BusinessWeek MINDANAO CREDIBLE
Volume VIII, No. 43
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Thu-Fri | September 14-15, 2017
GenSan airport undergoes X X P435-M rehab, expansion Briefly
Market Indicators
As of 6:00 pm September 14, 2017 (thursday)
FOREX
PHISIX
US$1 = P51.143
8,144.91
17.6
91.03
cents
points
Backbone of devt
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is optimistic that Mindanao’s abundant resources and dynamic people can contribute to the country’s growth and development. The President said he believes in Mindanao’s great potential as long as it has the right infrastructure and a sound business environment. “It is for this reason that the government is aggressively pursuing infrastructure projects in Mindanao,” Duterte said to around 600 business leaders on Saturday, September 9, during the closing ceremony of the three-day Mindanao Business Conference 2017 held at the Xavier Sports and Country Club, Cagayan de Oro city.
30 IP schools TANDAG City – To further expand the basic education services for indigenous people (IP), the Department of Education (DepEd) Surigao del Sur Division would add 30 more public schools in the province. DepEd Surigao del Sur Division Indigenous People Coordinator Danilo Alcantara said that currently, there are already 30 public schools serving IP learners in 30 different communities in the province. Alcantara said some of the ‘indigenized’ classrooms established during the 1st batch of the Classroom Construction for Lumads (CCL) project were already finished and turned over. The Surigao del Sur Division has already employed 67 permanent teachers in 2016, while 36 more will be hired before 2017 ends.
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By MINDANEWS
ENERAL Santos City — Development work has shifted to high gear for the P434 million expansion and rehabilitation of the city international airport’s passenger terminal building to meet its targeted completion by 2019.
Engr. Ginalyn Cachuela, manager of the Soccsksargen Area Development Project
Office, said the demolition and clearing works are ongoing in portions of the
POWER UPDATE
No economic justification for Vis-Min interconnection By DAVID A. TAULI
A NEWS article in The Philippine Star, September 6, 2017, states: “The Energy Regulator y Commission (ERC) has given the go-signal to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to proceed with the construction of the P52-billion VisayasMindanao Interconnection Project (VMIP).” The primary justification for the VMI Project according to the article, quoting ERC officer-in-charge Alfredo Non, is that it “will enable power supply importations among the Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao grids.”
What the article does not say, but which is stated in the ERC order, dated July 11, 2017, granting provisional approval for the implementation of the Project by the NGCP, is that the Interconnection will enable the consumers in the Visayas grid to import power from Mindanao starting in 2021 until 2030, the latest year in which Mindanao will continue to have power surplus from existing power plants that could supply the projected shortages in the Visayas grid. An added benefit of the update/PAGE 9
airport’s terminal building as part of the initial construction phase. She said preparator y work started last April following the release of the notice to proceed with the project’s construction by t h e D e p ar t m e nt of Transportation (DOTr). The DOTr and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) awarded the project’s contract to joint venture firms Vicente T. Lao
Construction and C.B. Garay Philwide Builders Inc. “This is a two-year project and we expect its completion by April 2019,” Cachuela said in a presentation at the City Council’s regular session on Tuesday. She said the project includes the expansion of the terminal building’s arrival and pre-departure area and the improvement of basic facilities. When completed, the
existing terminal building would expand to around 12,000 square meters. Aside from the terminal building project, Cachuela said clearing and stripping works are also ongoing for the expansion of the airport’s apron space, drainage and storm drains. She said the DOTr has allotted around P54.3 million for the project, which is being undertaken by the Premium expansion/PAGE 11
Nene on P1,000 CHR budget:
Congress can’t abolish CHR By CAROLYN O. ARGUILLAS MindaNews
DAVAO C it y — “ T he Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is a Constitutional body that Congress has no power to abolish,” former Senate President Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel said in reaction to the House of Representatives’ 119 – 32 vote Tuesday to give only 1,000 pesos budget to the rights body in 2018. Granting a 1,000 peso budget to an office effectively renders its useless. The CHR proposed a budget of P623.38 million f o r 2 0 1 8 . Tw o o t h e r government offices were
Former Senate President Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel, Jr.
also given the same 1,000 peso budget by the House of Representatives : the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP)
and Energy Regulator y Commission (ERC). Pimentel noted that the decision of the House to abolish/PAGE 11
Vista Land ventures into mixed-use dev’t project in Davao City By CARMELITO Q. FRANCISCO, Correspondent
TUBA GATHERER. A coconut farmer readies his receptacle used to gather tuba (coconut wine), which could also be made into vinegar. Photographed in Barangay Upper Tominobo in Iligan City Thursday morning (14 September 2017). mindanews photo by bobby timonera
DAVAO City — A subsidiary of Villar-led Vista Land and Lifescapes, Inc. is adding a shopping mall within a planned 15-hectare residential subdivision in the southern area. The 2.6-hectare Vista Mall project of Vista Land’s Camella Communities Davao, Inc. was recently approved on second reading by the Davao City Council following the recommendation of the subcommittee on housing, rural and urban development for vista/PAGE 9
URBAN GARDENING. Displaced women from Marawi avail the Cagayan de Oro City government’s urban gardening program. Their products are on display and for sale at the City Hall grounds. photo by mark francisco
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