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MMDA identifies 5 field hospitals, evacuation sites in case of major earthquake

THE METROPOLITAN Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has released a list of five sites that will serve as evacuation emergency field hospitals in case a major earthquake hits the capital. Based on a division of Metro Manila into four quadrants, the sites are: Veterans Memorial Medical Center and Quezon Memorial Circle for the north quadrant, LRT-2 Santolan Station for the east, Intramuros Golf Course for the west, and Villamor Airbase Golf Course for the south. “These locations are considered secure and can be accessed easily by rescue teams who can provide relief goods and medical response in case of emergency,” the MMDA said in a statement. The quadrants are composed of the following:
North — Quezon City, Caloocan, Valenzuela, San Juan
West — Navotas, Malabon, and Manila
East — Marikina and Pasig
South — Pasay, Makati, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, Pateros, and Taguig
DRILL
The MMDA will hold the regular Metro Manila Shake Drill on the third week of July, but the exact date will not be announced this time. “No one can predict when an earthquake will happen… We want to do a shake drill in a more realistic environment,” said MMDA General Manager Jose Arturo S. Garcia in a separate statement. Telecommunication firms will broadcast the drill through SMS messages to its subscribers on a specific day, while radio stations will air an alert to signal the start of the drill. Companies, churches, schools, and institutions are urged to sound their own alerts.

Iloilo City comprehensive transport plan in the works

THE ILOILO City government is now working on a comprehensive transportation plan and is targeting to complete it within the year. Councilor R. Leone Gerochi, chair of the committee on transportation, said they are coordinating with the City Planning and Developing Office (CPDO) and the Public Safety and Transportation Management Office (PSTMO) in drafting the plan and for implementation. “We are now in the middle of drafting our transport plan and the CPDO is reviewing the flow of traffic to make it more efficient. And there are also changes in the transport system that the city government has to adopt,” Mr. Gerochi said. Among the provisions being considered are setting up additional or adjusting old public utility jeepney routes. The councilor said they are open to suggestions from the public and hearings will also be scheduled when the draft is completed. He added that the comprehensive plan might not prove to be perfect, but it would be a good start to addressing the traffic problem in the city. “Let us put a system where people will be encouraged or even be compelled to use public transport rather than bring their car,” he said. — Louine Hope U. Conserva

Landbank approves two loans for jeepney modernization with co-ops

LAND BANK of the Philippines (Landbank) said it has approved loans for two transport groups to support their transition to modernized jeepneys.
Landbank President Alex V. Buenaventura told reporters on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Pantawid Pasada signing program that the bank issued “initial loan approvals” to Pangkalahatang Sanggunian Manila & Suburb Drivers Association Nationwide, Inc. (PASANG-MASDA) and 1-Transport Equipment Aggregator and Management, Inc. (1-TEAM).
“We’ve signed a deal with PASANG-MASDA. They have a loan for 60 jeepneys, for franchising routes within Quezon City area. That’s one. And then we have a loan with 1-TEAM” for an unspecified number of units, he said.
jeepney
Mr. Buenaventura added the loan terms require 5% equity from transportation cooperatives or corporations with the loan value at 95% of the cost of modernized jeepneys.
He noted PASANG-MASDA is finalizing its procurement, and it has a preliminary budget of P1.6 million per modernized jeepney. He estimates a monthly amortization rate of about P24,000 a month per unit.
Because e-payments through Beep cards are a feature of modernized jeepneys, Mr. Buenaventura said passenger fares may go straight to Landbank to pay off the loan. The interest rate on the loans is under 6%.
The jeepney modernization program requires operators to modernize their fleets over a period of three years, for units that are more than 15 years old.
Aside from Landbank, the government also tapped the Development Bank of the Philippines to assist operators and drivers with loans. — Denise A. Valdez

Davao Region records highest teen pregnancies in 2017

DAVAO REGION recorded the highest number of adolescents who started child bearing at age 10 to 19, based on the National Demographic Health Survey in 2017. Dr. Raquel D. Montejo, family cluster head of the Department of Health-Davao (DoH-11), said they have put this concern as a priority, noting that their evaluation indicates that parents do not have the capability to orient their children on sexual and reproductive health. “This is a priority program of DoH. We always base on statistics… we have prioritized programs based on statistics that we have,” Ms. Montejo said at a media forum earlier this week. She cited that about 16% of total pregnancies in the region are teens, with Davao Occidental recording the highest at 25%, followed by Compostela Valley with 18%. Jeff Y. Fuentes, Davao City Population chief, said the information drive on “early sexual activities” (ESA) needs to be intensified along with the delivery of health services. “I think it is really the lack of information because the culture of this country is very different … ESA is a taboo,” said Mr. Fuentes, adding that while it is not discussed, the “curiosity” of the young has to be addressed. — Maya M. Padillo

P44-M budget set for 2018 Kadayawan Festival

THIS YEAR’S Kadayawan Festival will have a budget of P44 million, P12 million of which will come from the city government and the rest will be raised by the private sector from sponsorships, according to City Tourism Operations Office Chief Regina Rosa D. Tecson. “The city government will shoulder P12 million for the prizes and the food of the security personnel while the private sector will be the one to raise the remaining amount,” she said in a statement. Ms. Tecson also said they are eyeing 200,000 local and foreign visitors during the almost month-long festivity, higher than last year’s 185,000. Festival Director Renato Gatchalian, Jr. said during the Kadayawan launch last Monday that among those expected to come are 35 tourists from Hong Kong, who will join the “experiential rides” during the float parade. Mr. Gatchalian said they aim to make the 33rd Kadayawan “more engaging” for tourists. “Around 35 visitors from Hong Kong have confirmed their booking for the Kadayawan experiential rides,” he said. The main events are scheduled on Aug. 10-19. The new events that will be introduced this year are the Kadayawan Ball, a fashion competition featuring the culture of the city’s 11 indigenous peoples, and Kosplay Kadayawan, inspired by the popular costume play but focusing on outfits highlighting the Philippine Eagle. — Carmencita A. Carillo

DoE preparing LNG plan B if no private investors emerge

By Victor V. Saulon
Sub-Editor
THE Energy department said it needs to boost its capability to undertake on its own the proposed integrated liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal as an energy crisis might ensue if no private investor comes forward to handle the billion-dollar project.
“We need to find a way to do it. If no third-party private investor wants to come in, then you have a looming energy crisis within the next two to three years,” Leonido J. Pulido III, assistant secretary at the Department of Energy (DoE), told reporters in a chance interview during the 6th Philippine Electric Vehicle Summit at the SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia Complex, in Pasay City.
He said the LNG project is not the only initiative at stake but the supply of energy to the power plants that require the fossil fuel. At present, the country’s natural gas supply comes from the Malampaya gas field off the coast of Palawan province.
Five gas-fired power plants in Batangas province, with a combined capacity of 3,211 megawatts (MW), are the main customers of the fuel source, which is expected to be depleted by 2022 to 2024. That capacity is close a third of Luzon’s peak power demand.
“Remember, it’s 3,200 MW for LNG and you have to take into consideration the price of fuel will most likely increase within the next two to three years because of IMO 2020,” he said. IMO 2020 is an initiative to switch ships over to cleaner fuels, putting pressure on LNG supply.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) issued a directive setting a global limit for sulfur in fuel oil used on board ships of 0.50% mass by mass from Jan. 1, 2020. IMO is a specialized agency of the United Nations that regulates shipping.
In its website, the IMO said the move “will significantly reduce the amount of sulfur oxide emanating from ships and should have major health and environmental benefits for the world, particularly for populations living close to ports and coasts.”
Mr. Pulido said the shift will have significant effects on the demand and supply of gas oil.
“Most ships right now are using fuel oil — what we call RFO (residual fuel oil) bunker oil, which is the poorer quality, dirtier oil. And if most of these countries will comply, and it would seem that they would, then if you shift from fuel oil to gas oil, the demand and supply dynamics in the world for diesel is going to affect everybody,” he said.
He said the shift would also affect the cost of commodities, especially those being shipped, as traders bearing the impact of rising operating and capital expenses have to recover by jacking up prices.
“A lot of countries are bracing for the potential impact of IMO 2020,” he said.
Mr. Pulido said although 13 or 14 private companies have come forward to express their interest in the project, none has so far submitted a formal proposal.
“I think we’re going to be needing a law where the government can come in and be proactive because we have no guarantees that the private sector would be willing to make a risk for us,” he said.
“We cannot force them to invest,” he added.
Mr. Pulido said he had sought a meeting with Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, the Senate energy committee chairman, on certain revisions he would want to propose on the pending legislation covering natural gas.
“Any law being considered by the Senate should have a provision for the government being able to step in,” he said, although he added that he is “very confident” that one or two companies will formally apply to undertake the project.
He placed the cost of the project at roughly $1.5 billion. He said if not an LNG project, the government should have options in place to address the energy supply for the gas-fired power plants such as a floating storage regasification unit or a short-term supply contract with a neighboring LNG importer.
“It’s faster and cheaper to have any of these options than to build new power plants to capture, or to shoulder the loss of the 3,200 MW that are dependent on Malampaya’s LNG,” he said.

Nation at a Glance — (07/12/18)

News stories from across the nation. Visit www.bworldonline.com (section: The Nation) to read more national and regional news from the Philippines.

DA reviewing royalty process for sugar imports

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said it will review the royalty system for sugar imports to ensure farmers receive their share.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol told reporters on Tuesday that some changes may be in the works to ensure that sugarcane farmers benefit from the importation process, as per cabinet discussions on Monday.
“SRA (Sugar Regulatory Administration) said that whatever is earned is divided among the farmers. However, who would know whether the declared royalty is really the royalty farmers receive?” he added.
Mr. Piñol said that the previous system involves the SRA allocating imported sugar for farmers and planters associations to sell to processors and bottlers.
“I made this clear during my meeting with the stakeholders: How sure are we that the royalty given to the farmers and planters associations really trickles down to the sugarcane farmers?” he said.
“By giving the allocation to planters and farmers’ associations who sell these to traders and processors would mean a markup on the price of imported sugar which defeats the purpose of why we should import sugar, which is to bring down the cost.”
Mr. Piñol also clarified that there is still enough sugar in the market and blamed speculators for rising prices despite a glut in world supply.
The SRA estimates that the prevailing retail price for raw sugar as of July 7 was P50 per kilo, with washed and refined sugar at P52 per kilo and 65 per kilo, respectively.
This is higher than the previous months’ record where the prevailing retail prices for raw, washed and refined sugar were at P48 per kilo, P50 per kilo, and P60 per kilo, respectively.
Prevailing retail prices from a comparative period last year also posted slightly lower or maintained the same prices with raw and washed sugar being only sold at P45 per kilo and P48 per kilo, respectively. Refined sugar was priced at P53 per kilo.
However, Mr. Piñol said that the only sector facing a supply issue is the bottling industry, especially Coca-Cola FEMSA Philippines, Inc. as its suppliers allegedly redirected their sugar stocks to the commercial market.
“I told [the suppliers] in our last meeting to make sure that the volume imported with the intent to supply to the bottlers and processors must be delivered to the processors and the bottlers,” he added.
“If you don’t, the government still reserves the right and has the power to allow these bottlers to import directly,” potentially exposing the traders to losses. — Anna Gabriela A. Mogato

K-12 forces rethink on inexperienced candidates — JobStreet

EMPLOYERS are looking more closely at interpersonal and problem-solving skills and attitude, indicating a new willingness to hire new graduates with no work experience, JobStreet.com said.
In its Philippines Annual Fresh Graduate Report, JobStreet.com said in a statement that “for some employers, the shift comes with a readiness to hire the new batch of K-12 graduates this year.”
“Employers willing to hire K-12 graduates noted that they’d be using similar metrics and factors as what they use with college graduates, to gauge the viability of K-12 candidates. They would primarily focus on attitude and work ethic, interpersonal and communication skills, knowledge of the field and industry, and academic performance as well as (on-the-job training) and internship experience,” JobStreet added.
It said 24% of employers said “they are ready to hire the new graduates.” These employers have confidence that K-12 graduates will be qualified for administrative (47%), customer service (44%), and sales and marketing (40%) positions.
The report covers industries like business process outsourcing (BPO) (21%), manufacturing (16%), professional services (12%) and retail (12%).
On the other hand, 35% of the surveyed employers said they will not hire K-12 graduates, “primarily because a college degree is among their desired qualifications” JobStreet said. The remaining 41% of employers surveyed were indefinite and are still evaluating if they are ready to hire K-12 candidates.
JobStreet’s newest report also showed that Human Resources Personnel “may not be very knowledgeable on the nature of the K-12 program” especially with the “K-12 Work Immersion Program specialized tracks and strands.”
“We believe that the new K-12 program can sufficiently prepare its graduates to be valuable contributors to the future work force,” Country Manager for JobStreet Philippines Philip A. Gioca said.
“We also believe that the education sector has done a great job in creating a valuable curriculum, but it needs to do more to disseminate information to employers about the kind of job candidate that K-12 creates,” Mr. Gioca added. — Gillian M. Cortez

Two Pasig River bridges to start construction next week

THE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said it is set to begin construction on two China-funded bridges along the Pasig River next week.
DPWH Secretary Mark A. Villar told reporters during an inspection of the site on Wednesday that the department has scheduled for next week the groundbreaking for the Binondo-Intramuros and Estrella-Pantaleon bridges.
“Next week we will be groundbreaking with President Rodrigo R. Duterte. After groundbreaking, construction will commence,” he said.
The Estrella-Pantaleon bridge spans 506.46 meters, while the Binondo-Intramuros bridge is planned for 734 meters.
Mr. Villar said construction of the two four-lane bridges is priced at about $70 million.
“The two China Grant-Aid Bridges are financed by the People’s Republic of China through a bilateral cooperation with the Republic of the Philippines,” DPWH said in a statement.
The DPWH has set a two-year construction period for the project.
“You will observe now that Del Pan and the bridges across Pasig are quite congested. (The new bridges) will ease it up by creating additional access points here in Binondo and Intramuros in Metro Manila,” Mr. Villar said.
He noted this project is part of the Metro Manila Logistics Master Plan that aims to construct 12 bridges in addition to the 30 existing bridges over the Pasig River to decongest roads. — Denise A. Valdez

Transparency, drug suppression touted as key achievements pre-SONA

THE GOVERNMENT’s governance and human development clusters yesterday presented their achievements in the past year, ahead of the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Rodrigo R. Duterte.
The Participatory Governance Cabinet cluster, chaired by Department of Interior and Local Government Officer-in-Charge, Secretary OIC-Secretary Eduardo M. Año, reported that 136,129 drug personalities were arrested with over 1.2 million surrendered since the new government took over.
It was also able to enact 237 Office of the Ombudsman decisions on public servants, with 186 local officials withdrawn from police deputation. It also investigated 57 complaints against local officials.
“LGUs (local government units) have to have frequent and inclusive dialogues to immediately address and provide for the people’s needs,” said Mr. Año.
Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, meanwhile, said that the government has enhanced transparency “across all levels of government,” through continuing the Transparency Seal and the Full Disclosure Policy for national and local governments; reaching more communities for their concerns through Open Government Townhall Sessions; implementing the 8888 hot line; setting up the Citizen Participatory Audit,eased access for government transactions through the National Government Portal; implementing the Freedom of Information (FoI) Law; and complying with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, among others.
Mr. Diokno noted that all national government agencies have submitted their FoI manuals, while 84% of government-owned and -controlled corporations, 90% of state universities and colleges (SUCs), and 34% of local water districts have done the same.
He said the 8888 hot line has an average resolution rate of 93.2% of all the 180 legitimate transactions, “making it a very effective facility that allows citizens to give feedback to government that are acted upon on time and facilitates better public service delivery to our people.”
“Moving forward, we will strongly push for the passage of our priority legislative measures as well, such as the Freedom of Information Act, National ID System Act, and most especially the Budget Reform Bill. The bill aims to institutionalize necessary ingredients of a modern budget system, budget disclosure, and citizen participation in the budget process,” said Mr. Diokno.
“We put strong emphasis on ensuring that participatory governance is at the front and center of the Duterte administration change and reform agenda,” Mr. Diokno added.
This follows the first pre-SONA forum last week where the government’s economic development and infrastructure Cabinet clusters presented their achievements.
The government conducted pre-SONA forums to allow President Rodrigo R. Duterte flexibility to speak about “whatever he wants.”
The National Disaster Risk Resiliency cluster and the Security cluster and the Justice and Peace cluster will lead the third and final pre-SONA forum next week.
The Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cluster, headed by Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Acting Secretary Virginia N. Orogo, meanwhile, said that 4 million of its 4.9 million total Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program were enrolled in schools.
“There were over a 1.3 million increase in enrollees in secondary education and enrolled more than 900,000 in 112 state universities and colleges,” she said.
Ms. Orogo said that the DSWD is also fast-tracking unconditional cash transfers for the bottom 50% of families affected by the tax reform law.
“A unified national ID system is currently being studied to facilitate the delivery of the cash transfers,” she said.
“We will work to improve access to credit and financial assistance, land, water, and other necessary assets, technology and machineries, and markets and services,” she said.
The government hopes to bring down poverty rate from 21.6% in 2015 to 14% by 2022. — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan

Now online: SEC company registration

“At last!” I exclaimed in relief twice. First, upon hearing last year about the plans for online registration to be implemented the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and then again upon the signing of Republic Act (RA) No. 11032 or the Ease of Doing Business Act recently.
The SEC online registration system was launched late last year even before the signing of the RA which aims to streamline the procedures and requirements in establishing a business and renewing business permits or registrations.
Prior to the enactment of the RA, the government agencies had been trying to make business registration more efficient by rationalizing the processes through an integrative approach, one of which was the so-called Integrated Business Registry System (IBRS). Under the IBRS, the SEC issues a Unified Registration Record containing the newly registered company’s SEC registration number, pre-issued tax identification number and the corresponding pre-issued employer membership numbers with the three social agencies, the SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG.
In November, the SEC launched the Company Registration System (CRS), a portal which allows applicants to submit requirements online. To access CRS, applicants are required to open an account through the SEC’s web portal at crs.sec.gov.ph.
The CRS aims to minimize personal appearances at the SEC offices by requiring submission of documents via online upload. Thus, the SEC no longer accepts manually filed applications since the CRS became fully operational. This zero-contact approach likewise limits interactions between examiners and applicants within the CRS network and is in line with the zero-contact policy of the Ease of Doing Business Act.
To contextualize how the CRS works, below is a discussion of the step-by-step registration/licensing process for corporations/partnerships, as well as an explanation of how these steps have been integrated in the new system, and how the CRS compares with its precursor.
The first step in registration is to verify whether the proposed name of the new entity is allowed or available. With its integration in the CRS, this online feature is most convenient since it spares the public from the previous long queues just to pay the name reservation fee.
Once the name reservation has been successfully verified, the applicant has four days to comply with the requirements in the CRS. In the event that the name reservation expires prior to proceeding to the subsequent process, the applicant may log in and redo the process. The fee for name reservation shall be paid together with the registration fees at the tail end of every successful CRS process.
In case the name verification result is denied, and if the applicant wishes to appeal, an appeal letter has to be uploaded in the CRS. This is an improvement from the former practice of physically filing the appeal letter with the SEC office. The applicant will be notified of the result of the appeal via the e-mail address enrolled in the applicant’s CRS account.
After completing the required information in the CRS, applicants may adopt the pre-generated incorporation/registration documents such as the Articles of Incorporation/Partnership and By-laws by downloading them from the CRS or use their own prepared versions.
Once the applicant has completely encoded the required information and uploaded the registration documents, a notification shall be sent to the applicant’s CRS account confirming receipt of the documents, and thereafter, furnishing the results of the SEC examiner’s evaluation. If there are deficiencies, the applicant has to comply via CRS. Once favorably evaluated, an order of payment will be sent to the applicant’s CRS account.
The Payment Assessment Form must be secured from the SEC office upon presentation of the printed order of payment. Thereafter, the applicant can proceed to pay the registration fees through the payment facility options in the CRS. Once paid, the receipt must be uploaded in the CRS before personally proceeding to the SEC office to file the original copies of the registration documents. Finally, an e-mail will be sent notifying the applicant when to drop by the SEC office to claim the Certificate of Incorporation/Registration/Authority/License.
The CRS seems promising in automating the registration process. However, like all other attempts to integrate technology to an age-old process, there have been challenges/birth pains in its implementation. From a personal perspective, here are some difficulties applicants have encountered under the new system and the downside of the CRS vis-a-vis its manual counterpart:

• The assignment of applications to an SEC examiner and the review process take longer in the CRS than in the old manual system. The turnaround time to receive the initial comments of the examiner is one month. In contrast, the application under the old manual process was immediately assigned to an examiner; thus,the applicant receives the examiner’s comments on the same day of submission or the day after, allowing the applicant to immediately rectify the deficiencies, if any.

• For efficient connectivity, the CRS requires a stable Internet connection. Due to the influx of transactions as the CRS accepts applications any time of the day, the system’s operating capacity is running slow. In the previous manual system, the SEC only accepts applications during office hours; hence, the volume of transactions was controlled and managed.

• The CRS experiences errors which sometimes require the applicant to restart or re-encode deleted information due to system failures.

• For payment of registration fees, there is an additional step requiring the applicant to upload a copy of the receipt on the CRS.

• Due to delays and uncertain waiting time, the zero-contact policy is not yet fully achieved; applicants still flock to the SEC to personally follow up their applications.

• The CRS is designed only for standard or pro-forma articles or by-laws.

Like all innovations, initial stages are often peppered with lapses. However, trial periods are but temporary phases in any systems process. Given the SEC’s upbeat stance for change, there are high hopes, that after the pilot year, CRS will soon operate efficiently and effectively as programmed.
The views or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Isla Lipana & Co. The content is for general information purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for specific advice.
 
Cyril B. Pestilos is a Senior Consultant at the Tax Services Department of Isla Lipana & Co., the Philippine member firm of the PwC network.
+63 (2) 845-2728
cyril.b.pestilos@ph.pwc.com

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