BusinessWeek
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www.businessweekmindanao.com Issue No. 93, Volume III • July 27-29, 2012
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Market Indicators
AS OF 5:53 PM JULY 25, 2012 (Wednesday)
FOREX
PHISIX
US$1 = P42.10
5,161.80 points
; ; Briefly 3 cents
2.06 points
Passport centers
THE city council headed by Vice Mayor Caesar Ian Acenas adopted a resolution for Cagayan de Oro to have passport-processing centers in shopping malls. This is to enable local residents to easily access government services like the passport issuance from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). Councilor Ramon Tabor, author of the resolution, explained that as secretary general of the Philippine Councilors League (PCL), he has been going to cities like Cebu, Angeles, Davao, Baguio, and found that there are such processing centers in big malls. He said Metro Manila is next in the list of the DFA. According to Tabor, having this service not only in selected DFA but also established in other cities or malls would mean shorter queues and faster service.
Anti-trafficking
AN anti-trafficking in persons desk was finally opened last July 20 at the Davao International Airport. The desk is initiated by the Regional Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking-Integrated Action Network (RIACTION). According to Regional State Prosecutor Antonio Arrellano, concurrent Regional Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking chair, the establishment of an airport desk is critical with Davao City becoming more accessible to air travel being the primary entry and exit point of the region. The desk will be manned by the Airport Security Group, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines and the Regional Public Safety Battalion. It is aimed as a mechanism of integration and coordination between member agencies of the RIACAT.
By IRENE DOMINGO, Reporter
P
RESIDENT Benigno Aquino is expected to issue an executive order next month formally creating the Mindanao Power Monitoring Committee that will oversee efforts to address the island’s unstable electricity supply, which sank to a shortage of as much as 150 megawatts (MW) last week but swung to a 135 MW reserve on Wednesday.
In her statement read by Gerardo Ramon Cesar B. Reynaldo during the 8th Zamboanga Peninsula Business Conference in Oroquieta City, Mindanao Development Authority chairperson Luwalhati R. Antonino said the creation of a Mindanao Power Monitoring Committee is an offshoot of the Energy Summit held in Davao City last April. “Provisions of the expected EO would be drawn from resolutions issued [during the summit],” Antonino GOVT/PAGE 11
PHOTO BY MIO CADE
CDO-Iloilo flight Minbizcon set to tackle mining, power issues reporters in a briefing in Makati rights, requiring mining contractors boosts tourism to regularly submit operation and City on Friday. By MELANIE RIVERA, Staff Member
THE opening of new flights connecting Cagayan de Oro with Iloilo City is an added boost to the city’s tourism industry. Vice Mayor Caesar Ian Acenas said this noting reports that the thrice a week f lights between the two cities provided by Cebu Pacific Air has carried 14,600 passengers in just five months. FLIGHT/PAGE 11
Beside U.C.C.P., C.M. Recto Ave., Nat’l Highway, Cag. de Oro City
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BACK TO SCHOOL PROMO!
Trained by:
POVERTY IN OUR MIDST. Young scavengers seem contented with life in the midst of rubbles and garbage unmindful of health hazards. Poverty pervades in this country despite President Benigno Aquino’s rosy economic data presented during his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) last Monday.
RICKY REYES & DAVID’S SALON Makati City
PARTICIPANTS in the annual Mindanao Business Conference to be held on August 2-4 in Butuan City will draw up recommendations to improve the environment for mining, power and agriculture that will be submitted to Malacañang at the end of the summit, a top official of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), which is organizing the event, told
“We are hoping that of the many recommendations that have been put forward, we will be able to make things clearer before recommending to the President,” said PCCI President Miguel B. Varela, referring to results of regional consultations “which started three weeks ago.” He said recommendations for mining may include holding auctions for exploration and extraction
financial reports to ensure transparency, enforcing the primacy of national over local laws and directly remitting to local governments their share in royalties. Recommendations for the energy sector include excluding from the government’s privatization policy the hydroelectric plants that provide more than half of Mindanao’s power MINING/PAGE 11
Northern M’danao consumer groups mull federation CONSUMER groups in Northern Mindanao unanimously agreed on the creation of a regional federation of consumer organisations in Region 10. This was the result of the discusCONSUMER/PAGE 11