Economy
A4 Thursday, March 8, 2018 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon
BusinessMirror
Increase in summer tourism activity worries DENR chief By Jonathan L. Mayuga
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@jonlmayuga
ith the onset of the summer season, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is urging local government units (LGUs) to plan ahead of the anticipated increase in tourism activities. The DENR believes that more tourists mean more garbage that could lead to a serious solid-waste management problem. In a news statement issued on Wednesday, Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu urged LGUs to plan ahead and ensure proper waste disposal, particularly in tourist destinations. “Local government officials should amplify their measures in managing wastes, particularly in tourism sites, as we expect an increased volume of garbage with the arrival of tourists this summer season,” the DENR chief said. At the same time, Cimatu appealed to tourists to be responsible for their wastes and avoid littering, especially along the
shorelines and in the waters. “We do not want the same situation in Boracay Island to happen to other vacation sites. LGUs should be keen in monitoring waste issues in their areas of jurisdiction. Segregation activities should be strictly implemented. Tourists should also throw their garbage only in designated trash bins,” Cimatu said. Cimatu was tasked by President Duterte to address the environmental problems besetting Boracay Island. Aside from the water pollution because of discharge of untreated wastewater, Boracay is faced with a serious solid-waste management problem because of increased tourist arrivals that exceeded its hosting capacity.
Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, mandates the segregation of solid wastes, which includes the order that LGUs shall divert at least 25 percent of all solid-waste disposal facilities through use, recycling and composting activities and other resource-recovery activities. Under the law, wastes should be segregated as compostable, nonrecyclable, recyclable, residual waste and other classifications. Compostable wastes or biodegradable wastes are wastes that can be broken down to nonpoisonous substances through the natural action of microorganisms. These include food wastes and soiled paper and wood. Similarly, residual wastes are wastes that
are nonbiodegradable, noncompostable and nonrecyclable. The Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) said residual wastes should be disposed of through a longterm disposal facility or sanitary landfill. Residual wastes, include, among others, sanitary napkins, disposable diapers, worn-out rugs, cartons with plastic lining used for milk and juice containers, ceramics, candy wrappers or sachets and other soiled materials that cannot be composted and recycled. Meanwhile, recyclable wastes are waste materials that can still be converted for beneficial use. Some of these are newspapers, ferrous scrap metal, nonferrous scrap metal, corrugated cardboard, aluminum, glass, office paper and tin cans.
We do not want the same situation in Boracay Island to happen to other vacation sites. LGUs should be keen in monitoring waste issues in their areas of jurisdiction. Segregation activities should be strictly implemented. Tourists should also throw their garbage only in designated trash bins.”—Cimatu
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Duterte admin urged to hasten sale of coconut-levy assets By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM
S
enate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto prodded the Duterte administration on Wednesday to fast-track disposition of multibillion-peso coco-levy assets through “a win-win solution” for coconut farmers. “My proposal is for the government to sell all coco-levy assets, under a process that is transparent and advantageous to the farmers,” Recto said, suggesting that “liquidating the assets will enlarge the trust fund.” The senator said that the government must “get out of the coconut business because its record in running for-profit corporations has been unblemished by success.” “It has no business bottling cooking oil. If we create a trust committee that will be allowed to pick investments, run corporations, disburse funds, then we will merely be copying what [former President Ferdinand] E. Marcos did with the CIIF,” Recto said, referring to the Marcos-era Coconut Industry Investment Fund. “I want bigger funds for coconut farmers,” Recto said, noting that the original proposal is limited to annual interest on top of a start-up development fund. “My proposal is to match trust income with guaranteed appropriated budgetary support to the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) in the amount of P10 billion.” Suggesting that “faster and transparent disposition of the coco-levy will ensure win-win solu-
OFWs to Bello: Lift total deployment ban to Kuwait By Recto Mercene @rectomercene
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u ndr eds of Kuwa itbound overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are appealing to Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III to lift the total deployment of workers to the Middle Eastern country. “We are covered by a separate law on workers to Kuwait and are not part of the memorandum of understanding [MOU] the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is negotiating with Kuwait labor officials,” the OFW group said in a news statement issued on Wednesday. Bello has announced on radio earlier that Kuwait has “informally” accepted the new provisions for additional protection of Filipino household ser vice workers (HSW). He said the DOLE is just waiting for Kuwaiti labor officials to arrive this week to finalize the draft agreement, which Bello said he will sign in Kuwait this month. The formal signing of the MOU by Philippine and Kuwait labor officials may pave the way for the lifting of the ban of OFWs to Kuwait. Thousands of HSWs have lost their opportunities to work in Kuwait since the ban was implemented on January 22, even as their visas have expired, including their medical certificates, which are part of the requirements for the issuance of a work permit from the Kuwait Embassy. Hundreds of skilled OFWs who are affected by the total deployment ban to Kuwait are still appealing to the government to “save our jobs,” as the ban enters its sixth week with no relief in sight. Recruitment consultant and migration expert Emmanuel S. Geslani, for his part, urged Bello to reconsider his decision to continue the deployment ban to Kuwait, which includes skilled workers who appealed to him this week, to allow them to leave for their waiting jobs in Kuwait. These skilled workers are oil and gas engineers, information-tech-
nology professionals, nurses, medical and laboratory technicians, store mangers, sales personnel, communication technicians, maintenance personnel electricians, plumbers and carpenters. They have been issued visas and are just awaiting for the issuance of their plane tickets from their employers. However since January 22, when the order was signed by Bello to stop the processing of overseas employment certificate for all new hires for both skilled and HSW, “the world has stopped for them for the past month with no solution in sight.” The skilled workers who were recruited and processed by licensed agencies deploying workers to Kuwait have already resigned from their jobs after being selected for the jobs in Kuwait. If the impasse on the deployment ban continues for the next few months, recruitment agencies fear that the visas for the skilled workers will expire, including their medical results, which have a three-month validity period. “Once the visas expire and the principal does not extend them the foreign jobs, these jobs will definitely be lost and workers will be jobless,” Geslani said. Employers in Kuwait have also canceled the visas for other workers and have started to look at other countries to fill in the demand for their projects. Bello said that he was waiting for the Kuwaiti government to sign the MOU that seeks to add more protection guarantees for HSWs. Skilled OFWs, however, said that they are covered by the Kuwait Labor Laws, which are adequate unlike HSWs, who fall under a different category under Kuwait law. In 2016 around 105,000 OFWs were deployed to Kuwait, with 57,061 as HSWs, while the skilled workers filled up the balance of 105,000 There are 270,000 OFWs in Kuwait, with almost 150,000 HSWs, and the rest are skilled workers, mostly in oil—production services.
tions for coco farmers,” Recto said no one is disputing the need to plow back the coco-levy collections to the people, noting that “the divergence is on how to do it.” Recto aired a wish to see a quicker disbursement schedule, which will disburse bigger amounts in a shorter time. “If the [coconut] industry is in ICU, it should get a massive infusion, not the perpetual drip-drip of funds. Why prolong the agony of farmers when we can have a shorter recovery period for an industry in distress?” The senator also voiced hopes of coconut farmers for “a simpler and more cohesive administration of the trust fund, by one body dominated by farmers, in which they will have the biggest say, instead of creating two layers of bureaucracy, which will lead to dissonance.” Recto, in a news statement, also endorsed the expansion of the PCA’s membership to nine, “six of whom will be farmers, and three from the government, including the secretaries of agriculture, finance and budget.” He, likewise, suggested that the PCA also be given expanded powers to: ratify and veto the disposition of coco-levy assets, only when such is disadvantageous to the government; serve as a trust committee; and draft the industry road map. “Why create two agencies, when one agency can do the job with a one-stop shop? The powers of the proposed trust committee can be included in the strengthened PCA,” the senator added.
NTC suspends Globe’s VAS over prepaid load theft complaint
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Canned price hike
A shopper checks on the price of competing sardine brands at a Quezon City supermarket early this week. The Department of Trade Industry has confirmed the request of manufacturers to hike the prices of canned goods from P1 to P2, citing the increase in the price of tin plates and other raw materials. Nonoy Lacza
Filipino vapers laud US cancer society position on e-cigarettes
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apers in the Philippines lauded the latest position statement of the American Cancer Society (ACS), declaring the organization’s cautious support for e-cigarettes as a tool to help individuals quit smoking combustible tobacco products. “These individuals should be encouraged to switch to the least harmful form of tobacco product possible; switching to the exclusive use of e-cigarettes is preferable to continuing to smoke combustible products,” according to the ACS position statement. While cautioning that the health effects of long-term e-cigarette use are not known, the ACS noted that currently available evidence show that using current-generation ecigarettes is less harmful than smoking cigarettes. The ACS said that 98 percent of all tobacco-related deaths in the US are caused by cigarette smoking and acknowledged that the “US tobacco landscape has changed rapidly in recent years, with millions of [American] consumers now using ENDS [electronic nicotine delivery system], the most prominent of which are e-cigarettes.” “The ACS position statement is consistent with the Public Health
England and the Royal College of Physicians conclusions that e-cigarettes are at least 95-percent less harmful than conventional cigarettes and are a viable smoking-cessation tool,” said Joey Dulay, president of the Philippine E-Cigarette Industry Association (Pecia). “We are hopeful that the Department of Health [DOH] will look objectively at the growing body of evidence and eventually support the use of e-cigarettes to help the millions of Filipinos quit smoking.” Dulay also appealed to legislators to craft an appropriate regulatory framework for e-cigarettes that is different from that of conventional cigarettes. “Doing so will encourage more Filipino smokers to switch to less-harmful nicotine products and quit cigarettes all together.” “While a cautious endorsement of e-cigarettes, the ACS position statement is aligned with the latest US Food and Drug Administration policy road map, consensus study report of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and the conclusions of Cancer Research UK, all of which underscore the potential role of e-cigarettes in reducing smokingrelated harms,” said Tom Pinlac, president of The Vapers Philip-
pines. “We urge the DOH and local legislators to look at the evidence and take decisive steps to include e-cigarettes in national tobaccocontrol initiatives, a move that can help save millions of Filipino lives.” The Vapers Philippines and Pecia expressed, likewise, dismay over the opposition of the Philippine Cancer Society (PCS) to a House resolution which urges the DOH to adopt harm reduction measures, particularly the use of e-cigarettes, as an alternative for smokers as part of the country’s National Tobacco Control Strategy. In its position paper, the PCS stated it “opposes the adoption of use of e-cigarettes as an alternative to cigarette smoking.” The PCS criticized the Public Health England review for not conducting a “conclusive study” to support its conclusion that e-cigarettes may be contributing to falling smoking rates among adults and young people in the United Kingdom. “The behavioral pattern of using e-cigarettes is similar to smoking cigarettes, and the harm it can potentially present to one’s health are already strong enough reasons to regulate or prohibit its use just like any kind of commercial product,” the PCS position paper stated.
he National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has suspended Globe Telecom’s value-added service (VAS) provider GotDeals Mobile Inc. in connection with a complaint of “disappearing” mobile-phone load credits. In the summons issued on February 28 by lawyer Ella Blanca Lopez, officer in charge of the NTC legal branch, both GotDeals and Globe have been summoned to appear in a hearing before the regulatory body on March 8 to determine possible violation of Memorandum Circular 04-07-2009, which governs Public Telecommunications Entities and VAS providers. VAS providers offer services outside the standard calls and SMS, such as ringtones, wallpapers and infotext, among others. “Upon receipt of this order, Globe Telecom Inc. is, likewise, hereby directed to immediately suspend the implementation of its content-provider agreement with GotDeals Mobile Inc., pending investigation of this complaint pursuant to NTC Memorandum Circular 04-07-2009,” Lopez wrote to the telecom giant and GotDeals. NTC’s suspension order was triggered by a complaint filed by Feann Hontinveros Mauricio, whose social-media post on “nakaw load” has caught the attention of netizens who have similarly experienced unauthorized deduction from their prepaid load credit. It has since been investigated by the NTC to pinpoint the source and cause of disappearing cellphone load. Prepaid subscribers complain that their load credits disappear due to their supposed “subscription” to certain services of the VAS provider even without their knowledge or authorization. In last Monday’s public hearing in the Senate, there was an agreement to review Memorandum Circular 04-07-2009 in order to address such complaints and strengthen the protection of consumers against nakaw load.