BusinessWorld (Philippines) articles from December 2009, page 3

BusinessWorld (Philippines) archives from December 2009

Dencio's introduces holiday soup dishes.
December 22, 2009... To celebrate the biggest fiesta of the year, Dencio's has turned our favorite appetizing soup dishes into a "Masaganang Noche Buena" spread perfect for sharing with friends and family in the chilly holiday weather. Order the Tinolang Pompano,...

Dream TV offers 'Dream-All-U-Can' promo.
December 22, 2009... Dream Satellite TV's Dream-All-U-Can promo lets you enjoy the best TV viewing experience for three straight years, for only a one-time fee of P9,888. With the Dream-All-U-Can Promo, you get a free Set-Top-Box, SmartCard and Satellite Dish...

PEOPLE.
December 22, 2009... TransProcure CEO presents in Singapore Charlie Villasenor, president and chief executive officer of TransProcure Corp., the first and only Asian-headquartered global procurement solutions and services company and current chairman of the...

BRIEFS.
December 22, 2009... Announcement bared China Banking Corp. (China Bank) will continue to serve customers during the holiday season as selected branches will be open on Dec. 24, 30, and 31 (declared as special non-working holidays.) The bank's mall branches and...

Visita belen.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Johanna D. Poblete The belen (from the Spanish word belen) or nativity scene is part of childhood - there is that remembered moment of playing in the churchyard and hiding behind the life-sized figures of the Magi, painting and then...

Irrigation agency set to build P1-B dam for Leyte's rice areas.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Sarwell Q. Meniano TACLOBAN CITY - The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) will build next year a P1.1-billion dam that will store water to irrigate 3,000 hectares of farms throughout the year. "This will be the first...

Banana cooperatives tagged among Davao's most successful land reform.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Carmelito Q. Francisco DAVAO CITY - Banana farming cooperatives are among the most successful beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in this region, said Yusoph B. Mama, regional director of the Department...

Hydro power plants planned in Region X.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Louise G. Dumas CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY - Three hydroelectric projects in Northern Mindanao that can supply a total of 675 megawatts (MW) of power to the Mindanao grid by 2016 are planned for development in the next four to five years. ...

Bioethanol sector seeks state support beyond law's perks.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Nanette L. Guadaquilver BACOLOD CITY - State support beyond incentives already provided by the Biofuels Act of 2006 is crucial to helping the country's fledgling bioethanol industry take off, a group of businessmen planning to build...

Bicameral meeting pushed for organic farm bill.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Jhoanna Frances S. Valdez A CONGRESSIONAL committee is pushing for the bicameral conference on a measure that gives incentives to farmers who engage in organic farming. The proposed "Organic Agriculture Act of 2009," contained in...

LET'S TALK TAX.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Arnold P. Supilanas The year 2009 is about to end. Aside from Christmas-related activities, companies also start planning for year-end activities related to various compliance requirements of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)....

FRAMEWORK.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Elfren Sicangco Cruz This Christmas it is the Christian message of solidarity that "we all belong to one family" which we need to propagate in order to offset those sad images of Ondoy, the Ampatuan massacre, and poverty roaming in...

FENCE SITTER.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Antonio R. Samson Every year we pick insignificant trends that will characterize the coming year. So far we have not been wrong because either the trends were so insignificant as to be noticed or maybe the result of many interviews of...

MAP INSIGHTS.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Junie S. Del Mundo Sustainability is the new buzzword in business. Around the world, policy makers and investors are starting to take a good look at how sustainable a company's operations are, realizing that present-day needs should...

AGENDA FOR HOPE.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Antonio G.M. La Vina and Tieza Mica Santos Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are...

Lawmakers hit telcos for failure to implement billing scheme.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Bernard U. Allauigan and Emilia Narni J. David LAWMAKERS YESTERDAY castigated telecommunication firms for their refusal to implement a new billing scheme for mobile phone calls, vowing to pass a bill giving the National...

Semirara's coal concession expanded by 7,000 hectares.
December 22, 2009... The Department of Energy (DoE) has approved the expansion of listed Semirara Mining Corp.'s coal operating contract (COC) in Antique to cover an additional 7,000 hectares. In a disclosure to the stock exchange, the DMCI Holdings, Inc. unit...

Transmission firm to spend P90B from 2011 to 2015.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Jose Bimbo F. Santos The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines intends to spend about P90 billion in the next five years to improve the country's power transmission backbone. The private operator of the transmission network has...

Firms urged to continue investing on human resource technology.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Ma. Aizl Camille B. Cabarles While businesses have become cautious with human resource (HR) technology spending due to the global economic crunch, the need to increase productivity while reducing costs and without sacrificing the...

BPO company, workers called to end labor conflict amicably.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Nanette L. Guadalquiver BACOLOD CITY - The Bacolod city council has intervened to help resolve the conflict between outsourcing firm Transcom and 169 of its employees, who are supposedly up for termination. "We called for a joint...

BHP Billiton selling out to local partner in Davao nickel mine.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Neil Jerome C. Morales BHP Billiton, the world's largest miner, has decided to exit the local mining industry to end a feud with its local partner, the Environment chief said late last week. This came after negotiations brokered by...

Furniture exporter remains downbeat on US prospects.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Jessica Anne D. Hermosa Furniture exporter Celloom Furniture Corp. saw sales plummet by nearly a third this year as demand from the US - its main market - weakened amid the economic downturn, an official said late last week. ...

Two firms get out of BellTel.
December 22, 2009... Listed firms South China Resources, Inc. and Liberty Flour Mills, Inc. have sold their shares in a telecommunication firm to a privately led financial firm. In a disclosure, South China Resources said it had disposed of 3.24 million shares in...

Status quo in SLEx extended.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Emilia Narni J. David A court hearing to resolve a dispute over operations of the South Luzon Expressway (SLEx) has been deferred to Dec. 28, forcing parties to continue observing the status quo. Isaac S. David, president of South...

REVIEW.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Elias Guerrero, Jr. Back in 2000, when digital cameras were still outrageously expensive, the choices were fairly limited: you either bought a simple "consumer" point-and-shoot model, or a more professional digital SLR that came with...

BRIEFS.
December 22, 2009... IT leaders form coalition Cisco and EMC, together with VMware, recently introduced the Virtual Computing Environment coalition, an unprecedented collaboration of three information technology (IT) industry leaders. The coalition was created to...

PHILIPPINE SILICON VALLEY.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Dennis Posadas What happens when you take 193 countries, with their delegates and ministers, accompanied by their assistants, press people, NGOs, and others who want to add their inputs to the mix? Well, as Copenhagen has showed,...

Blasts rock Sulu; military tags Abu Sayyaf behind explosions.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Darwin T. Wee and AFP ZAMBOANGA CITY - Three blasts rocked the island-province of Sulu yesterday, a military report said, but there were no reports of casualties nor injuries from the incidents that were blamed on bandits. At least...

Supreme Court moves hearings on murder case of Maguindanao local.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Ira P. Pedrasa The Supreme Court (SC) has moved to the first week of January the hearings on the multiple murder case against Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr., principal suspect of a massacre a month ago. In a press conference...

Vindication comes late for ex-village chief in fund mess case.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Chrysee G. Samillano BACOLOD CITY - The Ombudsman has dismissed malversation charges against a former village captain of Alijis in this city. The decision, however, came too late for Pepito Malapitan, who passed away a month ago....

Land controversy hounding Camiguin islet a year after residents'.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Louise G. Dumas CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY - It has been over a year since longtime residents of an islet off Camiguin province have been evicted as illegal settlers, but the issue remains unresolved despite an order from the Department of...

A more hazardous eruption expected, says chief volcanologist.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Adriel M. Paglinawan and AFP A MORE hazardous eruption is expected of Mayon volcano compared to its last event in 2006 as it showed signs of increased restiveness, the country's chief volcanologist yesterday said. Philippine...

Aquino still tops survey; opponents catching up.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Bernard U. Allauigan Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Senator Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" C. Aquino III is still the first choice among presidential aspirant if elections were held today, according to a recent noncommissioned survey...

Oil firms reduce pump prices following lower world rates.
December 22, 2009... Oil companies have reduced pump prices for the week due to lower costs in the world oil market. First to move rates was independent player Eastern Petroleum Corp. at fifty centavos per liter for diesel and seventy-five centavos for gasoline...

Registration only for five days.
December 22, 2009... The extended voter listing only covers five days ending next week since the rest of the period set by the Supreme Court (SC) is for Commission on Elections (Comelec) hearings to decide on the new registrants. In a phone interview,...

Seaweed industry appeals for gov't financing.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Marites S. Villamor CEBU CITY - With the twin threats of a raw seaweed shortage and competition from Indonesia's fledgling carrageenan industry dangling over their heads, seaweed processors, traders and farmers appealed to government...

More facilities at Leyte IT park.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Sarwell Q. Meniano PALO, Leyte - The Leyte Tourism and Investment Promotion Center (LTIPC) has disclosed plans to build more facilities at the Leyte Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Park to meet the requirements of the...

INDICATOR.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Ma. Aizl Camille B. Cabarles PHILIPPINE LABOR is not among the cheapest in Asia and the Pacific, and is even among the most expensive in Southeast Asia, next only to Singapore, data from the National Wages and Productivity Commission...

Deficit climbs to P272.5 billion (Teves expects full-year.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Alexis Douglas B. Romero Weak revenues blamed on the economic slow-down, recent storms, and tax cuts swelled the budget deficit to P272.5 billion as of November, the government yesterday reported. The full-year shortfall, however,...

Gov't asked to cut resin tariffs next year.
December 22, 2009... Byline: Jessica Anne D. Hermosa A group of plastic manufacturers yesterday urged the government to lower tariffs on resin imports next year in line with a regional trade pact, instead of waiting for a factory promised to be in place by 2013....

Amendments to BSP charter okayed by House committee.
December 22, 2009... Proposed amendments to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) charter have been approved by a House of Representatives committee. The measure, okayed earlier this month by the chamber's banks and financial services panel, exempts the BSP from...

Gov't increasing size of PNOC-EC stake up for sale.
December 22, 2009... The government has increased the size of the Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) stake it plans to sell next year, with officials saying the move would make the asset more attractive and add to the effort to plug the budget...

Trading to be light but PSEi seen holding up.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Kristine Jane R. Liu The market is expected to continue moving sideways given the shortened trading week, although it might have an upside bias as some investors start accumulating issues in preparation for next year, analysts said....

WEALTH MANAGER.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Gloria Krisana L. Gallezo Recommendation: BUY Analysts have recommended buying shares of GMA Network, Inc. amid prospects the broadcasting giant will book higher revenues from its international cable business and advertisements...

WEALTH MANAGER.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Daniel Anne B. Nepomuceno Recommendation: LONG-TERM BUY Power firm Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has obtained a "long-term buy" tag from Accord Capital Equities Corp., which expressed confidence about the health of its balance...

WEALTH MANAGER.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Alria M. Ventanilla Recommendation: BUY/ LONG-TERM BUY Investors are encouraged to include Petron Corp. in their portfolio or beef up their current holdings on prospects its share price will increase, analysts said. Claire S....

WEALTH MANAGER.
December 21, 2009... 21 Monday - Last day of e-FILING/FILING & e-PAYMENT/PAYMENT of percentage tax (Form 2551Q) for transactions involving overseas dispatch, message or conversation originating from the Philippines and amusement taxes for quarter ended Nov....

Espejo dominates 2009 angler of the year.
December 21, 2009... Insurance executive Tony Espejo is the year's Philippine Game Fishing Foundation (PGFF) Angler of the Year (AOY) winner. Espejo of Standard Insurance, is also the grandslam winner in the heavy and light tackle divisions when he topped the...

COURTSIDE.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Anthony L. Cuaycong You should deem yourself lucky, Tiger Woods. You should, in your quiet moments (and I'm guessing you have many these days), ask yourself why your "transgressions" and "infidelity," as you oh-so-delicately termed...

CHESS PIECE.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Bobby Ang The FIDE World Chess Cup took place in the oil-boom town of Khanty- Mansiysk, in that general part of Russia we usually refer to as Siberia, from Nov. 20 up to Dec. 15, 2009. It was a seven-round knockout event of 128...

TAKE TEN.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Behn Cervantes Because I come from a big family, we regularly borrowed from each other. However, one of the principles we were taught early on by my mother was to return borrowed items, and to, please, do so in time. Of course, you...

Showy shirts.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Johanna D. Poblete T-shirts have gone to a whole new level, with kids wearing Pinoy-pride shirts (including illuminated "Noypi Ako" shirts) alongside Facebook T- shirts, and quirky items such as a cat hoodie sleeve (a jacket with the...

Investment chief admits '09 target will be missed.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Jessica Anne D. Hermosa THE BOARD of Investments (BoI) conceded on Friday that investment pledges this year will fail to match 2008 levels, as targeted, as foreign firms wait out the economic slump. "We might miss our target...

Aklan sets P260-M bond float for Caticlan reclamation project.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Francis Allan L. Angelo ILOILO CITY - The Aklan provincial government plans to sell P260 million worth of bonds next month to finance a reclamation project in Caticlan, Malay, Aklan, an official statement late last week read. The...

No hope for revenue bills in 14th Congress.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Alexis Douglas B. Romero THE FINANCE department has given up on the 14th Congress to act on revenue-generating bills it has endorsed, saying the best window within which to push these reforms would be the first year of the next...

Consumer group demands cancellation of telco franchises.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Emilia Narni J. David Consumer group TXTPower has asked the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to punish telecommunication firms for their failure to comply with a new billing scheme for mobile phone calls. In a...

SUITS THE C-SUITE.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Cirilo P. Noel At the turn of the 21st century, the prevailing sentiment was one of anxious optimism. Humanity was at the threshold of a world that had been made more interconnected and more complex by advances in knowledge and...

Lucio Tan's Eton eyes five projects in 2010.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Kristine Jane R. Liu Two-year-old Eton Properties Philippines, Inc. plans to launch five projects in 2010 to take advantage of continued strong demand in the housing market. In a statement at the weekend, the Lucio Tan-led property...

Property developers eyeing land beside SLEx extension.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Emilia Narni J. David A project to extend the South Luzon Expressway (SLEx) all the way to Quezon province is already gaining interest from a number of property developers, the head of the joint venture undertaking the tollway project...

Gokongweis move naptha cracker project to 2013.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Jessica Anne D. Hermosa The Gokongweis' long delayed plans to build a naphtha cracker - touted as critical to the local petrochemical industry's integration by producing raw materials - will likely be realized by 2013, a ranking...

Power firm to bid for Angat, Pulangi.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Jose Bimbo F. Santos SN Aboitiz Power and partner Aboitiz Power Corp. are training their sights on the sale of the Angat hydroelectric dam next year as well as other hydropower generation assets yet to be privatized by the Power...

CAP insurance arm gets license to sell.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Louella D. Desiderio CAP General Insurance Corp., which initially flunked the Insurance Commission's (IC) net worth test, has secured a new license to sell insurance policies for 2009-2010. In a telephone interview late last week,...

Peso might weaken further.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Louella D. Desiderio The peso is expected to weaken further this week due to dollar strength. Currency traders interviewed on Friday said the local currency could trade for P46.45 to P46.70 per dollar for the week. The peso...

Short-dated debt yields up.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Ma. Aizl Camille B. Cabarles Yields on short-term debts rose for the second straight week last Friday, signaling investors are already gearing up for an exit from an easy monetary regime as inflationary pressures build up. The...

13th month pay is mandatory, bonus is discretionary - gov't.
December 21, 2009... The government reiterated that all wage and salary workers in the country are entitled to the 13th month pay as mandated by law. Labor Secretary Marianito D. Roque said that based on the time-honored Presidential Decree No. 851 issued on Dec....

Manila Hotel launches spa, health club.
December 21, 2009... Manila Hotel recently launched its newly opened spa. Ensuring an ultimate tranquil experience for anyone who walks inside its doors, it has all the key elements for your mind and body's utmost relaxation. It is situated right beside the...

Cathay Pacific's 'Manage My Booking' facility offers passengers.
December 21, 2009... Cathay Pacific Airways announced a continuing enhancement of the "Manage My Booking" facility on the airline's Web site, offering a more complete and comprehensive online self-service platform for passengers to take more control over their...

PEOPLE.
December 21, 2009... TNT Phils. names new country sales manager TNT Express, the world's leading express and freight integrator, has appointed John Paul Queng as TNT Philippines' country sales manager. In this new role, John's main focus will be to align TNT...

BRIEFS.
December 21, 2009... Award received The Association for Services Management International, the Service and Support Professionals Association, and the Technology Professional Services Association have named Convergys Corporation a winner of the Fall 2009...

ROOTS.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Jose S. Arcilla S.J. Motorists down Katipunan Avenue cannot miss Ateneo's blue penants with their white inscriptions waving from the university's fence: "THE JOURNEY CONTINUES." Put up just before the university's recent successful...

MAP query of the week.
December 21, 2009... Today's question WILL THE COMELEC EN BANC RISE TO THE OCCASION BY RENDERING A FAIR, JUST AND CREDIBLE VERDICT ON THE APPEAL OF GOVERNOR GRACE PADACA OF ISABELA? MAP desires nothing better than for the Comelec to be perceived by the public...

CORPORATE WATCH.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Amelia H.C. Ylagan So it's your birthday. As of Dec. 19, 2009, the Earth's population is estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be 6.804 billion. On rough computation, there may be more than 18 million chances for someone...

FENCE SITTER.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Antonio R. Samson It is not just these few days before Christmas (four days to go) that the buying spree hits us. But the holiday season certainly provides us with both the excuse and the opportunity, to exercise our right of shortage...

YELLOW PAD.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III The central issue for the 2010 elections is governance. The wide lead that Noynoy Aquino enjoys in poll surveys stems from the people's desire for good government. Good government is the exact opposite of...

INTROSPECTIVE.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Cayetano Paderanga, Jr. As a consequence of the Federal System's perceived inability to prevent the global financial crisis or the harm of the market collapse, some influential sectors of the United States are calling for significant...

BEYOND BRUSHSTROKES.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Marivic Rufino A man hath no better thing under the sun than to eat and to drink and to be merry. - Ecclesiastes 8:15. On n'est jamais si hereux ni si malhereux qu'on s'imagine. (One is never so happy or so unhappy as one thinks.) -...

Rescue of Basilan kidnap victims OK'd.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Darwin T. Wee ZAMBOANGA CITY - The crisis management committee in Basilan hopes to safely recover three kidnapped victims, two of whom are Chinese nationals, as it gave the go signal for the military and police to rescue the hostages....

Arroyo in Hong Kong for break.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Gerard S. dela Pena President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been in Hong Kong since yesterday and would stay there until Wednesday for a personal vacation. The President, amid the break, would still closely monitor the situation in...

Makati business group prefers Liberal Party bets.
December 21, 2009... Senator Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" C. Aquino III and Senator Manuel "Mar" A. Roxas II of the Liberal Party (LP) topped an informal presidential and vice-presidential survey conducted among Makati Business Club (MBC) members, the private sector...

Mayon alert level raised; eruption within days imminent (Controls.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Adriel M. Paglinawan and AFP THE ALERT level on Mayon volcano was raised yesterday indicating a major eruption in days. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) declared an alert level four after...

High court rules vs MMDA on MRT structures.
December 21, 2009... Byline: Ira P. Pedrasa The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) does not have the authority to dismantle billboards or any form of advertising in the premises of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) system, the Supreme Court has ruled. ...

SPECIAL REPORT: Pre-election Survey.
December 21, 2009... Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Senator Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" C. Aquino III currently leads the pack of "presidentiables" looking to succeed Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo next year, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey commissioned by...

SPECIAL REPORT: Pre-election Survey.
December 21, 2009... The 2010 elections have been called critical, what with the fact that it will be the first fully automated exercise in the Philippines' history and concerns that it will be staged amid an environment of mounting uncertainty and instability. ...

SPECIAL REPORT: Pre-election Survey.
December 21, 2009... Two former "presidentiables" may instead end up with the second- highest elective post in the land if voters were asked to choose today. A Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll commissioned by BusinessWorld found Sen. Manuel "Mar" A. Roxas...