BusinessWeek
YOUR LOCAL ONLINE BUSINESS PAPER
www.businessweekmindanao.com Issue No. 56, Volume III • March 12-15, 2012
Editorial: 088-856-3344
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P15.00
Market Indicators AS OF 5:12 P.M., MAR. 9, 2012 (Friday)
FOREX
;
US$1 = P42.59
2 cents
PHISIX 4,980.71 points
24.52 points
;
Briefly Cargo volume up
TOTAL CARGO volume rose last year, data from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) released over the weekend showed, with significant increases posted in four ports in Luzon and Mindanao. PPA said it recorded an increase in cargo volume by 6.33% to 162.24 million metric tons (MMT) from 152.58 million MMT in 2010 Upticks were noted in the ports of Puerto Princesa (Palawan), Batangas, Surigao, and Nasipit (Agusan del Norte).
Labor laws
IN addition to the regular inspection and technical advisory visits, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is also promoting voluntary compliance as a complementary approach in protecting the labor sector. DOLE-10 Regional Director Johnson G. Cañete said that establishments that voluntarily comply with the general labor standards, occupational safety and health standards, and other existing labor mechanisms will be given a seal of excellence through the incentivizing compliance program (ICP). The ICP gives due recognition and incentives to a company’s initiative to voluntarily comply with labor laws or by assisting a non-compliant company through training and technical assistance to enable it to comply with the requirements set by law.
Davao mall goes Green Fridays
DAVAO City -- As its contribution in protecting the environment, a mall here has embarked on a greening advocacy urging shoppers to minimize the use of plastic bags. Ayala owned Abreeza mall launched last Friday the Green Fridays campaign in collaboration with its merchants, aiming to encourage customers to use biodegradable packaging or paper bags in lieu of plastic bags. Abreeza operations manager Antonio Luigi C. Escano said the advocacy aspires for mall clients to make it a habit to use an eco-bag to save the environment. While shopping every Friday starting March 9, mall shoppers could use any reusable bags or the Ayala Malls Eco bag available at the mall’s concierge for P50 each.
By NELSON V. CONSTANTINO, Editor-in-Chief
T
HE House of Representatives will look into the roots of the power shortage in Mindanao and will explore all avenues to put an end into the crisis, the Mindanao Development Authority said in a statement on Friday.
MinDA, acting on behalf of the Mindanao power and business sectors, had previously called for inquiry by the House committee on energy and special committee on Mindanao Affairs, to probe the Mindanao power situation and the curtailment scheme implemented by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP). NGCP is a private corporation that operates and maintains the country’s transmission network and responsible for delivering electricity to the distribution utilities and electric cooperatives. “We understand that NGCP’s action prompted distributors (mostly rural electric cooperatives) to implement two to four hours daily brownout,” MinDA chair Secretary Luwalhati R. Antonino said. She said that in South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, and General Santos City (SOCKSARGEN) area, brownouts would sometimes last for 10 hours. Antonino, however, believed that both the Agus 2 and Pulangi hydropower plants have a combined 65 MW or more untapped capacity that could sustain demand within a few hours during peak loads. She said Agus has an installed capacity of 180 MW but only 90 MW is being transmitted to the Mindanao grid.
SENDONG MEMORIAL: Relatives of typhoon Sendong victims attend the groundbreaking rites of the memorial marker at barangay Bulua donated by Senator Manny Villar and his wife Congresswoman Cynthia Villar. Many of these people shed a tear in loving remembrance of their relatives who perished last December.PHOTO BY GERRY L . GORIT
Sendong memorial erected in CDO By BUTCH ENERIO, Correspondent
THE families of those who perished during the onslaught of typhoon Sendong in December 2011 now have a common place to serve as memorial to those who died. The Sendong memorial will be erected at the upscale Golden Haven cemetery in barangay Bulua here on a 716- squaremeter lot donated by the Villar Foundation. The names of over 500 people
officially recognized to have died because of the typhoon will be engraved on the 13 pillars that will serve as the memorial’s backdrop. For Ruth Ellezo, 24, and Willvie Gaa, 17, and the thousands who lost their loved ones, the memorial will serve as an edifice to visit and fondly remember their lost relatives. Displaced by the Dec. 17 floods spawned by Sendong, Ellezo and Gaa have been living in a tent city at a relocation
site in sitio Calaanan, barangay Canitoan. Ellezo’s father Ermedio went missing on the night of Dec. 16 when the rampaging waters swept away their house in Calacala, Macasandig. Ellezo and Gaa said they and their respective families are looking forward to visiting the memorial site to pray and light candles with the other survivors. During the groundbreaking
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DOE: Mindanao needs more power plants • Bukidnon on red alert status By IRENE DOMINGO, Reporter and ANN NOBLE, Bukidnon Bureau Chief
Fibeco’s GM Renato Cortezano
THE Department of Energy (DOE) has reiterated the need for additional baseload plants to augment increasing power demands and to address power shortages problem in the island of Mindanao. The DOE said that the Board’s vice chair Raul Alkuino
whole Mindanao region has a projected peak demand of 1,300 megawatts exceeding its available power capacity of only 1,110 megawatts. To address this issue, the energy department is currently seeking the assisPOWER/PAGE 9