President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is scheduled to sign on Wednesday (April 29) the amendments to Republic Act (RA) No. 3591 increasing the insurance coverage by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) of bank deposits by 100 percent, from P250,000 to P.5-million.

Amendments to the PDIC charter form part of the financial reforms designed to bolster the protection of bank deposits, enhance confidence in, and contribute to a stronger banking system.

In October last year, the President approved her Cabinet’s proposal to increase the deposit insurance coverage of bank deposits to increase depositors’ protection and enhance confidence in the banking system amid the global financial meltdown.

The President is scheduled to approve the PDIC charter amendments on the sidelines of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority PEZA (PEZA) Investors’ Recognition Night at the World Trade Center (WTC) in Pasay City on Wednesday.

Among those expected to witness the simple signing ceremony are Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando Tetangco Jr., Trade Secretary Peter Favila, PDIC president Jose C. Nograles and the principal sponsors of the amendments, namely, Senators Edgardo Angara and Manila Rep. Jaime Lopez.

THE Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on Thursday approved Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) application for performance-based regulation (PBR).

The ERC order allowed Meralco to effectively increase its distribution, supply and metering charge to an average P1.227 per kilowatt hour

This will mean an increase of 25.7 centavos per kWh from the 96.57 centavos per kWh average for distribution, supply and metering that Meralco charged in 2008.

Jose de Jesus, Meralco president, said increases in power rates are given due to inflation, cost of servicing and higher cost of investments.

However, the ERC directed the utility to refund its customers an additional 10.61 centavos per kWh beginning in May, or a total reduction of 14.61 centavos per kWh.

Despite the increase in distribution charges this coming May, consumers’ electric bills may decline, Meralco said, citing an ERC order accelerating its refund to clients.

With the PBR method, customers can look forward to higher efficiency and reliability in electricity service since the utility will be fined if it does not meet service-level standards, it said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said  that the government would forego this year’s P30-million Independence Day celebration and instead hold mega jobs fairs nationwide starting this summer to help the unemployed particularly the workers displaced by the global financial crisis.

In her speech in the first-ever Asian Development Bank (ADB) Reception on Friday night at the ADB headquarters in Mandaluyong City, the President said the biggest and widest jobs fair would be held in Luneta and other parts of the country during the Independence Day celebration on June 12.

Among those present during the reception were ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda and his spouse, Mrs. Kumiko Kuroda; ADB vice president C. Lawrence Greenwood Jr., ADB executive director Marita Jimenez, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, other government officials and members of the diplomatic corps.

“This Independence Day, we will save the diplomatic corps including (ADB) president Kuroda of the need to go to Luneta to watch a P30-million parade because, instead, we will hold a mega-jobs fair so that the 46,000 workers in the export sector displaced by the global crisis can be matched to the jobs that are certainly still available,” the President said.

To mitigate the effects of the global financial crisis, the President has directed the conduct of jobs fairs and pushed for incentives for workers displaced in the electronics sector, which is the hardest hit by the global financial crisis.

Included in the massive jobs matching, is the month-long jobs fair being arranged by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and trade unions to commemorate Labor Day starting on May 1.

The DOLE estimated that over 100,000 local and overseas jobs will be up for grabs during the month-long nationwide jobs fair.

And because summer means graduation time, the President added, “We must also work hard to provide job and training opportunities for our young graduates.”

The President said she was also happy to hear that Indophil is hiring additional workers instead of laying them off as a result of the global crisis.

Indo Phil Group of Companies is part of the Indian multinational, The Aditya Birla Group, a $24-billion conglomerate operating in 21 countries, which established operations in the Philippines since 1975 producing yarns and other textile materials.

With Indophil incurring losses since last year, the government immediately responded by providing them the package of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to help the company sustain their operations here and ensure the continued employment of its almost 2,000 workers.

Malacanang has demanded oil firms, both the Big Three and independent players, to explain the oil price hikes implemented Tuesday.

Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Anthony Golez said Department of Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes already called on Petron, Shell, Caltex, PTT Philippines and Total to discuss the ’surprise’ hike of their gasoline prices by P1 per liter and diesel and kerosene prices by 50 centavos.

”Pinatatawag ni Secretary Reyes ang mga oil firms to explain why prices of their oil product is increasing. Kailangan pa rin na malaman natin ang dahilan sa pagtaas (Secretary Reyes will gather the oil firms and let them explain why prices of their oil product is increasing. We need to know the reason for the hike),“ Golez said.

Under the Oil Deregulation law, oil firms should inform the DOE about any adjustment on oil products.

The DOE also requires that the oil firms announce the price changes a day before implementation.

”Hintayin na lamang natin ang sasabihin ni Secretary Reyes tungkol sa kanilang pag-uusap (Let’s wait for the outcome of their discussion),” Golez said.

Both Shell and Caltex failed to announce their oil price hike. It implemented the adjustment at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday but made the announcement hours later.

The industry needs more talent and skill-based workforce rather than degree-based personnel, according to the current labor trends and demand.

Ambassador Donald Dee, U-ACT chairman and member of the Presidential Task Force on Education, urged schools and educational institutions to re-tailor their courses and training programs and produce graduates that would fill in the workforce.

He noted this in the light of results of a study indicating there are enough jobs available for Filipinos, but finding the right workforce to fill in the labor demand remains to be a challenge that the government, educational institutions and industry has to address.

The study, titled “Assessment of Training Policies of CHED, TESDA and Industry to Address Employment Mismatch,” was conducted by the Universal Access to Competitiveness and Trade (U-ACT), affiliate think-tank of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI).

Primarily, the study was premised on assessing and reviewing training policies and existing programs of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and industry, to then come up with a recommendation on how to address certain loopholes and institutionalize reforms to enable to draw a coherent agenda and measures that would address the gaps on employment.

It focused on assessing the various training needs, programs of nine priority sectors namely: ship building, electronics, business processing, healthcare, tourism, retail trade, maritime, manufacturing engineering and maritime engineering.

Among the course of actions that were proposed to be undertaken include the harmonization and unification of the education agencies in one leadership, to ensure and sustain private sector participation and industry leadership, upgrade and professionalize education and training institutions by providing incentives to seasoned professional teachers, revise and customize the curriculum based on the emerging needs of the industry and push for brain gain strategy and incentive scheme, financing of basic, post-second secondary and bridging
programs.

The study also suggested to look into and address the current hiring policies for basic education and put emphasis on the level of awareness and appreciation of teachers as to the importance of basic education to the entire education cycle, link education and training programs to industry addressing issues that inhibits corporate participation and investment on-the-job training, apprenticeship and other school to work transition programs, and develop a national retention strategy and dissemination of public information, among
others.

Based on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) report, it projected that some four million jobs will be created between 2006 and 2010 within the fields of agribusiness, cyber-services, engineering, healthcare, tourism and hospitality.

According to Forbes Asia magazine, the Philippines’ biggest mall operator and his family have increased their wealth by $1.4 billion despite the global financial turmoil, making them the wealthiest Filipinos this year.

He has come a long way from the modest shoe store he set up in Quiapo in 1946, to become the owner of the Philippines’ biggest chain of shopping malls. I guess all of us helped him gather his millions. I mean, who has not shopped at SM at one time or another?

Sy also controls  Banco de Oro, run by daughter Teresita Sy-Coson.  You go to SM, you shop, you run out of money – no problem! There are BDO ATMs everywhere!

Forbes said that he and his family have a net worth of $3.1 billion. Again, 3,100,000,000 dollars.  Multiply that by 48 for the peso conversion. Do the math.

Tobacco tycoon Lucio Tan and his family came in second with a net worth of $1.5 billion. They the own national carrier Philippine Airlines and have interests in beer brewing and mining. So anybody who has flown PAL and drank Beer an Beer and Tanduay, or smoked Fortune cigarette, has helped him land on the number two spot.

Last year’s richest, Jaime Zobel de Ayala and his family, dropped to third place after losing $800 million, Forbes said. Oh, they got ‘poorer’…

Well, if that’s the level of being ‘poor’, I wouldn’t mind being impoverished.

The list of the Philippines richest will be featured in the Oct. 29 issue of Forbes Asia magazine.

In an article in today’s Los Angeles Times, a new consumer protection law seeks for call center companies to reveal if they are on shore or off-shore operations – i.e. ‘outsourced’ customer care facilities. On the surface it seems targeted at many American consumers preferences  to work with fellow Americans in getting their customer care or service issues settled. It’s a legal issue not a racial or ethnic one for the most part, as well as language concern. Liabilities, for example, to issues dealt with overseas often are not covered by US laws, hence if service promises made from an overseas center are not met then US consumers do not get full protection under current existing laws in several state and federal statues on fair business practice and ethical rules.

[] … The bill would require anyone answering or initiating a call at a center used by a U.S. business to disclose location. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.), requires that the disclosure come at the beginning of the call. It also applies to centers in the U.S. …[] LA TImes

It is also highly charged and a political issue that with over 860,000 Americans out of work this year in many cases a lot of those jobs were in the customer care arena.

Hence, political leaders like Cong. Altmire, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, and a number of others in total 25 co-sponsors including two from Southern California — Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) and Bob Filner (D-Chula Vista), reports the Times. “If you call an American-based business, you have the right to know if the call is going overseas… The person at the call center would, he said, have to start out by saying something like My name is so-and-so, and I’m in India.”

Many of the authors are from districts which were once  “top call and customer care center locations” in the US.

This is going local with an issue that will impact the call center industry here in the Philippines and elsewhere. The Democrats backed up by unions and local business groups trying to preserve their existence with local call and customer care services, both workers and providers, who are losing out to lower costs and often better service provided by customer care facilities overseas.

Often better educated and from cultures more inclined to be service oriented most consumers never even notice if the care is given from US shores or elsewhere. In reality, many of the companies that are off-shored are often owned by US companies who have relocated or themselves off-shore to be able to meet market price conditions.

What is often hypocritical is while those political figures often bash ‘outsourcing’, they themselves use offshore call centers for things like fund raising and contact center work handled here in the Philippines.

Ironic in a way – while Democrats and and, yes, jumping on the bandwagon some Republicans, bash the outsource industry, they use the services here almost daily.

I think it’s time to do a real in-depth story on that.

Expect more of the same – about this topic as election day gets closer…

“The Philippines has moved a step closer to realizing its vision of achieving energy independence,” Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said today.

Arroyo who was speaking at the Business Roundtable with the government at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City this morning, the President told around 150 local and foreign business leaders that the Galoc oil field started producing yesterday the first commercially-viable gasoline crude oil find in the country.

“Yesterday (Thursday Oct. 9) our new Galoc oil field started pumping oil to what we believe will double our crude oil production in our country,” she said.

According to the Philippine energy department, “the production of the Galoc fields is projected to be about 17,000-20,000 barrels of crude oil a day for the first 90 days or until the end of the year and will make a big dent on the country’s annual oil import bill of $6 billion.”

The production level while marginal by global standards, “will account for about six percent of the country’s total daily demand of 300,000 barrels.”

President Arroyo said the fresh oil flow from the production platform, ” is a big boost to her administration’s program to achieve energy independence through the exploration, extraction and use of crude oil, geothermal, biofuels and other forms of renewable energy.”

A palace statement released Friday said, “The new oil find… increased the country’s energy independence from 41 percent in 2001 to 58 percent, the highest in our history.” The Office of the Press Secretary statement went on to say, “With the Galoc oil field starting its production yesterday, we expect to attain 60 percent energy independence in two years.”

On Thursday, the Galoc oil field started producing light medium crude oil, with a potential high yield of light ends, such as gasoline. Initial exploration results show that the Galoc fields have reserves containing at least 10 to 20 million barrels. This translates to US$1.4 billion in foreign exchange savings for the country for Galoc wells’ entire lifetime which is estimated at three to five years.

The consumers take center stage in the month of October as the country commemorates a month-long Consumers Welfare Month celebration.

Vital to the consumers welfare is enlightening them of their eight basic rights which include the right to basic needs, right to safety, right to information, right to choose, right to representation, right to redress, right to consumer education and the right to a healthy environment.

The right to basic needs guarantee the consumers the right to survival, adequate food, clothing, shelter, health care, education and sanitation.

In acquiring these basic needs, a consumer must prioritize his needs. He must look for quality and not quantity; be quality conscious rather that brand conscious. He must also look forward to the availability of basic and prime commodities at affordable prices and of good quality.

The second right of a consumer entails the protection against the marketing of goods or the provision of services that are hazardous to health and life and that consumers should look forward that manufacturers of consumer products will undertake extensive safety and performance testing before selling their products in the market.

The right to information is the right to be protected against dishonest or misleading advertising or labelling and the right to be given the facts and information needed to make an informed choice. The consumer must look forward to a complete information about product to be purchased including its use, ingredients and chemical contents, precautions, if any, dosage and expiry date.

The right to choose is the freedom to select products at competitive prices with an assurance of satisfactory quality. The consumers must look forward to a wide array of goods and services which are offered in the market with diverse brands, sizes, shapes and colors and with differences in the price, quality and use.

The right to representation is the freedom to express consumer interests in the making and execution of government policies where consumers should look forward to legislators would propose laws that would ensure that consumers would have the chance to live a better life by getting the best value for their hard-earned peso.

The right to redress which is the sixth right of consumers is the freedom to be compensated for misrepresentation, shoddy goods or unsatisfactory services. The consumers must look forward that manufacturers or storeowners would replace defective goods pursuant to the provision of RA 7394 otherwise known as the Consumer Act of the Philippines which entails the provision on “No Return, No Exhange”.

The right to consumer education is the right of the consumers to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to be an informed consumer. The consumers must be able to look forward for the business, government and consumers to embark on an information campaign through tri-media on consumer-related issues and if possible attend to seminars, conferences, fora, trainings and public hearing for the welfare of consumers.

The eight and last consumer right is the right to a healthy environment. Consumers have the right to live and work in an environment which is neither threatening nor dangerous and which permits a life of dignity and well-being. This is an environment where consumers must look forward for the government to exert iron hand in protecting the natural resources and the environment as a whole in order to prevent its damage and degradation.

All consumers must learn these rights by heart. After all, well-informed consumers, vigilant consumers are empowered consumers and empowered consumers are the best protected consumers.

Source: Phil. Information Agency

Based on the Business Names Registration of the Department of Trade and Industry, about 11,186 new jobs were generated by the 5,022 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises which were registered in 2007.

These statistics are manifestations of the Provincial Government of Leyte’s unceasing campaign for the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises which are the backbone of the Philippine economy, in the province.

The new jobs generated by the Leyte MSMEs in 2007 represent more than one half of the total 24,000 new jobs were generated in the six provinces in Eastern Visayas, by the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises registered in 2007.

Statistics provided by Ms. Vangie Paran of the National Statistical Coordination Board showed that among the six provinces in Eastern Visayas, the province of Leyte registered the most number of MSMEs at 5,022. The MSMEs, in the province of Leyte also produced the highest number of new jobs at 11,186 in the year 2007.

The province of Samar registered about 1,037 MSMEs in 2007, the third highest in the region. It ranks second in terms of new jobs generated with 6,780. However, the province of Samar posted the highest increase which was more than triple, from 1446 in 2006 to 6,780 jobs generated in 2007.

The province of Southern Leyte registered 1,047 MSMEs in 2007, the second highest in the Region. However, the MSMEs generated the least number of new jobs, only 1,009, much lower than the number of jobs the province generated in 2006 at 2,522.

The province of Biliran registered the least number of MSMEs in 2007 at 306 and generated the second least number of new jobs generated in 2007 at only 1023.

The province of Eastern Samar registered the second least number of MSMEs in 2007 at only 449 but it ranked 3rd highest in the number of jobs generated by the MSMEs at 2,401.

Meanwhile, the province of Northern Samar registered 653 and generated 2,199 new jobs in 2007.

The Magna Carta for Small Enterprises define Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises as any business activity or enterprise engaged in industry, agribusiness and/or services, whether single proprietorship, cooperative, partnership or corporation whose total assets, inclusive of those arising from loans but exclusive of the land on which the particular business entity’s office, plant and equipment are situated, must have value falling under not more than P3 Million for Micro Enterprises; from P3,000,001 to P15 Million for Small Enterprises; and from P15,000,001 to P100 Million for the Medium Enterprises

Source: Philippine Information Agency