BusinessWeek MINDANAO
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Volume IV, No. 71
Market Indicators
As of 5:30 pm mar. 1, 2014 (Saturday)
FOREX
PHISIX
US$1 = P44.63
6,424.99 points
3 cents
X X Briefly 70.20 points
Tuition fee hike DAVAO City – A total of 32 colleges and universities in the Davao Region have submitted to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED 11) their application for tuition fee increase next school year. CHED 11 regional director Dr. Raul Alvarez said that 32 out of the 91 colleges and universities in the region, have submitted their request on Wednesday, the last day of its series of consultations with the schools in relation to their application for tuition fee hike. The consultations were attended by student governments, stakeholders and parents, Alvarez said. Of the 32 schools that applied for tuition fee increase, 21 are from Davao City and Davao del Sur, eight from Davao del Norte, and three from Compostela Valley Province.
Benchmarks AGUSAN del Sure -Knowledge and skills are what the provincial government of Agusan del Sur (PGAS) shared to its counterparts from Davao del Norte who visited the province for benchmarking recently. A team headed by Edwin Palero from the Provincial Human Resource and Management Office (PHRMO) of Davao del Norte was warmly welcomed by Provincial Administrator Jesusimo Ronquillo who represented Governor Eddiebong Plaza along with PHRM Officer and concurrent Governor’s office chief-ofstaff Josephine Ambongan and other chiefs of offices. In a courtesy call in his office, Ronquillo expressed his gratitude to the group for their time and effort in visiting the provincial capitol assuring them that PGAS will impart any information that will be useful in their province.
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Peace accord to spur growth in Mindanao T
By KRIS M. CRISMUNDO Philippine News Agency
HE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Gregory Domingo is confident that Mindanao will quickly develop its economy once the Bangsamoro peace agreement is completed.
In an interview, Domingo said Mindanao can attract investors as the southern Philippines is rich in natural resources. There have been interests particularly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) mostly f rom Indonesia and Malaysia for palm oil plantation, according to the DTI chief. Indonesia and Malaysia are the world’s top producer and exporter of palm oil products mostly in the form of crude palm oil. Recently, Malaysia’s stateowned Petroliam Nasional B e rha d ( Pe t ronas ) has
allowed Iron Blaze Petroleum, Inc. to import oil products in ARMM which is expected to bring lower fuel prices in the Muslim region. ”I have no doubt; if we will have peace in Mindanao -- because Mindanao is so rich in natural resources -- I have no doubt in my mind that Mindanao could develop very quickly economically,” he said. He added that aside from palm oil plantation, Mindanao is now being eyed for ventures in food processing, sharia banking or Islamic banking, and even manufacturing. peace/PAGE 11
PLAYING IN THE DARK. A toddler plays with a tablet to fend off the darkness that hit most parts of Mindanao Thursday morning. Later that day, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines declared that power services were back to normal. NGCP, however, has yet to explain the real cause of the massive outage. mindanews photo by bj patino
power outlook
Demonizing the WESM (Second Part)
Analysis:
Water shortage in Davao City By PED T. QUIAMJOT
OVER the years, the problem of water utilities in the country becomes heavier as population grows and the degradation of the environment threatens. There are also technical aspects that must be addressed like, infrastructure d e ve l opm e nt , re s ou rc e management covering
water sources, mainline replacement programs and the construction of more water treatment plan for recycling of the used vital water resources. The costs are tremendous t h at l o c a l gove r n m e nt administering the LWUA may not have the sufficient analysis/PAGE 11
By DAVID A. TAULI
IN addition to demonizing the EPIRA, David Celestra Tan in his series of opinion p i e c e s i n a n at i o n a l broadsheet also demonizes the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in
the Philippines. Following below are his statements concerning the WESM and my clarifications as to the purposes, design, and operation of the WESM in the Philippines.
B efore going into his points and my counterpoints, it should be said that the WESM is one of the good institutional results of the EPIRA. outlook/PAGE 11
Gov’t is bungling Mindanao power crisis--group THE People Opposed to Unwarranted Electricity Rates (POWER) expresses alarm at the government’s continuing failure to address
the critical power crisis that has been plaguing Mindanao for the last five years. Last week’s island-wide blackout, the cause of which
the Department of Energy remained clueless 24 hours after the incident, comes at the heels of the surprise revelation that in the Pablostruck areas of Southern Mindanao, 57% of villages still has no power more than a year after the storm and despite billions of pesos spent on rehabilitation. Maybe it’s time Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla look for another job, probably as undersecretary of the crisis/PAGE 11
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