7 minute read

SpaceX satellite internet goes live in PH

By Darwin G. Amojelar

SPACEX of US billionaire Elon Musk announced Wednesday that its satellite internet service is now available in the Philippines.

“Starlink is now available in the Philippines Pilipinas,” SpaceX said in its official twitter account, without providing additional details.

Starlink Internet Services Philippines Inc., the Philippine unit of SpaceX which secured the approval of the National Telecommunications Commission as a value-added service provider was supposed to roll out satellite broadband services in the Philippines in December 2022.

Starlink’s VAS registration allows the company to directly access satellite systems, build and operate broadband facilities to offer internet services.

Sought for comment, Department of Information and Communications Technol-

Fernando Zobel returns as advisor to ALI board

FERNANDO Zobel de Ayala is returning to Ayala Land Inc. as advisor to the board, five months after he resigned from all his posts in the company over health reasons.

“Our board appointed Mr. Fernando Zobel de Ayala as advisor to the board. Mr. Zobel de Ayala was our chairman of the board for 23 years,” ALI said in a stock exchange filing Wednesday.

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. also reported on Feb. 2 that Zobel would resume his chairmanship of the board’s corporate governance committee.

Zobel de Ayala resigned from all his positions in Ayala Corp. and other listed firms in September 2022 to focus on his health and recovery. Prior to his resignation, Zobel took a temporary leave of absence.

Jenniffer B. Austria

First Gen underscores decarbonization plan

THE Philippines needs a decarbonization and adaptation plan to address the growing impact of climate change, the top executive of First Gen Corp. said Wednesday.

“We need a comprehensive, integrated and well-studied national decarbonization and adaptation plan of our own, backed by constant feedback from what science is telling us,” First Gen chairman Federico Lopez said during the 4th Philippine Environment Summit.

He said the decarbonization and adaptation plan should cut across all affected sectors such as agriculture and energy. “There’s so many aspects there. Decarbonization has many aspects, not only energy but also agriculture, waste, food,” he said. Lopez said the Philippines should also focus on climate adaptation because it is one of the more vulnerable countries to climate change.

Oscar M. Lopez Center teamed up with the UP College of Engineering and Singapore Observatory to conduct studies on rising sea levels.

Alena Mae S. Flores

IPOPHL, industry group combat counterfeit apparel

THE Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines teamed up with the Confederation of Wearables Exporters of the Philippines to protect consumers and intellectual property rights holders against the sale and manufacture of counterfeit apparel and footwear products both in physical and online markets.

They signed on Feb 13. a memorandum of understanding that sets a framework to cooperate and ensure the protection of IP rights of CONWEP members and adequately address trademark infringement and counterfeiting issues.

“If left unchecked, counterfeit apparel and footwear products may pose grave danger to the health and safety of consumers. It may also negatively affect brands, which have built their reputation on the high quality of their products and their compliance with legally set safety standards,” said IPOPHL director-general Rowel Barba.

IPOPHL and CONWEP agreed to pool resources to protect the IP rights of legitimate manufacturers as both also refused to tolerate activities that put manufacturers, brand owners and consumers at a disadvantage. Othel V. Campos ogy Undersecretary Anna Mae Lamentillo said: “We will have a formal event. We’ll inaugurate the first earth station.” Lamentillo did not provide more details.

The company earlier said its router kit, a one-time equipment purchase, costs $599 (P33,000), while the monthly subscription fee would be $99 (P5,500) with no data caps.

The Philippines is expected to be the first country in Southeast Asia to enjoy Starlink services which offer highspeed low-latency satellite internet with download speed between 100 megabits per second and 200 Mbps.

Using advanced satellites in a low earth orbit, Starlink will enable video calls, online gaming, streaming and other high data activities that historically have not been possible with satellite internet.

Starlink earlier teamed up with Data Lake, a company led by billionaire Henry Sy Jr., to bring satellite broad- band services across the country.

Data Lake and Starlink executives early this month assured President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that the high-speed, low latency broadband internet would be launched in the country in the first quarter. The National Telecommunications Commission also approved the request of Starlink to exempt its equipment from radio station licensing to expedite the commercial rollout of its satellite internet services.

The NTC said in a statement it “deemed approved the request of Starlink Internet Services Philippines Inc. that its Starlink user terminals be classified as customer premise equipment and not to subject the same to radio station licensing as it nears its commercial roll-out.”

The NTC’s approval, however, requires Starlink to comply with filing of application for the modification of its type acceptance certificates with the NTC’s Equipment Standards Division.

BAKERY KITS.

AP Renewables Inc., a subsidiary of Aboitiz Power Corp., donates a newly-refurbished bakery and bakery livelihood kits to the women’s organization of Limao, Calauan in Laguna province. Attending the turnover of bakery livelihood kits are (from left) APRI vice-president for corporate services

Leonardo Robel, APRI assistant vice-president Antonio Jun Layog, Samahan ng Serbisyong Tama ng Kababaihan of Limao president Mercia Domingo, Limao Barangay chairman Romeo Alvarez and Calauan Mayor’s Office executive assistant Erwin Sacluti.

AgriNurture investing P2.6b in 20,000-hectare corn plantation

By Jenniffer B. Austria

BUSINESSMAN Antonio Tiu is bent on re-energizing his listed agribusiness firm AgriNurture Inc. by investing P2.6 billion in a new corn plantation and possibly taking in a strategic investor.

Tiu said in a news briefing Wednesday the company would start developing 20,000 hectares in Bansalan, Davao del Sur for corn production.

He said ANI had obtained P2 billion in long-term loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines to fund the project. The company will invest another P600 million, representing 30-percent equity in the project.

“This will be a game-changer for the company as this will provide a new

By Julito G. Rada

THE Philippine Statistics Authority and Land Bank of the Philippines onboarded 8.4 million unbanked Filipinos last year, including 5.8 million who were able to open transaction accounts.

The PSA said in a statement this achievement was in line with the government’s push for financial inclusion.

PSA Undersecretary Dennis Mapa, growth cycle for group,” Tiu said.

Tiu said the project, which would start this year, would double the company’s revenues to P10 billion from P5 billion in 2021.

The corn plantation will have a production capacity of 4 to 5 metric tons per hectare or an annual output of 200,000 MT.

The company intends to ramp out annual production to 1 million MT over the next three years.

Tiu said while rice is the main staple of most Filipinos, corn rice is a good alternative because it is cheaper and healthier. It has more protein, less carbohydrates and has a lower glycemic index.

Tiu said AgriNurture received offers who is also the national statistician and civil registrar-general, said “the opening of bank account is the first step towards financial inclusion, which is one of the benefits from PhilSys.” from both local and foreign investors to be a strategic partner, but did not identify them. He said he was willing to give a minority interest to the strategic investor.

“In partnership with LandBank, millions of Filipinos were able to open their very first bank account that they can use for savings, safer and faster money remittance, payment of bills and other online transactions,” Mapa said.

Tiu recently stepped down as president of two listed firms—Ever-Gotesco Resources and Holdings Inc. and Philippine Infradev Holding Inc., as he planned to focus aggressively on growing ANI.

Tiu said there were many opportunities coming up in the agriculture sector, given the Marcos administration’s thrust to revitalize and improve the domestic farm sector.

Tiu said he would continue to own minority interests in both Ever-Gotesco and Philippine Infradev.

The PSA and LandBank achieved this goal through a co-location strategy, where registered persons were able to open transactional accounts with LandBank in PhilSys registration centers after their step 2 registration.

The service is free and provides registered persons formal access to financial services with the issuance of a banking card that requires no initial deposit and no maintaining balance.

THE Civil Aeronautics Board said Wednesday airfares are likely to increase next month on the back of higher fuel surcharge.

CAB executive-director Carmelo Arcilla said the fuel surcharge level for March 1 to 31 would be at level 7, as the cost of jet fuel averaged between P39 and P42 per liter. Last month, the fuel surcharge level was 6. Level 7 of the new passenger fuel surcharge matrix allows airlines to collect a fuel surcharge of P219 to P739 for domestic flights and P722.71 to P5,373.69 for international flights.

Under Level 6, airlines can impose a fuel surcharge per passenger of P185 to P665 for domestic flights and P610.37 to P4,538.40 for international flights.

For cargo, airlines are allowed to collect fuel surcharges between P1.2 per kilogram and P3.29 per kg for domestic and P3.72 per kg to P27.62 per kg for international.

“Airlines wishing to impose or collect fuel surcharge must file its application with CAB on or before the effectivity period, with fuel surcharge rates not exceeding the above-stated level,” Arcilla said.

The CAB said airline fuel surcharge is an optional fee, imposed and collected by airlines to recover fuel costs and stem losses caused by upward spikes in fuel cost.

Sought for comment, PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said the airline would adhere to the guidance from CAB on the higher fuel surcharge that takes effect next month.

Darwin G. Amojelar

PhilSys registrants who were issued LandBank prepaid cards used their accounts for various financial transactions.

LandBank recorded 108,473 transactions made by registered persons through their mobile banking application, point-of-sale, and over-thecounter transactions through various branches amounting to P275.8 million as of end-2022.

This article is from: