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Stricter No Smoking rules starting Monday

Roy — Sun, 29 May 2011 02:26:46 +0000

A stricter “No Smoking” policy in public places will be implemented in Metro Manila starting Monday and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will see to it that it will be imposed.

The MMDA will be arresting smokers on and secondary roads starting Monday, especially those inside public utility jeepneys and buses. This crackdown against smoking in public places is enforced by the MMDA in partnership with health and environmental officers of Metro Manila’s 17 localities.

MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino invoked Section 5 of Republic Act 9211 of 2003 or An Act Regulating the Packaging, Use, Sale, Distribution and Advertisement of Tobacco Produces and For Other Purposes, and also the anti-smoking drive of the Land Transportation and Franchising and Regulatory Board in the implementation of the No Smoking policy.

Those who will be caught will be fined P500 for the first offense, or will be required to render an eight-hour community service if they cannot afford to pay the fine.

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House Bill requires hospitals to post price list of medical services

Roy — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:23:54 +0000

The House of Representatives approved last week on third and final reading a bill requiring all hospitals and clinics to post price list of all their series, incidental expenses and medical supplies in a conspicuous place in their premises to ensure accessible, transparent, and reliable delivery of services.

House Bill 4308 author Pasig Representative Roman Romulo hopes that the bill would also gain the approval of their counterpart in the Senate. “Through the passage of this measure, the public is empowered to choose the healthcare facility where they would avail themselves of medical services, especially during times of economic downturns and ultimately, achieve the national goal of establishing a responsible and efficient healthcare delivery,” he said.

Also known as the Healthcare Services Price Disclosure Act of 2011, House Bill 4308 requires all healthcare facilities to make their price list available to any patient or their representative so that patients could adequately exercise their option to choose a healthcare facility.

With HB 4308, Romulo seeks to provide transparent, accessible and reliable information on the prices of healthcare services, including incidental expenses and all items that can be found in the medical bill of a patient. Any increase in their prices should take effect only after proper posting as required in this measure and shall not affect patients admitted prior to posting increase in price.

Failure to post a price list, or posting outdated, inaccurate, and inadequate price list could result to the healthcare facility being slapped with stiff penalties. HB 4308 provides that any juridical person who violates shall be subject to an administrative fine of not more than P50,000 per instance of violation without prejudice to suspension or revocation of license to operate such healthcare facility for a period not exceeding 60 days.

The personnel directly responsible for the violation shall also be subject to an administrative fine of not more than P25,000 per instance of violation without prejudice to suspension or revocation to practice profession for period not exceeding 60 days according to the bill.

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SC upholds cityhood ruling

Roy — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:11:45 +0000

The Supreme Court (SC), in their last summer session in Baguio City, upheld the constitutionality of laws passed by the 11th Congress on the cityhood of 16 municipalities. The SC justices kept their 7-6 vote, dismissing the appeal of the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) that various cityhood laws be declared unconstitutional.

The cityhood laws questioned were those contained in Republic Acts 9389, 9390, 9391, 9392, 9393, 9394, 9398, 9404, 9405, 9407, 9409, 9434, 9435, 9436 and 9491. However, the resolution was not yet released as it was still being circulated for signature of the magistrate, SC spokesman Midas Marquez said.

The LCP, as well as other sectors, have been criticizing the SC for flip-flopping on the case in its earlier rulings. This time, the High Court stood by its fourth ruling that the cityhood laws do not violate Article X Section 10 and the equal protection clause under Article III Section 1 of the Constitution.

SC junked the contention of LCP that the conversion into cities of the 16 municipalities violated Article X Section 10 of the Constitution, which states that “no province, city, municipality or barangay shall be created, divided, merged, abolished or its boundary substantially altered, except in accordance with the criteria established in the local government code and subject to approval by a majority of votes cast in a plebiscite in the political units directly affected.”

In its ruling last Feb. 15, the SC reversed itself for the third time and reverted back to its second ruling in December 2009, which held that respondent LGUs were qualified cityhood applicants before the enactment of RA 9009: “To impose on them the much higher income requirement after what they have gone through would appear to be indeed unfair.

“Thus, the imperatives of fairness dictate that they should be given a legal remedy by which they should be allowed to prove that they have all the necessary qualifications for city status using the criteria set forth under the LGC of 1991 prior to its amendment by RA 9009. Truly, the peculiar conditions of respondent LGUs, which are actual and real, provide sufficient grounds for legislative classification,” the SC said.

The SC’s new ruling on the case was a result of the change in vote cast by Associate Justice Jose Mendoza, who voted last year for the unconstitutionality of the laws but reconsidered his stand last February.

Republic Act 9009 took effect on June 30, 2001. It amended Section 450 of the Local Government Code by increasing the annual income requirement for conversion of a municipality into a city from P20 million to P100 million. The amendment was intended to discourage the rush of conversion into cities for the purpose of getting a larger share in the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).

The 12th Congress however adopted Joint Resolution No. 29 which sought to exempt the 24 municipalities whose cityhood bills were not approved in the 11th Congress from the P100-million income requirement.

Only 16, out of the 24 municipalities, expressed intention to be converted into cities. The House and the Senate later approved the cityhood bills which lapsed into law on various dates from March to July 2007.

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PCCI opposed overtime payments for BI personnel

Roy — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:33:01 +0000

The Senate Bill 3404 or the Philippine Immigration Act of 2010 has provision that raised concern to some business sectors. Section 30 of the said act grants Immigration Officers the power to assign personnel to do overtime work at rates fixed by him when the services rendered is to be paid for by the shipping companies, airlines or other persons served.

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) sent a position paper opposing the said provision. The PCCI said that passing on to airline and shipping firms the proposed granting of overtime fees to immigration employees is an additional cost of doing business and would affect the country’s already beaten competitiveness.

The services rendered by the BI personnel in seaports and airports is for the protection of the State and is therefore consider public service. The said PCCI that the said provision is exactly against the principle of public service, and goes entirely against the collective efforts of the government and the private sector to help our country move up in the international competitiveness ranking, specifically from the bottom third to the upper third of the global ranking.

“To further boost the long-term competitiveness of the Philippines through enhanced international connectivity, we strongly recommend the deletion of the specific provision authorizing the BI Commissioner to fix the overtime rates and to charge them to the airlines, shipping companies and other persons served. This recommendation was submitted as major resolution to Her Excellency during the 35th Philippine Business Conference last October 2009,” the PCCI said.

The business chamber instead suggested that the additional overtime fees should be underwritten by the agency concerned, duly integrated in the General Appropriations Act. It also warned that the passing of overtime fees of BI personnel would increase the cost of doing business in the country for both local and foreign airlines and shipping companies.

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Senate bill urged insurance firms to pay for losses due to “Acts of God”

Roy — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:26:36 +0000

Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. filed Senate Bill 3966 which is aimed in amending the Insurance Code in the Philippines. Pimentel believe that insurance firms should be compulsorily required to indemnify owner of motor vehicles that have been damaged or destroyed by floods, landslides, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.

With SB 3966, Pimentel would like to ensure that car owners who are holders of comprehensive motor vehicle insurance policy are automatically compensated if their vehicles are wrecked by natural disasters.

“This bill will do away with the malpractice of insurance firms of refusing to compensate holders of comprehensive motor vehicle insurance policy on the ground that the natural disasters are acts of God that are beyond the ambit of the policy,” he said.

The senator filed the bill as an aftermath of the effect of storms Ondoy and Pepeng which hit the country last year. Many motor vehicles were swept and inundated by floods and landslides, leaving most of them damaged and many, beyond repair. The owners of these damaged vehicles immediately filed claims from their insurance companies.

“It is, however, unfortunate that insurance companies deliberately resort to ‘acts of God’ clause in insurance policy to avoid payment of claims, leaving the comprehensive insurance policy holders helpless in the midst of enormous losses,” Pimentel said.

The senator said it is unfair to the car owners who religiously pay their insurance premiums only to find themselves empty-handed when they file their claims because of the deceptive policy of insurance firms or refusing to honor such insurance claims.

Under SB 3966, it is provided that “in case of a comprehensive motor vehicle insurance, no policy shall be issued and delivered in the Philippines unless it contains in substance the provision that comprehensive motor vehicle insurance shall cover all fortuitous events, such as floods, landslides, typhoons, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and other related natural calamities, or indirectly, proximately or remotely occasioned by, contributed to or traceable to, arising out of, or in connection with the aforementioned natural events.”

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New law gives condonation to employers with delinquent SSS contributions

Roy — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 10:33:44 +0000

The bill which grants a one-time condonation of penalties on unremitted or delinquent Social Security System (SSS) contribution by employees has been signed by President Arroyo into a law. The Republic Act 9903 or the Social Security Condonation Law of 2009 allows erring employers to remit their employees’ delinquent payments for contributions without paying penalties.

Per SSS’s records, unremitted premium contributions has already reached an estimated amount of P190 billion, while the accrued penalties amounted to P280 billion. For 2009 alone, SSS president Romulo Neri noted that the penalties amounted to P68 billion.

“We do not expect to collect anyway since a lot of companies are so hard up and this is our way helping them survive. But they must pay their share of the premiums so that their employees can avail themselves of the benefits under the systems,” Neri said.

For delinquent companies to avail of the benefit of the condonation, they must remit their contribution within six month from the effectivity of the law or at least submit a proposal to pay the same in installment, “provided that the delinquent employer submits the corresponding collections lists together with the remittance or proposal to pay installments.”

If an employer chooses to pay in installment, they must pay a downpayment which should not be less than 5% of the total contribution delinquency. The balance then should be remitted in equal monthly installments within a period not exceeding 48 months from the date of the approval of the proposal. A 3% interest would be imposed on the installment payments.

“In case the employer fails to remit in full the required delinquent contributions or defaults in the payment of any installment under the approved proposal, within the availment period provided in this Act, the penalties are deemed reimposed from the time the contributions first become due, to accrue until the delinquent account is paid in full,” according to the law.

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New Adminstrative Order on imported raw material may affect prices next year

Roy — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:35:45 +0000

The Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) warned that prices of goods with imported raw material sold in the country would likely increase next year. That is once the government has implemented the law requiring all imported bulk and break bulk cargo to be surveyed by an accredited surveying company at the port of origin.

At present, there is only one firm accredited by the government to do all the inspection of all imported goods. FPI said the Committee for the Accreditation of Cargo Surveying Companies (CACSC) headed by Secretary Narciso Y. Santiago Jr. only accredited Cotecna Philippines.

As an accredited surveyor, Cotecna is required to issue a report on the quantity, grade of all cargo shipments bound for the Philippines.

This raised concerns to all groups who imports raw materials.

The Philippine Association of Flour Miller (Pafmil) said that the implementation of the order on January 4 may delay the discharge of wheat shipments already in transit to the Philippines, and it may lead to the payment of demurrage charges of around $20,000 to $30,000 per day per vessel. Pafmil said this will eventually affect the consumers because of the resulting higher cost of flour and bread products.

The Philippine Iron & Steel Institute (PISI) said that the government should accredit sufficient number of surveyors, instead of only one firm doing the surveying of the shipments, to ensure transparency, required expertise to handle the various kinds of products, and freedom of choice to ensure competitive prices and good service.

Because of these, and other concerns, FPI is asking the government for the deferment of the implementation of the Malacañang-issued Administrative Order 243-A on Bulk and Break Bulk Cargo Clearance Enhancement Program for 90 days.

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Magna Carta for Disabled Persons approved by Senate

Roy — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:43:39 +0000

The Magna Carta for Disabled Persons which would mandate local governments to have specific programs for people with disabilities has been approved by the Senate on its second reading. The act which was under Senate Bill 3650 or the proposed act establishing the institutional mechanism to ensure the implementation of programs and services for persons with disabilities, a Persons with Disability (PWD) Affairs Office must be created in every province, city and municipality.

An estimated 9.7 million PWDs are expected to benefit from the bill once passed into law. The bill was approved unanimously on second reading by the Senate before it went on recess last December 16.

The bill calls for giving priority in appointing PWD with experience in providing services to his or her fellow PWDs.

The term “disabled persons” was also renamed into “persons with disabilities” in the bill. It is the internationally accepted and recognized term for people who are either hearing impaired, orthopedically impaired, visually impaired or mentally challenged.

The bill’s principal sponsor, Senator Pia Cayetano, said establishing institutional mechanisms would ensure that the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons would now be implemented and would help those with disabilities in their rehabilitation, self-development, and self-reliance and for their eventual integration into mainstream society.

Cayetano, who chairs the Senate committee on social justice, welfare and rural development, said several Filipinos with disabilities have proven that they could stand out despite their physical limitations. “Disabilities should never be a hindrance to excel in one’s chosen field. By being assets in society, many PWDs are breaking barriers and changing the misimpression that they are a burden to the nation,” Cayetano said.

In places which are classified as fourth, fifth and sixth-class municipalities, the bill calls on local government units to designate a focal person who shall be responsible for coordinating and ensuring the delivery of programs and services to PWDs.

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BIR fielding out personnel to check on companies’ year-end inventories

Roy — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:47:49 +0000

The last week of the year will see the field personnel of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) going out and visiting businesses and their warehouses. The revenue agency will be deploying its personnel to check out and monitor taxpayers’ year-end inventory.

BIR Commissioner Joel Tan-Torres issued Revenue Memorandum Order No. 40-2009, which seeks to validate the correctness of inventory lists for taxable year 2009.

Tan-Torres said, “We can expect our people to celebrate the New Year in warehouses to check inventories of taxpayers. The best way to ensure that the inventories are properly reported by the taxpayers is for our revenue officers to be present during the conduct of the annual inventory taking.”

In line with the RMO No. 40-2009, the BIR Commissioner ordered revenue offices in a separate memorandum, to augment the pool of assessment offices.

The takeoff point of the inventory, according to the order, will be the financial statements and inventory lists for taxable year 2008, which were submitted to the revenue district office.

Revenue district offices will be preparing a list of taxpayers whose peso value of ending inventory is 50 percent more than its declared sales for the year. With the exception of car dealers, excise taxpayers, drugstores, supermarkets, groceries, and other taxpayers who maintain fast-moving goods.

The agency has authorized its regional tax officials last week to move their personnel to new assignments as part of its strategy to improve collection efficiency and tax administration.

The BIR missed its P810-billion target last year. It was only able to collect P778 billion then. This year, the tax bureau is required to collect P798.5 billion and P875.1 billion next year.

Officials of the agency said that this year’s goal would be missed because of various tax cuts and a slower economy. The government has also lowered the bureau’s goal next year.

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13 companies submitted bids on geothermal energy projects

Roy — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:27:22 +0000

At least 24 bids from 10 possible contracts under the geothermal energy contracting round were received by the Department of Energy (DOE). Energy assistant secretary Mario Marasigan said, “We received strong interest because of the renewable energy law. Now we are seeing the fruits of Republic Act 9513, wherein the incentives are really attractive.” Marasigan heads the Renewable Energy Management Bureau.

He said they are now evaluating all the bids and they may have an update on those who qualified by next week. The 24 bid submissions came from 13 companies who were able to beat the deadline of submission of proposals for the geothermal areas last November 23.

Among those who expressed interest in the geothermal energy projects are: Pan Pacific Power Corp., Aragon Power Energy Corp., Baca Valley Energy Inc. and Constellation Energy Philippines.

Pan Pacific submitted bids for Daklan in Benguey and Natid in Bataan, Aragon Power is interested in Labo in Camarines Norte, Baca Valley is eyeing Mainit in Surigao del Norte and Maibarra, which covers Batangas and Laguna, and Constellation Energy is looking at the Montelago area in Oriental Mindoro.

Another company, the Filtech Energy, said they joined the bidding “to take advantage of the new technologies and other incentives under the Renewable Energy Act which now make those areas subject of interest to many of our local and foreign partners,” said managing director Zosimo Sarmiento.

Other companies who have submitted bids are Icelandic firm Envent Holdings Philippines, Energy Development Corp. (EDC), PNOC-Renewables Corp., Clean Rock Renewable Energy Resources Corp., Primary Energy Corp., SKI Construction Group Inc. and Magma Energy Corp.

The energy department will evaluate all proposals based on technical (30%), financial (30%), and work program (40%) of the data submitted.

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2010 budget approved by the House of Representatives

Roy — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:51:16 +0000

The proposed P1.514-trillion national budget for 2010 by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was approved last night on the third and final reading by the House of Representatives who voted 175-6 in favor of the proposed budget.

House Speaker Prospero Nograles said the budget would now be sent to the Senate. “We hope to approve it before the end of the year. As I have promised, there will be no reelected budget during my watch,” he said.

The speaker has just returned from an official visit to the United States in time for the resumption of the session of Congress. Nograles, before announcing the votes, told his colleagues that the President signed on Nov. 3 Senate-House Joint Resolution 5. The resolution authorizes her to augment this year’s calamity fund by P12 billion. The additional P12 billion would be used for relief and rehabilitation in areas devastated by the recent onslaught of typhoons.

For his part, party-list group Abakada-Guro Rep. Jonathan Dela Cruz suggested that the bicameral conference committee on the measure recast it so that more funds would be allotted for the reconstruction of typhoon-ravaged communities. Dela Cruz voted in favor of the budget.

Dela Cruz added that the P50-billion reconstruction fund should be sourced from a “reworking” of credit terms with the country’s creditors. He said, “I believe that given the country’s present circumstance, we have a golden opportunity to seek relief from our creditors, foreign and local.”

Nueva Ecija Representative Edno Joson, however, lamented that despite the expenditure of hundreds of billions and now trillions in taxpayers’ money every year, “We are still in the clutches of mass poverty.” Joson was one of the six congressmen who voted against the 2010 budget.

“Our people literally hunger and thirst for government services, the most basic of which are food, shelter, health and education. For the past 50 years, government has failed to provide these most basic of services,” Joson said.

He added that the annual budget, as a tool for development, has not been put to good use. This is because the nation’s leaders have failed miserably in alleviating mass poverty and have succeeded only in enriching themselves, “We have only ourselves to blame,” he said.

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PERA Law to be implemented in 2010

Roy — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:52:01 +0000

The PERA Law or the Personal Equity and Retirement Account Law will be implemented by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in 2010 after different agencies of the government signed its implementing rules and regulations (IRR). BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. spearheaded the signing of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) and IRR of PERA Act of 2008 under Republic Act 9505.

Espenilla said that the PERA Law would create a savings investment vehicle of at least five years, especially for those who are not covered by the Social Security System (SSS) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), as well as Filipinos working abroad. He added that the law would help develop a domestic capital market by giving incentives to long-term investments and creating more institutional investors.

Contributors could establish an account with a maximum annual contribution of P100,000, while overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) could inject P200,000 per year. These would be entitled to a tax credit of five percent.

The funds would be managed by administrators who would be regulated by different government agencies. These could be invested in investment funds, shares of stocks of mutual fund, annuity contact, insurance pension product, pre-need pension plan, shares of stocks listed and traded at the local stock exchange, exchange-traded bonds, and other investment products.

Each administrator who will manage the trust fund should maintain a net worth of at least P100 million to ensure that it has sufficient capital.

Espenilla is optimistic that the new law would encourage contributors to invest their extra savings into the fund.

He added that the signing of the IRR finally paved the way for the implementation of the law that was conceptualized almost 10 years ago.

Other signatories in the PERA Act of 2008 include Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairperson Fe Barin, Insurance Commission chief Eduardo Malinis, Finance Undersecretary Jeremias Paul Jr., and Internal Revenue Deputy Commission Nelson Aspe.

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Senate Bill 3479 to cure culture of Filipino Time

Roy — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:10:06 +0000

The culture of â€œFilipino Timeâ€ has long been ailing the country and it has caused many a discomfort and even losses and misunderstandings to some. To cure this Filipinoâ€™s culture of tardiness, which commonly called the â€œFilipino time,â€ Senator Edgardo Angara filed Senate Bill 3479 which aims to â€œbreed a new culture of promptnessâ€ among Filipinos.

The senatorâ€™s bill seeks to synchronize all time devices in the Philippines to set a standard Philippine time. â€œThis is a good way to start changing the meaning of â€˜Filipino timeâ€™ and shifting to a culture of punctuality. Time is a vital component of our social, legal, political and economic activities,â€ Angara said.

Under his proposal, Sen. Angara requires all national and local government offices to display the Philippine standard time (PST) on their local time devices in accordance with the official time to be provided by the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Servicesâ€™ Administration (PAGASA).

The PAGASAâ€™s Time Service Unit, according to the senator, will coordinate with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to monitor, maintain and disseminate the PST throughout the country. All government offices are mandated to coordinate at least once a month with PAGASA to synchronize their official timepieces and devices.

The bill also appropriates an amount of P69 million for the acquisition of six units of equipment for automatic dissemination of time with Global Positioning System. The said amount would be included in the annual budget of PAGASA under the DOST for the upgrading and /or maintenance of the timekeeping system.

In most European cities, Angara said, transportation schedules, business hours, cultural events, hospital operations, and government office hours all adopt a single standard time.

The same bill proposal also applies for plazas, public monuments and museum, schools, offices, shops, railways and bus stations, and transportation terminals, to ensure citizens of proper scheduling of their activities and accuracy in their travel times.

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Therma Luzon assumed management of Pagbilao coal power plant

Roy — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:43:29 +0000

The 700-megawatt Pagbilao coal-fired thermal power plant in Quezon has been officially turned-over to the Therma Luzon Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aboitiz Power Corp (APC).

APC assumed management of the independent power producer contract of the said facility, making Therma Luzon the first IPP administrator in country.

Therma Luzon, being the IPP administrator, will be responsible for procuring the fuel requirements of the Pagbilao plant and selling the electricity generated by the plant.

â€œThe turnover followed the successful completion by Therma Luzon of the conditions precedent required in the IPP Administration Agreement with the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. [PSALM],â€ APC said.

At present, IPPs are contracted to supply electricity to National Power Corp. (Napocor).Â Once these are turned over to the private sector, the winning bidders will be managing the contracted capacities of the government in IPP plants.

This is all part of the implementation of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 where the privatization of 70% of the governmentâ€™s IPP contract is one of the requirements before the open access and retail competition schemes can be implemented.

Last August, Therma Luzon topped the auction for the IPPA bidding with its bid of $691 million, which met the reserve price set by the PSALM board. â€œThis value represented the present value of a series of monthly payments of PSALM from October 2009 to August 2025 using PSALM discount rates,â€ APC said.

Team Energy is currently managing the operation of the Pagbilao Plan under a build-operate-transfer contract which will expire on 2025. Team Energy president Federico E. Puno said it is open to a possible joint venture project with Aboitiz for the expansion of the facilityâ€™s capacities.

â€œWith the IPP administrator coming in, I guess any expansion will be their option. But we can also discuss it with them if they want. If not, weâ€™ll have a problem because if we do [the expansion] ourselves, we have to enter into a contract with them for joint facility utilization. I think going into a joint venture with them is much better,â€ Puno explained.

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Adopt a school, earn tax credits, BPO urged

Roy — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:07:39 +0000

The business process outsourcing (BPO) service providers in the Philippines are urged by the chairman of the House committee on information communications technology to donate computers under the Adopt-a-School Program and avail themselves of gainful tax benefits in return.

This was revealed by Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago, who said that under the Adopt-a-School program, BPO providers as well as other private firms that extend financial aid to â€œadoptedâ€ public schools are entitled to claim a taxable income deduction equal to 150 percent of their contribution.

Santiago even illustrated an example, when a private entity donated brand new computers worth P500,000, it may claim a P750,000-deduction from its taxable gross income.

The program was established through Republic Act 8525, in order to encourage private entities to help the government address the public school systemâ€™s severe resource shortages.

Aside from computers and other modern instructional technologies, Santiago said other qualified contributions may also be in the form of support for the development of the faculty, construction and upgrading of school facilities, and the provision of textbooks and other teaching materials.

In claiming for deductions, the contributions, aside from cash, would be valued based on the acquisition cost or purchase price of the property, equipment, materials, and services supplied. But for used properties such as donations of second-hand computers, their valuations would be subject to depreciation.

Santiago further added that members of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines and the Contact Center Association of the Philippines â€œshould contribute in big way to the advancement of computer literacy and school connectivity.â€ He also pointed out, â€œhighly computer-literate and Internet-savvy young people are needed to enable the future human resources required by BPO providers.â€

Meanwhile, a total of P1.1 billion has been allotted to provide Internet connectivity to 9,048 public elementary and high schools all over the country, according to Santiago.

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Nationwide single traffic ticketing system proposed

Roy — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:25:47 +0000

Party-list Representative Vigor D. Mendoza II has filed a bill that seeks to establish a single traffic ticketing system nationwide that would consolidate penalty rules that are currently set by local government units (LGUs). The House Bill 6652 would require all traffic enforcers to issue a single traffic ticket that would come from the Land Transportation Office (LTO).

In Mendozaâ€™s proposal, the LTO would be collecting all the proceeds from penalties and fine and they will take charge of the revenue sharing for LGUs. An â€œelectronic apprehension schemeâ€ is also required to be set up through the installation of closed-circuit television cameras, digital cameras, electronic sensors and other devices.

Mendoza said, the different local ordinances defining traffic violations and with different fines has led to confusion among drivers and traffic enforcers. â€œUnfortunately, aforesaid local ordinances are not homogenous with each other, worst, every local traffic enforcer exclusively recognizes their localityâ€™s own traffic citation ticket and considers ineffective all other traffic citation tickets issued by other localities,â€ he said.

In the Local Government Code, LGUs are allowed to set their own traffic rules and regulations, which was said to cause confusion particularly in Metro Manila.

For instance, in the National Capital Region, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Executive Order (EO) 712 last March 12, 2008 which required the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to implement a single ticketing system. Unfortunately, this hasnâ€™t been done by the MMDA.

â€œDespite aforecited clear directive of the EO, the MMDA still has not established a single ticketing system to the prejudice and injury of all motorists, drivers and operators of public and private vehicles,â€ Mendoza said.

The same EO also directed the Department of Transportation and Communication to review all LGU order, rules, regulations on public transportation, including the authority to issue traffic citation tickets and grant franchises to tricycles, among others.

House Bill 6652 has been referred to the committee on transportation.

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Business groups urge lawmakers to act on pending bills before election fever starts

Roy — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:56:44 +0000

As the 2010 elections draw nearer, the business community is becoming wary because of some bills that are still pending both on the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Believing that lawmakers attention would be shifted once the campaign season starts, sixteen local and foreign business groups wrote a letter to House Speaker Prospero C. Nograles and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, urging the Congress to prioritize measures that are ready for bicameral talks, those that need its counterpart at either chamber to be passed, and those that have been endorsed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“With the interest of many legislators shifting towards the 2010 campaign, we the undersigned representatives of Philippine business groups and foreign chambers of commerce communicate our support for the final passage of [certain] bills,” the groups stated.

Makati Business Club Executive Director Alberto A. Lim and Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Edgardo G. Lacson, are one in saying that actions must be taken â€“ and fast, because once the lawmakers are already in the thick of preparing for the elections, it may become hard to form a quorum.

The Pre-Need Code and the Real Estate Investment Trust Bill are just two of those that the group would like to see enacted early, because both are ready for consideration by the bicameral committee.

Some of those that the group listed are following bills which were already passed by the House and request Senate to act upon on:

â€¢Â Â Â amendments to the Customs Broker Act;
â€¢Â Â Â Department of Information and Communication bill;
â€¢Â Â Â Freedom of Access to Information bill;
â€¢Â Â Â rationalization of fiscal perks; and
â€¢Â Â Â the Simplified Net Income Tax Scheme (SNITS).

Those who signed the letters to the lawmakers were leadersÂ of the: Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Makati Business Club, Management Association of the Philippines and the Employers Confederation of the Philippines.Â Chiefs of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines, Philippine Exporters Confederation, Bankers Association of the Philippines, Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, and the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Phils., Inc. also signed, along with representatives from the American, Australian-New Zealand, Canadian, European, Japanese, and Korean business chambers, and the Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters, Inc.

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Congress approved bill imposing tax on text messages

Roy — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:50:04 +0000

House Bill No. 6625 has been approved by Congress on Tuesday, in the hope of getting a bigger slice of the profits of telecommunication firms. A committee of the House of Representatives the bill which seeks to impose a five-centavo excise tax on every text, picture, video and audio clip sent through mobile phones.

The government is looking to generate between P20 billion and P36 billion a year in tax with the bill. But while some lawmakers wanted the telecommunications companies to bear the tax, chair of the ways and means committee, Antique Rep. Execquiel Javier, said that Congress could not do anything to bar mobile phone service providers from passing the tax to consumers.

â€œItâ€™s very hard to put a no pass-on provision because it is an indirect tax cost of doing business. You have to pass it on otherwise the business will be losing,â€ Javier said.

House Speaker Prospero Nograles thinks otherwise. He said Congress would ensure that the tax would not be passed on to subscribers. â€œIt is very clear that based on our previous hearings, there is no need to increase the cost of the short messaging system service of our telcos because the P1 per text that is already being charged from consumers is more than enough to cover the five-centavo tax for each text,â€ Nograles said.

He added, â€œIt is my position that the proposed additional tax on text will be borne by the service providers and that consumers will not be paying additional costs for texting.â€ Nograles said the real cost each text message was only 25 centavos.

At present though, the government has now way of knowing how many text messages have been successfully sent, and because of that, mobile phone providers were practically dictating the amount of taxes they were paying.

To help prevent this problem, Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez proposed a metering scheme which was incorporated in the bill.

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PDIC won’t cover fictitious and fraudulent accounts

Roy — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 05:24:15 +0000

Last June, the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) Charter has been amended via Republic Act 9576 which effectively increases the maximum deposit insurance coverage to P500,000 per depositor. Aside from the increased insurance coverage, the said amendment also strengthened PDIC against deceitful activities that â€œcompromise the stability of our banking system and take advantage of the deposit insurance system provided by the government.â€

“We championed this amendment to the PDIC Charter because it safeguards against the maneuverings of individuals and entities that victimize depositors who put their trust in the banking system,” PDIC President Jose Nograles said.

Under the new charter, deposit accounts or transactions that are either constituting or coming from unsafe and unsound banking practices will not be covered by deposit insurance. This rule also apply for deposits that are unfunded, fictitious or fraudulent, and deposits that are determined to be the proceeds of an unlawful activity as defined by the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001.

Nograles said, citing Circular 640 of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), unsafe and unsound banking practices include â€œexcessive reliance on large, high-cost, or volatile deposits or borrowings,â€ â€œengaging in speculative and hazardous investment policies,â€ â€œpaying excessive cash dividends in relation to the capital position, earning capacity, and asset quality of the bank,â€ among others.

With the new charter, PDIC can now issue a cease and desist order against such deposit accounts or transactions, which will serve as notice to other banks to prevent practices that endanger depositors and the bank themselves. â€œNow we have a new charter that supports our position that deposit insurance should not be exploited to support unsafe, unsound and fraudulent practices of unscrupulous bank owners, officers and employees,” he said.

“Given a strengthened Charter, PDIC is adequately equipped to combat fraudulent, unsafe, and unsound enterprises that compromise the stability of our banking system and take advantage of the deposit insurance system provided by the government,” Nograles added.

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Senate Bill 3381 seeks automatic release of funds to LGUs

Roy — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:42:02 +0000

Senator Francis â€œChizâ€ Escudero filed Senate Bill 3381 where he calls for an increase and automatic release of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of local government units (LGUs) to boost funding for job and income generation programs for their communities.

Included in his bill is the proposal to impose a penalty of six percent interest per year on the un-remitted portion of the IRA against the national government in order to discourage any delay in the release of the much-needed funds.

Escudero said, â€œThe law provides for local government units to get their rightful share of the taxes and other revenues the national government collects or generates, thus ensuring provinces, cities, towns and barangays a specific amount to fund their operations.â€

The proposed bill is said to augment the current share of LGUs in the national internal revenue taxes base on the new formula using the current share of 40 percent as provided under the Local Government Code. It will augment by an additional 50 percent of the difference between the tax collections of the third and second fiscal years preceding the current fiscal year.

Citing an example, the bill said if the total national revenue collection for 2007 is P800 billion and for 2008 is P900 billion, another P50 billion will be added to the 40 percent IRA of LGUs under the current fiscal year. the resulting IRA will then be remitted to the different provinces, cities, and municipalities in shares that correspond to their income, land area, and population.

The bill also seeks to protects LGUs having difficulty raising revenues by providing that regardless of the collections made, it will continue to receive 40 percent of its IRA share. â€œInstead of penalizing the poor LGUs, we should ensure adequate support for its constituents.â€

One salient provision in the bill that Escudero wants to be noted is that, it commands LGUs that 10 percent of the IRA it will be getting from the national budget should be solely devoted to programs and projects concerning jobs, income generation, and livelihood.