CITY OF SAN FERNANDO--- The work of the 21 revision committees formed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the recount of ballots for the gubernatorial election of Pampanga is finally over but lengthy court proceedings are expected to drag on.
This was according to Comelec Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer last week amid the proliferation of text messages alleging that losing gubernatorial candidate Lilia Pineda has overtaken Pampanga Governor Eddie Panlilio by about 2,500 votes after the revision.
Ferrer said that while the revision was completed last week, the Comelec has not issued a final verdict on the recount since the Second Division still has to hold trial on the contested ballots.
He said that circulating text messages claiming that Pineda has overtaken Panlilio’s 1,140-point lead by more than double are “not only unofficial, but invalid.”
Ferrer explained that both camps are still expected to raise questions on ballots they have identified during the revision and these would be decided upon by the commission whether for or against any of the two parties.
Right after the less-than-40-day revision process ended on September 16, the revision committees are expected to submit their respective reports to the Second Division within 10 days, he explained.
Ferrer said that even after the Comelec arrived to a decision, the losing party could still take the process before the Supreme Court, which will resolve with finality the real winner in the election.
Last week, a text message that reads “Final Tally, Physical Count (Excluding Contested And Claimed Ballots. Pineda – 206,041; Panlilio – 203,409; Margin – 2,632; Baby Pineda won” circulated in the province.
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO --- The Sangguniang Panlungsod here recently approved an ordinance proposing to establish service roads parallel to the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) within the boundaries of the component city.
The ordinance, authored by Councilor Alex Patio, has been revived from the original proposal filed more than three years ago.
Recently, the city council unanimously approved the ordinance, paving the way for the seven-kilometer-20-meter-wide service roads which are also intended to decongest the Manila North Road or MacArthur highway.
Patio, chairman of the committee on ways and means, said the ordinance had already been published on local dailies and that a notice will be posted in a national newspaper to enjoin affected property owners to meet with the city government to settle right-of-way concerns.
The ordinance, Patio said, breezed through public hearings with nary an opposition from various stakeholders, including most of the property owners where the proposed service roads would pass.
Some P500 million was initially requested to fund ROW acquisition and civil works, including the construction of four bridges.
To cut on construction cost, the city government is looking at the possibility of using silt hauled out of the San FernandoRiver as filing materials for the grading of the toll road.
ALMA Refrigeration and Cold Storage Inc. has formally opened recently the biggest and most modern cold storage facility in the North outside of Metro Manila.
Strategically located in the heart of Pampanga, this company has been serving the freezing and refrigeration requirements of Northern Luzon for over 32 years, according to ALMA president and chief executive officer Alfredo Lagman, Jr.
The new cold storage facility can hold up to eight million kilos of meat. This is way over their former storage capacity of only one million kilograms of meat.
Lagman also said that with this recent expansion and development, the company’s new facility uses state-of-the-art equipment for refrigeration and freezing.
“The expansion aims to address the bigger and higher demand of meat processors in the region. Dahil nag-expand din sila at lumaki ang volume ng kanilang production so mangangailangan sila ng mga mas malalaking cold storage rooms,” Lagman said.
The newly opened cold storage facility, located in Barangay San Agustin, is equipped with 10 newly built, rentable cold storage rooms, each measuring 1,140 cubic meters; cooling temperature of up to minus-28 degree Celcius; cold storage rooms available for frozen meat, poultry, seafood and dairy products as well as for agricultural products.
It is also accredited as a “AA” meat storage facility by the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS).
Lagman also said that all of the big meat processors in the province store their products in their facilities.
Aside from providing store rooms among large, medium and small scale businessmen, Lagman said ALMA also helps people by providing employment for people not only in the province but also nearby areas.
Bishop Teodoro Bacani led the blessing and Eucharistic celebration together with San Agustin Parish priest Rev. Fr. Jose Lacap and Rev. Fr. Deogracias Galang.
Also, Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPC-RV) and NAMFREL National President Harriete de Villa and Bureau of Customs X-Ray Inspections Program chief, Atty. Ma. Lourdes Mangaoang led the inauguration and ribbon cutting of the newly opened cold storage facility.
MEXICO, Pampanga --- New power industry player National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) says it will prioritize improvements in transmission operations and customer services to meet the demand for reliable and quality electricity.
Since NGCP took over the transmission operations business in January this year, it has been exerting extra efforts to conduct the necessary maintenance, rehabilitation, and upgrading activities on its major transmission lines and substation facilities nationwide formerly managed by the government.
In Northern Luzon, NGCP is currently rehabilitating a portion of the 230-kiloVolt San Manuel-Concepcion line which spans 80 kilometers from Concepcion, Tarlac to San Manuel, Pangasinan. Tower No. 159 located on the AgnoRiver floodplain in Villasis, Pangasinan was threatened by strong river current and soil erosion which caused the riverbank to advance directly to the location of the tower.
To maintain the integrity of the entire line, guy wires and other protection structures have been immediately installed onsite to prevent the tower from toppling. A temporary single-circuit line is now being constructed to bypass Tower No. 159. Meanwhile, NGCP will start reconstruction of Tower Nos. 159-160 on a special foundation west of the present location of the towers.
Construction of the bypass line will take approximately 2 weeks to complete while the reconstruction of the towers on a special foundation will take about 3 months.
NGCP expects to proceed immediately with these projects considering that processes including project approvals and the procurement of equipment to operate and maintain the transmission network are much faster now.
In terms of management style, NGCP President & CEO Dr. Walter W. Brown says the private management set-up allows the company to be more flexible and responsive, especially when it comes to serving and addressing the concerns of customers.
Brown explained, “NGCP is cutting off bureaucratic procedures without compromising the necessary controls. Like any private corporation, we have to earn profits but at the same time, we are very much conscious of the fact that we are providing a public service.”
In a recent meeting with officials of the National Electrification Administration (NEA), Brown has committed to work closely with the said government agency to improve services to its direct customers such as electric cooperatives and other distribution utilities.
Brown also appealed for NEA’s continued support and assistance as they put their minds together to seek possible solutions to problems with electric cooperatives, especially on the issue of nonpayment and disconnection.He noted that NEA has already helped some financially ailing electric cooperatives to settle their accounts through the agency’s short-term credit facility.
“It is in the best interests of everyone that electricity be always available to direct customers but at the same time, NGCP as a private corporation is also accountable to its investors and other stakeholders. We are grateful to our customers who understand this situation,” he added.
In the mean time, NGCP has asked customers to immediately settle outstanding financial obligations to ensure continuous power transmission services. As a private company, NGCP “needs the funds to carry out its mandate of expanding and maintaining the transmission grid and providing reliable electricity to consumers.”
To maintain power reliability, security, and quality, NGCP is taking all the appropriate actions to protect and uphold the interest of its stakeholders, including power customers who dutifully pay on time.
To enhance customer services, a focused marketing group has also been created to handle service agreements from contract negotiation to commercial connection, direct connection application services, account management, billing dispute settlement, and regular customer bulletins.
===While you see how exciting it is to get higher rewards of gains in the stock market, the next question is “Do you have enough understanding, patience, personal research, and time?====
Investing in the Stock Market may not be that simple as others may perceive, but with persistence and motivation to learn, I would say that it is worth trying.
I guess you heard that people should buy when the price of stock is low, and sell when the price is high. But when is it considered high and low? One of the natures of stock investing is volatility, in layman’s term; it is the constant changes (up or down) on the movement of stocks over short period of time. This is where the active investors time their entry in the market and can make gains in a short period of time. On the other hand, the passive investor usually ignores the short term fluctuations and considers long term horizons since the fundamentals of the companies is their guiding principle in choosing their stocks and realize their capital gains due to increase in market price over a long period of time. Investors can also earn in stock market by Cash Dividends, Stock Dividends and Rights offering. As gains in stocks are relatively higher than gains in bonds or banking instruments, you must always remember the Risk and Reward principle or what we call high risk for high returns and low risk for low returns, thus the high volatility behavior of stock investing has a tremendous level of risk associated with it.
Philippine Stock Market Index behavior over a 2 year period
Oct 2007 – 3819 level Oct 2008 - 1700 levelSept 2009 – 2754 level
Notice the sharp decline from September 2008 which was the start of the financial meltdown.
If you ride on the Phisix starting from the lowest level of 1700 in Oct 2008, up to level 2754 in September 2009, your gain is already about 62%. Will the Phisix go back to its 2007 level of 3819? Who knows, most of the risk takers get the highest rewards!
Individual Stock Prices Oct 2007 to Sept 18, 2009
Stocks
Oct-07
Oct-Nov 2008
Sep-09
Oct 2008 VS
Code
Price/Share
Price/Share
Price/Share
Sep-09
Ayala Corp (AC)
620.00
177.00
315.00
77.97%
BDO
63.00
23.00
36.00
56.52%
EDC
7.60
2.36
4.65
97.03%
First Gen (FGEN)
60.00
11.75
16.75
42.55%
Globe (GLO)
1720.00
725.00
990.00
36.55%
Meralco (MER)
83.00
47.00
170.00
261.70%
Megaworld (MEG)
4.40
0.56
1.48
164.29%
Robinsons (RLC)
20.75
4.75
10.00
110.53%
SM
382.00
170.00
320.00
88.24%
PLDT (TEL)
3070.00
1960.00
2300.00
17.35%
September 2008 was the month when the whole world was shocked and gave a frightening attention to another financial crisis after the Great Depression. Locally, Ayala Corp (AC) price decreased to Php177/share from its original price of Php 620/share in Oct. 2007. Likewise, notice its value as it increased to Sept 2009 at Php 315/share. If you invested in AC stocks from Oct 2008, your capital gain is already around 78% as of this month.
While you see how exciting it is to get higher rewards of gains in the stock market, the next question is “Do you have enough understanding, patience, personal research, and time to start by yourself in this type of stock investment?”
There are however other options available in the market. Such are the birth of Mutual Funds, UITF and Variable Life Investments. These types of instruments have their own fund managers who will choose the stocks for you. Let me give you a snapshot of these instruments.
Mutual Funds are types of investment funds that raise money from shareholders to invest in a group of assets such as stocks, bonds, and money market funds. Mutual Funds often have a minimum investment amount and a series of fees associated with them. The Securities and Exchange Commission is the governing body which looks on Mutual Funds companies who sell these funds.
UITF or Unit Investment Trust Funds are also similar to mutual funds but are sold by the local commercial banks in the Philippines and are under the supervision of Central bank.
Variable Life Investments (or Unit Link Investments) are sold by Life Insurance Companies and are strictly mandated by the Insurance Commission. Variable life differs from mutual funds and UITF because it has a life insurance component in nature. Many investors choose Variable Life because of its insurance bundled, and can be used for estate planning and tax purposes. It has also charges similar to Mutual Funds and UITF.
Whether you go into direct stock trading using a personal broker or online broker, or invest in mutual fund or join Variable Life investments, your choice for sure must always be dependent on your financial objective and should match your attitude on any investment decisions.
For inquiries, comments and suggestions, you can email me at engrmac@grand-holdings.com or get a copy of Money Matters article by visiting my website at www.grand-holdings.com.
== We, as parents, should and must do our share by not providing only for the food, shelter and clothing for our children==
On the month of September of every year, a one week celebration is allotted in observance of the importance of a family and it is called National Family Week-- a civic observance to praise and strengthen the nation’s basic social unit. Various civic and educational observances are planned throughout the week to call attention to the family and its needs.
The Filipino family, as the social scientists like to describe it, often consists of more than one generation, so that both parents and grandparents collaborate in raising the children and in handling household responsibilities. In recent years, social and economic pressures have taken their toll on the family. As young Filipinos migrate to the cities in search of a better future, or travel abroad to find adequate employment, families are often separated by great distances. The elderly are often left in the province while the youth pursue their fortune elsewhere. Children are sometimes neglected in the process and suffer.
Of all the species which dwell on this planet, the human offspring takes the longest time to reach maturity. In the human sophisticated industrializing culture of the Philippines, children need their parents well into their twenties. To attain their full potential, children need an education that takes time to attain. A few generations ago, a high school diploma was enough for a good economic future. Today’s children need college and even graduate degrees and the burden on parents can be exhausting.
The family, however, plays a crucial role in nation building. It is the first school of the next generation. That is why parents must instill confidence and a sense of identity into the minds and hearts of their children. Families demand long-term commitments and enduring relationships for the welfare of the offspring. After begetting offspring, parents must cherish their children, care for them and supply their needs.
It is fitting that the nation focuses attention on the Filipino family not only for a week, rather al- throughout the year. May every citizen do his part to strengthen family ties and to promote family values. The family is the portal to the nation’s future.
And we, as parents, should and must do our share by not providing only for the food, shelter and clothing for our children. As much as we can, give them the best education. Through education, they will be armed with the necessary weapon to improve their economic stature. That way, if we have an educated family, each member will become productive citizen. If no citizen becomes idle, then we can truly say that we are promoting and empowering the family that after all, belongs to us or indeed our own family. A productive family begets productive community, society and a nation.
In an intolerable society, the task of working for revolutionary change is the duty and the privilege of all parents and children, young and old. It’s just that we should all work together in the realization of a better society.
Here in San Fernando, the city government wants to institutionalize programs that would surely reap positive outcome, like giving preference to the elderly, assistance to senior citizens, providing livelihood to women sector, uplifting education befitting our youth through scholarship provisions, health care and free medicines to name a few.
In a continuous cycle, the youth of today will establish their own family, a productive family, educated and will be free from bondage of poverty.
Smart Communications, Inc. (SMART) recently said that the consolidated bill approved by the House of Representatives imposing a tax on text and other services will hurt consumers, particularly low-income earners, who are heavy users of these services.
In a statement, SMART hit the three provisions of the consolidated House Bill which are: imposing a five centavo tax per SMS (short messaging service), MS (messaging service) and multi-media service (MMS); imposing five centavo tax per overseas dispatch, message or conversation transmitted from the Philippines; and, authorizing the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) to acquire a metering device or portal which will interconnect the NTC, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and other concerned agencies with mobile phone service providers.
Ray C. Espinosa, head of the Regulatory Affairs and Policy Office of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) said the proposed tax on text “is objectionable because it will constitute a big burden on consumers and it comes at a time when the effective price of a text message has already significantly come down with the proliferation of bucket pricing which includes unlimited plans.”
In the case of the SMART Group, 92 percent of its SMS traffic is generated out of bucket-priced plans.
“Bucket-priced SMS plans, which include the very popular unlimited SMS plans, are the ‘pang-masa’ SMS offerings of the SMART Group. The average price of these bucket-priced SMS traffic is effectively 11 centavos per SMS. The 5 centavo tax translates, therefore, into a whopping 45.5 percent tax per SMS,” Espinosa said.
Bucket-priced SMS plans, which benefit most low-income earners, operate on the basis of either unlimited SMS or a pre-defined number of SMS traffic over a defined time period. These bucket-priced SMS plans now serve the basic communication needs of the country’s lowest income earners. SMS in this country, more than anywhere else in the world, has evolved into a basic and very affordable communication tool.
However, the imposition of the tax on SMS will destroy and obliterate the bucket-priced SMS plans since the tax is imposed on each SMS. Consumers, therefore, can no longer expect to see bucket-priced plans including the very popular unlimited text plans if and when the SMS tax is imposed. SMS will revert to standard pricing which will not serve the needs of low income earners.
On this basis, the proposed tax on SMS is clearly anti-poor and anti-consumer.
THE TAX ON OVERSEAS CALL
The consolidated House Bill (as officially transmitted to SMART by the House Committee on Ways and Means) also imposes a 5 centavo tax on each overseas call made from the Philippines. Again, this is uncalled for and imposes a big burden on consumers, particularly the family and loved ones of our OFWs who need to stay in touch them. Sadly, this proposed tax comes in the aftermath of efforts of telephone companies to lower the price of overseas calls originating from the Philippines.
On this basis, the proposed tax on overseas calls is again clearly anti-poor and anti-consumer, and in particular, anti-OFW.
THE METERING DEVICE OR PORTAL
The installation of a “metering device or portal” which will interconnect the NTC, BIR and “other concerned agencies” with mobile phone service providers should be viewed with serious concern by all those in the private and public sectors.
While the “device” or “portal” is being pushed ostensibly to keep mobile phone service providers honest tax-wise, this “device” or “portal” is actually in the nature of a “probe” which, given recent technology advancements, is powerful enough to retrieve and store messages and allow these messages to be viewed and read. All messages, therefore, can be read by “concerned agencies.”
The capability of this “metering device” or “portal” to allow messages to be stored, retrieved, viewed, and read sends a serious chilling effect on the constitutional right to privacy of every individual. The technological capability of these “probes” should be extensively examined and scrutinized since this capability can be abused.
If the concern is to make sure that mobile phone service providers declare and pay correct taxes, there is already abundant monitoring being done today by the Bureau of Internal Revenue to ensure that taxes are properly declared and paid.
