BusinessWeek
YOUR LOCAL ONLINE BUSINESS PAPER
www.businessweekmindanao.com Issue No. 40, Volume III • January 16-19, 2012 Editorial: 088-856-3344
Market Indicators AS OF 5:34 P.M., JAN. 13, 2012 (Friday)
FOREX
PHISIX
US$1 = P43.75
4,613.73 points
34.28 points
;
; Briefly 31 cents
New college
PHINMA CORP. will be opening another school in Cagayan de Oro this school year in a bid to attract more students, a company official said. The four-storey Cagayan de Oro College in Barangay Puerto is expected to serve as much as 3,000 students, Chito B. Salazar, Phinma Education president, said. “The main reason we’re expanding ‘organically’ is because students are having a difficult time coming all the way into the city where our main campus is located because of the high cost of living. We’re bringing the school closer to them,” Mr. Salazar said. Aside from the area outside Cagayan de Oro City proper, the new Puerto campus is also seen to target students from some parts of neighboring Agusan and Bukidnon provinces.
Nasipit port
BUTUAN City -- Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) Butuan CityAgusan del Norte Port Manager Renato Tolinero on Thursday said he is optimistic that shipping lines will continue their operation in Nasipit Port despite of the less volume of passengers these days. Tolinero admitted that ship passengers are getting lesser these past few days compared to the previous years because of the access of air line companies in Caraga Region especially here in the city. However, the official said Shipping Lines are not dependent on the volume of passengers they will have. He added the cargoes are among their transactions where shipping line managements can get more of its income.
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CdO gives tax reliefs to storm-hit MSMEs By MIKE BANOS, Correspondent
T
HE city government of Cagayan de Oro has agreed to grant businesses adversely affected by the Tropical Storm Sendong disaster immediate relief from unpaid real property penalties and surcharges.
A delegation from the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation, Inc. (Oro Chamber) met in a series of meetings with the City Finance Committee to follow up its Jan. 11, 2012 letter request to Mayor Vicente Y. Emano coursed through Councilor Simeon V. Licayan as chairman of the city council’s ways and means committee requesting relief for its member companies affected by the flash floods. Among the measures requested by the chamber through its president Ma. Teresa R. Alegrio were the deferment of new assessment fees provided in the new Revenue Code of Cagayan de Oro pertaining to the renewal of business permits for a year, and instead use the old assessment rates for those directly affected micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs); condonation of penalties on all unpaid real estate taxes since the global crisis of 2007 up to the present; and the extension of the processing of business permits renewal for another month. “We had a successful final meeting with the City Finance Committee and essentially, all our requests were granted except for the extension of the business renewal period to February,” said Oro Chamber Executive Director Lordilie RELIEFS/PAGE 7
Solar power champion Ramon Chavez-Abaya, 68 By MIKE BAÑOS, Correspondent
ADVOCATES of solar power mourned the passing of Ramon Chavez-Abaya, Cagayan Electric Power and Light Co. (CEPALCO) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer last January 9, 2012 in Manila at the age of 68. “He was the one who provided the drive, the guidance, and the financial support for the solar PV advocacy that we in CEPALCO have been carrying
out since August 2011,” said Engr. David A. Tauli, senior vice president for engineering in an email to members of the Mindanao Coalition of Power Consumers. “His death provides greater impetus for us to carry on with our advocacy until a thousand solar PV power plants will bloom and flourish all over Mindanao, in fulfillment of his vision, which we have taken as our own.” POWER/PAGE 10
NERVE OF STEEL: Two street kids take advantage of the slow traffic to steal some valuable spare parts of a truck in broad daylight. Recent study reveals the Philippines’ expanding population can help lift the country’s economy and grow 15 times by 2050 outpacing even oil-rich countries in the Middle East. PHOTO BY MIO CADE
Study: PH could be world’s biggest economy by 2050 HSBC said the Philippine economy may become the 16th largest in the world by 2050, dwarfing neighbors Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
Power coops seek renewable energy By BUTCH D. ENERIO, Contributor
POWER distributors in Mindanao is advocating for renewable energy as power source for the island’s grid; rural electrification and development in a three-day congress here. The Association of Mindanao Rural Electric Cooperatives (Amreco) said that the upcoming congress, which will be on January 25-27 at the Grand Caprice, would be attended by more than COOPS/PAGE 5
The British banking giant workers - or the Netherlands, said the Philippines could even which is home to a number of outgrow oil-producing Saudi multinational companies. Arabia - host to the biggest conThe forecast is contained centration of overseas Filipino PH/PAGE 4
Gov’t nixes environmental permit for Tampakan project By CARMELITO Q. FRANCISCO Correspondent with Wire Reports
SAGITTARIUS Mines, Inc. (SMI) has been dealt another setback with the government last week denying the firm an environmental permit for its Tampakan mining project, described as the largest undeveloped copper-gold deposit in Southeast Asia. SMI -- already hampered by a local government ban on open pit
mining -- on Friday announced that it would appeal the rejection of its application for an environmental compliance certificate (ECC). The decision was not unexpected, having been telegraphed by Environment Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje just before last year ended. “[W]e are returning herewith the application documents with instruction to deny the same, without prejudice to resubmission, PERMIT/PAGE 9