by admin | Jul 3, 2017 | DTI Updates, National News
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez welcomed the approval of the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to include Philippine travel goods in its expanded General System of Preferences (GSP) scheme.
Effective 1 July 2017, all US GSP Beneficiary Developing Countries will enjoy duty-free treatment for a number of its travel goods exports to the US. The new GSP program included 23 tariff lines, allowing travel goods such as apparels, bags, wallets and backpacks, luggage, and sport and travel bags made in the Philippines to enter the US market duty-free.
Sec. Lopez pushed for the Philippine advocacy of GSP inclusion and had consistently taken this up with counterparts from the USTR.
“This expansion will boost the local manufacturing industry and eventually provide more employment opportunities for Filipinos, creating 70,000 new jobs and increasing our GDP to 0.5 percent,” he said.
According to the US International Trade Center (ITC), the US imported an estimated total of USD 232 million from the 23 tariff lines of travel goods from the Philippines in 2016, making the country the fifth largest import source of travel goods in the US.
With the new GSP scheme, the duty-free treatment could increase Philippine travel goods exports to the US by USD 100 million annually for the first five years.
“The inclusion of travel goods into GSP will certainly provide benefits to our exporters, particularly micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and export-oriented agri-businesses utilizing banana and other vegetable fibers and community based industries in the various regions of the country,” DTI Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo said.
Meanwhile, DTI Undersecretary Nora Terrado concurred, noting that maximizing market access opportunities from preferential agreements and arrangements such as GSPs and free-trade agreements (FTAs) are an important pillar of the Philippine export strategy as embedded in the Philippine Export Development Plans (PEDPs).
She added that “DTI will sustain and strengthen its advocacy campaign thru the Doing Business in Free Trade Areas (DBFTA) Program to ensure that Philippine exporters use this access and generate jobs.”
Confederation of Garments Exporters of the Philippines (CONGEP) Executive Director Maritess Agoncillo said the decision of the US government was an outcome of the joint efforts of the Philippine government and the private sector to strengthen the Philippine position on pushing for GSP for travel goods.
Sec. Lopez added that he “looks forward to this positive development as a much needed push for expanding employment opportunities and improving countryside development. This will also help contribute to the Duterte administration’s thrust of pursuing inclusive and sustainable growth thru job generation and entrepreneurship.”
The US GSP seeks to promote economic growth and development in developing countries through preferential and duty-free entry to the US market of products from 122 designated beneficiary countries and territories, including the Philippines.
In 2016, the US was the Philippines’ third major trading partner, the second biggest export market, and third top import supplier. A number of US companies are currently manufacturing travel goods in the Philippines, including Coach, Tory Burch, and Michael Kors
by admin | Jul 2, 2017 | Features, Headlines
By JUNE S. BLANCO
PHYSICAL Works for the Bonotbonot Small Reservoir Irrigation Project (SRIP) in Buenavista town will go full blast now.
This after Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr., Administrator Ricardo Visaya and Region 7 Director Modesto Membreve of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), Rep. Erico Aristotle Aumentado of Bohol’s 2nd District and Buenavista Mayor Ronald Lowell Tirol led groundbreaking rites at the proposed site on June 26.
As early as November 2015, Aumentado had revealed that the P70-million project to be proposed in NIA’s 2016 fund for insertion into the General Appropriations Act GAA).
The solon’s father, former governor and immediate congressional predecessor Erico Boyles Aumentado and Membreve had proposed the project, along with the Benliw (Ubay) SRIP at P100 million, the Mabini-Cayacay SRIP at P85 million and the Malinao (Pilar) Dam Improvement Project at P200 million.
For Tagbilaran City-based NIA Region 7, only these four projects made it to the cut in the 2016 GAA under its locally funded Rapid, Inclusive, and Sustained Economic Growth projects.
While most regional offices are based in Cebu, the elder Aumentado pushed for the creation of the NIA Region 7 office in Bohol – the region’s rice granary. Bohol used to belong to NIA Region 8 based in Tacloban City.
The Evasco-Visaya-Membreve-Aumentado team also visited Danao town where the Hibale SRIP is also being planned to be constructed.
Aumentado said Evasco and President Duterte are working hard to give more benefits to the farmers. Evasco was Duterte’s campaign manager during the latter’s presidential bid. Both are working towards the realization of their campaign promise of construction more irrigation projects and that farmers will be able to avail of irrigation services, this time, free of charge.
The solon said he and Visaya, retired Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines under President Duterte, will meet in Manila most likely before the Chief Executive gives his State of the Nation Address (SONA), with would-be investors for the Hibale and the Northeast Bohol Catch Basin.
As envisioned by the elder Aumentado, the huge project is expected to irrigate 19,000 more hectares of rice lands in the northern Bohol towns. On top of irrigation, it will also have power, potable water and eco-tourism components.
It will be designed to generate at least 10 megawatts of power. It is also expected to make potable water available to far-flung barangays not yet served by the existing small waterworks projects of the beneficiary towns, the solon added.
by admin | Jul 2, 2017 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
By JUNE S. BLANCO
TAGBILARAN celebrated its 51st foundation anniversary as a city yesterday, Saturday, July 1.
The small budding town attained cityhood on July 1, 1966, chartered by virtue of Republic Act No. 4660.
Since then, the city steadily grew as can be gleaned from, among others, its budget. It started with a mere P600,000 in 1966, to P262,092,983 in 1994.
This prompted Rep. Erico Boyles Aumentado of Bohol’s 2nd District to push for its cityhood during the first regular session of the tenth Congress.
In his explanatory note in House Bill 2435, Aumentado said from the date of its conversion, the city “began to chart its own destiny and undertook measures to carve its own identity.”
The date has long been remembered by the people as a day of heroism, valor and dignity because its founding was achieved with the sacrifices and aspirations of its people to attain cityhood, he continued.
“The date marks also the awareness of the people of their rich historical and cultural heritage, customs and traditions which they have developed all through these years from dawn of history, to the present, Aumentado observed.
He added that the day has been enshrined in their hearts and celebrated with honor and dignity, the recollection of the historic blood compact between Datu Sikatuna and Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, the first international treaty of friendship entered into by a local chieftain with a foreign power.
All this considered, the solon said, it is fitting and proper that the people of Tagbilaran City be allowed to commemorate its founding, charter and attainment of its cityhood by declaring July 1 of every year as a non-working special public holiday.
The Aumentado bill was approved as Republic Act No. 8267, signed by then Senate President Ernesto Maceda on November 28, 1995, and then House Speaker Jose de Venecia on November 27. 1996.
Then President Fidel Ramos signed the act on February 20, 1997. Tagbilaran started enjoying the holiday that same year.
by admin | Jun 30, 2017 | Photo Story
TRADE CHIEF CHALLENGES CAVITEÑOS TO SEEK NEW BUSINESS PLATFORMS. Innovation is an open secret that each Filipino entrepreneur should embrace, according to Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez at the Kapatid Mentor Me launch in Bacoor, Cavite on 28 June. Speaking before an assembly of aspiring entrepreneurs, Sec. Lopez strongly encouraged Caviteños to become smarter businessmen by adopting innovative, value-adding and demand-driven practices, as these are crucial in the growth and survival of businesses. He also shared that self-employment, including those engaged with entrepreneurial activities contributed to the decrease in the county’s current unemployment rate from 6.6% to 5.7%. The Kapatid Mentor Me project is a coaching and mentoring program wherein business owners and practitioners share their knowledge and expertise to selected mentees on the different facets of entrepreneurship. In pushing entrepreneurial revolution especially among the micro, small and medium enterprises, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has partnered with advocacy group Go Negosyo and the local government of Bacoor City under Mayor Lani Mercado-Revilla (3rd from L). Joining the trade chief were DTI Asst. Sec. Bles Lantayona (2nd from L), DTI Region IV-A Director Malou Toledo (2nd from R) and other DTI and local government officials.
by admin | Jun 28, 2017 | Edukasyon Updates
JOHN LAURENCE ROBES
Quezon City, Philippines – The Philippine Public School Teachers Association (PPSTA) kicked-off its advocacy campaign for the deprived, depressed, and underserved (DDU) schools last 20 April 2017, weeks before the Brigada Eskwela season begins.
Dubbed as “PPSTA Kaisa sa Brigada Eskwela”, the annual advocacy campaign will be implemented during the Brigada Eskwela season. The campaign is geared towards extending financial assistances to these underprivileged schools, as well as strengthening the bonds between PPSTA and its partners in the service, particularly with Department of Education (DepEd).
In order to identify the recipients, PPSTA will ask for the assistance of all DepEd Regional Directors (RD) and Schools Divisions Superintendents (SDS) to choose one deserving school per division under their jurisdiction. Based on the current data, our country has a total of 18 regions and a total of 217 divisions. This means that starting this year, 217 DDU schools across the now 18 regions will be the recipients of this campaign.
A ceremonial awarding of the donations was held during PPSTA’s 70th Anniversary at the PPSTA Head Office in Banawe, Quezon City which was celebrated with the theme, “PPSTA @70: Sustainable Development: Building Bridges, Promoting Welfare and Fostering Growth.” The event aimed to express the concept of giving back to the community after seven decades of PPSTA’s existence, as well as an indication of PPSTA’s growth and development in terms of providing optimum life insurances, retirement, loans, and other financial service benefits to uplift its members’ standard of living, as well as career and professional advancement opportunities through its scholarship and other competency building programs, and excellent customer service through its competent, and well-motivated employees.
During the event, a short audio-visual presentation was shown to give all guests an overview of the campaign. After which, representatives from each region were called up stang and awarded with ceremonial checks containing an amount based on the number of divisions in the region. The actual checks were provided later in the afternoon.
To commemorate this milestone, the DepEd Undersecretary Jesus Lorenzo R. Mateo attended the affair on behalf of the Honorable DepEd Secretary, Dr. Leonor M. Briones as the Guest of Honor, and the newly appointed Insurance Commisioner Dennis B. Funa as the Special Guest. The event was also graced by DepEd Regional Directors and regional PPSTA chapter presidents from different parts of the country.
