BusinessWeek MINDANAO CREDIBLE
Volume VIII, No. 60
Market Indicators
As of 6:00 pm October 20, 2017 (friday)
FOREX
PHISIX
US$1 = P51.508
8,420.95
4.5 cents
X
66.42
X
points
Briefly
Livelihood for IDPs THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has provided some P942.5 million worth of livelihood assistance for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Marawi City. DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez told reporters on the sidelines of the 43rd Philippine Business Conference and Expo Thursday said amount had benefitted some 17,650 IDPs. Lopez said about P151.5 million of livelihood assistance was directly funded by DTI, providing the IDPs with equipment such as mobile rice mill, mini-trucks for delivery hauling and sewing machines. The DTI has also given IDPs, who would like to immediately return to businesses, with shared equipment for woodcraft, food processing, and agro-industrial business, as well as starter kits for cooking, baking, and barbeque business.
Fair competition BUTUAN City – Power retailers and consumers should be able to compete fairly under the retail competition and open access (RCOA) system, Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said during the second public consultation on the RCOA policy at the Park Inn by Radisson Clark in Pampanga. “We have to properly explain to the industry players our way forward in implementing the ‘power of choice’ provisions of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) and one of them is the provision on retail competition and open access,” Cusi told some 130 representatives from contestable customers, retail electricity suppliers and distribution utilities who attended the meeting on the draft circulars on RCOA. “The demand-side contestable customers and the supply-side retail electricity suppliers must be guided towards a competitive and transparent system under a fair playing field,” Cusi said.
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COWD-MetroPac joint venture gets SEC nod www.businessweekmindanao.com
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By MARK FRANCISCO, Staff Writer
HE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the registration of a joint venture company created by the Cagayan de Oro Water District (COWD) and Metro Pacific Water. COWD general manager Rachel Beja reported over the weekend that the new joint venture company is called Cagayan de Oro Bulk Water Inc. It is 95 percent-owned by
Metro Pacific Water and five percent-owned by COWD. At the same time, Metro Pacific Water also created the MetroPac Cagayan de Oro Joint/PAGE 11
P15.00
Wednesday | October 25, 2017
Icon hotel to rise in Davao City By CARMELITO Q. FRANCISCO, Correspondent
DAVAO City — A P300million boutique hotel is being developed in the same complex housing the Apo View Hotel, according to the Global C omfort
Group Corp. Global Comfort Group Managing Director Edmundo G. Las said the planned Icon Hotel will target travelers looking for
more “affordable rooms that can offer better amenities” while the Apo Vi e w, n o w u n d e r t h e company’s management, wou l d re m ai n for t h e higher-end market. hotel/PAGE 11
SIARGAO. Tourists flock to Siargao Island in Surigao del Norte, the country’s surfing capital. Siargao is not just for surfers but also for visitors who want to spend a quiet day in the beach like these visitors in Magpupungko Resort, San Isidro, Siargao. photo by jules benitez
After 40 years, school built in remote Higaonon village By CHRIS V. PANGANIBAN, Contributing Editor
ESPERANZA, Agusan del Sur—For 40 years, children in the remote tribal village of Balobo have been deprived of a formal school that they
have to trek mountains and ride on bamboo rafts just to go to school in the faraway neighboring villages. higaonon/PAGE 11
DREAM SCHOOL. The 2-classroom lumad school building built by the community through the bayanihan spirit is a dream come for children in the remote village of Balobo. photo provided
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