of the 485-hectare Lima Technology Center, a PEZA-registered industrial park in Lipa, Malvar in Batangas. “We’re looking for areas suitable for residential development. But we’re not going to enter the high-rise segment. We’re going for the niche market. We’ll focus on the house and lot market,” Aboitiz said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “Each area is unique. The plan is really to do house and lot and concentrate on the amenities,” he added. Aboitiz said this year’s spending for Aboitiz Land is similar to the company’s budget in the past years.
Mar 122015
MANILA, Philippines – The operator of Clark international airport has partnered with Robinsons Malls of taipan John Gokongwei and Genesis Transport Service for the establishment of a transportation hub to cater to airline passengers. Emigdio Tanjuatco III, president and chief executive officer of the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC), said the partnership with Robinsons and Genesis calls for the establishment of the hub with a ticketing lounge located at the Bus Terminal of Robinsons Starmills Pampanga. Tanjuatco led the signing of the memorandum of understanding with Robinsons Malls senior vice president and general manager Arlene Magtibay and Genesis Transport marketing head Loren Zubia, According to Tanjuatco, the new hub would cater to passengers and travelers using the Clark International Airport. Clark Airport is host to several airlines such as Asiana Airlines, Qatar Airways, Cebu Pacific, Seair, Tiger Air, Jin Air, Dragonair, Air Asia Berhad and Tiger Air Singapore. “We all aim to give our customers the best service possible and one of the concerns of the passengers right now is the mobility of the passengers from terminal to destinations, and we are thankful that we have partners such as Robinsons and Genesis to address that concern,” Tanjuatco said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Tanjuatco also vowed to extend support to Robinsons and Genesis to make the partnership stronger in the long run. For her part, Magtibay said about 500 buses from various points of Luzon are picking up and dropping passengers at the Robinsons Starmills Pampanga. Read More …
Mar 122015
MANILA, Philippines – San Miguel Pure Foods Co. Inc. hopes to seal its purchase of Southeast Asian firms engaged in the meat processing business this year as it seeks to bolster its operations abroad. In an interview, Pure Foods president Francisco Alejo III said the company is currently in talks with companies in Indonesia and Vietnam for possible acquisitions. “We are actually looking at Vietnam and Indonesia where we already have businesses. We’re looking at processed meats because that is our core competency,” Alejo said. “Hopefully (we can finalize) within the year for Vietnam. For Indonesia, that maybe later,” he added. Alejo described the two foreign companies it is currently in discussions with as having “substantial market shares in their region.” “In Vietnam, processed meat is a relatively new category although they are a pork-eating country. So we feel that in the long term, there is a growth opportunity,” he said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Alejo said Pure Foods has earmarked about P8 to P10 billion for its capital expenditures this year, a portion of which will be used for potential acquisitions. “Our focus is really on acquisition because that is one way of fast tracking the growth of San Miguel,” he said. “If you look at our balance sheet, we have a very strong balance sheet. We have a lot of room to raise funds through borrowings and we have enough cash today because we sold Meralco shares last year,” added Aida Postrado, chief Read More …
Mar 122015
CEBU. The construction sector was the most bullish for the current quarter, as firms noted favorable business conditions are expected to help sustain demand for construction services for both public and private entities. (Sun.Star File) WHILE most of the country’s businesses were less optimistic for the first quarter of 2015, businesses in Central Visayas that participated in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) Business Expectations Survey had a better outlook. According to the most recent survey, respondents in other regions, including the National Capital Region, firms were “generally less buoyant” for the first quarter of the year due to the seasonal slack in demand during this period. The report, however, cited the exception of those in Central Visayas, whose respondents were more bullish for both the first and second quarter. “Firms cited the transfer of operations of business process outsourcing (BPOs) to Cebu from other countries and more real estate investments as reasons for their optimism,” the report stated. Samples for the quarterly survey came from a combined list of top 7,000 corporations listed by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the 2013 list of Business World’s top 1,000 corporations by region. For Central Visayas, 389 corporations were in the list while 146 corporations were in the actual sample of the survey. Majority of the firms surveyed came from the manufacturing and trade sectors. The survey was conducted between Jan. 5 and Feb. 10 from 1,523 firms nationwide. Six hundred six companies were based in NCR while the rest were from other Read More …
Mar 122015
By Hannah De Castro-Abinuman Filipino-American artist, Winston Quitasol with his most recent project, Baymax and Hiro in the background Winston Quitasol may not be a name familiar to many. But a lot of people have seen his work. If you watched a Hollywood movie any time between 1992 to now, chances are, you’ve already seen at least one of the films he worked on. As a visual effects and lighting artist, Winston Quitasol has worked on various live action and animated films such as The Matrix Reloaded, Ironman 3, I Am Legend, Spiderman 2, The Aviator, Ghostrider, Tangled, Frozen, and most recently, in the academy award winner for best animated feature film – “Big Hero 6.” In the fields of visual effects and digital animation, lighting is a significant element. It sets the mood and creates depth and realism in a scene, both in live action and in digital animation. The lighting artist adds emotion to the scene by adding light to certain elements in the images. It is his duty to ensure that the visual effects and live-action elements blend seamlessly; as though they both exist in the same environment. Whether it is for a fully animated film or for enhancing a live action scene with the use of computer-generated-imagery (CGI), it is the lighting artist role to add the finishing touches to a project. And this is the role of Winston Quitasol as a lighting and compositing artist. Indeed, an essential part of any movie. Big Hero 6 Read More …
Mar 122015
Manila Mayor Joseph Ejercito Estrada turnover a key to the city of Manila to President of the French Republic Francois Hollande during the wreath laying ceremony at the Rizal Monument in Manila (MNS Photo) MANILA (Mabuhay) – Contradicting his earlier statement that serving as mayor of the country’s capital will only be a one-shot affair, former President and Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada on Wednesday expressed intention of seeking re-election in 2016. Estrada said though nothing is final yet, he is likely to seek re-election in next year’s local and national elections. “Kung ako tatanungin, wala naman akong ibang plano kundi sakali, baka mag-run ako for re-election as mayor of Manila,” Estrada, more popularly known as Erap, said. Estrada bared this a day after the Supreme Court affirmed its earlier ruling dismissing the disqualification case filed against him by Alicia Vidal, the legal counsel of former Manila mayor Alfredo Lim, Estrada’s rival in the 2013 elections. In its ruling, the SC found Estrada eligible when he ran as Manila mayor in 2013, saying his civil and political rights were restored when he was given absolute pardon in 2007 by then-President and current Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Asked if he still intends to run for higher office, specifically as president, following the favorable Supreme Court ruling, Estrada said: “Wala na. Tapos na ako roon. Ang gusto ko ngayon ay maibalik natin ang image of Manila as the ‘Pearl of the Orient.’” Estrada said it becomes a great challenge for him to bring Read More …