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DTI ENSURES PROMPT, EFFICIENT REDRESS FOR CONSUMERS
With high regard for consumers, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) commits in providing the consuming public with a prompt and efficient resolution of their complaints. The DTI-Fair Trade Enforcement Bureau (FTEB) reported that from January to February this year, the department received 1,460 complaints — all of which fully settled. Of the 1,460 complaints, 337 were dismissed, 274 were archived, 269 were endorsed to other government agencies, 53 were escalated to adjudication, and 527 were resolved early through mediation. DTI-FTEB Director-in-Charge Ferdinand Manfoste noted that 98.67 percent of those complaints resolved early through mediation were acted on within 10 working days only. “The DTI is highly committed to working on a complaint on time and efficiently. To do this, we firmly adhere to our Department Administrative Order [DAO] No. 13-02, Series of 2013,” Manfoste stressed. Section 4 of Rules II and III of the said DAO states that resolution of complaints falling under the DTI’s jurisdiction shall not exceed 10 working days by mediation while 20 working days by adjudication. Manfoste also pointed out that there were 269 complaints endorsed to other government agencies because those did not fall under the jurisdiction of the DTI. He assured, though, that these were given with necessary actions by the lawful agencies. Meanwhile, the director-in-charge explained that 53 complaints were escalated to adjudication because some complainants and respondents failed to reach an agreement during the mediation stage. But Manfoste ensures that, as much as possible, complaints are amicably settled during mediation stage to save both parties’ time and expenses. One consumer, who asked for help regarding his request for a... read moreNEGOSYO CENTER BOHOL CONDUCTS ORIENTATION ON SETTING UP A CAFÉ BUSINESS
March 17, 2017 – Negosyo Center Bohol, in partnership with the Bohol Investment Promotion Center conducted an Orientation on Setting Up a Café Business intended for entrepreneurs and public enterprises who want to venture into the coffee shop business. The seminar is one of the many entrepreneurship ideas for Bohol that have big potential for growth. Coffee shops are considered as tourist destinations with their unique ambiance, added menu and homey atmosphere. The orientation was held at the Atty. Juanito Cambangay Conference Room, PPDO, Tagbilaran City. Mr. Paolo Rigotti, known café business enthusiast and entrepreneur was the resource speaker. Participants with Ms. Maria Fe Dominise, BIPC Head, Claire Apale, Negosyo Center Bohol Jr Business Counselor and Mr. Paolo Rigotti, Resource Person... read more
Sec Lopez to franchisers: Create and Innovate
Pasay – Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez encouraged franchisers to be innovative and creative in their businesses during the 16th Business and Franchise Expo of the Association of Filipino Franchisers Inc. (AFFI) on 29 September. “Through innovation and creativity, we are confident to see more local franchisers expand across the country’s borders”, said Secretary Lopez. The franchising industry accelerated by 20% in 2016 from Php16B total sales registered in 2015 and is expected to sustain the expansion in the next two years. Meanwhile, the trade chief recognized the role of franchising as a tool in economic development and nation-building, particularly the opportunities it provides to the micro, small, and medium, enterprises (MSMEs). Secretary Lopez further shared that apart from the increasing number of large Filipino firms expanding in ASEAN, household-based micro-enterprises have now the capacity to penetrate the ASEAN market through the programs of the government. The trade chief highlighted that the government continues to place the MSMEs at the front and centre of trade agenda and at the forefront of regional development to enable those at the bottom of the pyramid, achieve inclusive growth and shared prosperity for all. He also cited DTI’s efforts to empower and provide opportunities to MSMEs through its 7Ms Framework (Mindset, Mastery, Mentoring, Money, Machine, Market Access, and Models). Among the ASEAN Member States, the Philippines currently has 1,500 franchises where 65% are Philippine brands. Moreover, there are 140,000 franchise outlets with the Philippine franchise sector generating more than a million jobs. Secretary Lopez encouraged the members of AFFI...Microsoft Supports Android Development; .Net Platform Open Sourced
By: Jerome Auza As a Linux enthusiast, I had tried to encourage people to use Linux for the very obvious cost benefits. Unfortunately, Microsoft Windows has been embedded in many computer user’s habits that most wouldn’t even think of looking at a Linux desktop because it is “hard” or “difficult”. Of course, hard or difficult is relevant to your willingness to try new things. Encouraging the use of Linux was a matter of principle for me because there is a proliferation of improperly licensed Microsoft software and by using Linux instead, one can avoid engaging in software piracy. I had a personal challenge since some of the jobs I perform require me to use the Microsoft Windows operating system. So I ended up using a MS Windows laptop as my primary computer then when doing software development or system administration of our remote Linux servers, I use an ssh client to connect. For a few years, I was on a desktop environment that wasn’t my preference. Then here comes Android on mobile devices. If you didn’t know yet, Android is using the Linux operating system. My wish from a decade ago that people should be using Linux has come true. People embraced Android on mobile phones and tablets. Android has become so popular that Microsoft changed its stance towards open source software (of course Apple’s iOS and MacOS X also played a part). Microsoft recently announced that it has made its .Net software open source and will have support for .Net on Linux very soon. This is a welcome development for many Microsoft .Net developers who may now be...Local News/ Bohol Balita
2 Science teachers from Bohol among 2010 Ramon Magsaysay awardees
A physicist-research-educator couple from Jagna, Bohol, Dr. Christopher C. Bernido and Dr. Ma. Victoria Carpio-Bernido president and principal, respectively, of the Research Center for Theoretical Physics in Bohol, are among 7 individuals from Bangladesh, China, Japan and Philippines who will receive the 2010 Ramon Magsaysay Award, Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize. An announcement from the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation website said the Bernido couple are being recognized for “their purposeful commitment to both science and nation, ensuring innovative, low-cost, and effective basic education even under Philippine conditions of great scarcity and daunting poverty.” Other awardees are Tadatoshi Akiba from Hiroshima, Japan who led a campaign for nuclear disarmament; environmentalists Huo Daishan, Pan Yue and Fu Qiping from China; and AHM Noman Khan from Bangladesh. They will each receive a certificate, a medallion bearing the likeness of the late President, and a cash prize. They will be formally conferred the Magsaysay Award on August 31, 2010 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The Filipino winners, the Bernido couple, won the Gawad Haydee Yorac last year: “Their partnership to build a stronger nation through science, research and a new method of teaching founded on excellence and values won the judges’ approval over nominations received from different parts of the country.” Established in 1957 as a tribute to the Philippines’ third president, the Ramon Magsaysay Award is given every year to individuals or organizations in Asia who manifest the same sense of selfless service that ruled the life of the late and beloved Filipino leader....Sandugo Products fair nets million more than ‘09 sales
CASH SALES, including booked and under negotiation purchases surpassed the P31.1M target for this year. The Sandugo Regional Products Showcase 2010, which started as small provincial products fair in Bohol graduated to one of the region’s most awaited annual fairs. It proved anew the promise available for cottage industries as the materials fusion this year brings a million more in target sales, data from the trade department revealed. From the department’s unofficial and yet reliable source, cash sales generated from the five-day showcase reached P2.81 million, booked sales racked up P17 million and another under negotiations reached P12.62 million to sum a gross sales of P32, 466, 836.00 a few minutes before the official closing of the fair last Sunday. Now into its 21st year of showcasing raw materials form Visayas’ diverse environmental resource, the new lines produced our of its research and development initiatives lay out the agency’s efforts to be environmentally conscious about the finite resources, explains DTI information Officer Jojie Villamor during the fair pre-opening press conference last week at the Prawn farm of the Island City Mall. Working with climate change and its mitigation, the new trend is to fuse recyclables with the indigenous raw materials and showcase the artistic capacity of Visayans to produce stunning designs for the international market, added DTI Provincial Director Ma. Elena Arbon. We are presented here with a 50% cut in raw materials and another 50% cut in garbage as these [products] end up as hand-woven patterns in bags and fashion accessories, said DTI Regional Director Asteria Caberte at the media forum. According to Arbon, the showcase marks the...Pitik: Sandugo streetdance Foto-contest winners bared
IT could be click alright. With 55 amateur and professional photographer participants coming out to outdo each other during the PITIK: Tipik sa Sugong Bol-anon 2010 Sandugo Street Dancing Festival Photo Competition, the contest goal was attained and more artistic photographers are now coming out in the main stream, said contest convenor Nilo Sapong. The shots were spectacular, amazing and it did give top caliber judges a hard time choosing the finalists, said the photojournalist and veteran local lensman. Cebu Daily News lensman Tonee Despujo and Manila Bulletin’s Visayas-Mindanao photojournalist Cheryl Baldicantos chose ten finalists, but even the non chosen shots are worth a good run for any challenger considering the artistry we never thought was in the Boholano young artists, he added. 55 professional and amateur photographers jostled for positions and crisscrossed the Sandugo Streetdancing Parade route July 25, to be at the exact moment when dancers would show in split-seconds that character that immortalizes a Boholano. We sought a permit from city deputy mayor Mariano Uy just to be able to allow our participants to go beyond the cordons and get as close to where the action is to get our goal, Sapong added. Pitik, a photo contest convened by budding photo-enthusiasts in Bohol envisions to capture images immortalizing the Boholano character which has been neatly imbedded in a clash of cultures as a melting pot owing to its becoming a major tourism destination in the Visayas. The winning entry owning the best in composition award is entry with control number 1016 and entitles the lensman Keith Joseph Sepe an overnight stay for two at the posh...PTC classification board Provided in Tourism Act
TO appraise tourists about the kind of service he would get in an establishment in Bohol, a tourism classification board would possibly help. Governor Edgar Chatto, who took the lead in crafting the country’s tourism code shared this during the recent Provincial Tourism Council (PTC) meeting held at Panda Tea Garden in Dao a few weeks ago. Chatto clarified that the Board’s task would be to put up a unified classification of accredited tourism service providers and establishment using the star rating system, so tourists would know what to expect when they are there. Building on Bohol tourism’s successes, several local government units and private entrepreneurs have funded for establishments and service and splurge on promotional activities without being fully familiar with the industry, PTC members said. Not a few tourists have already shared their dismay about getting into an establishment selling itself through the internet, only to find that its accommodations are minimal. That can happen because there is no way tourists know ahead about the kind of facilities and services the establishments offer. As everyone wants to hitch in the tourism bandwagon, it is expected that things like this happen, agree council members. Governor Chatto said the Tourism Code of 2009 provides for a classification board that issues a uniform standard to grade tourism products and service facilities. Putting up the classification board should breathe life into the Code in as much as to be rated are not just the infrastructure and the accessibility and the preparedness of the facility to accept guests, Chatto added. That way, even if establishments sell services on their own, a rating...Crimes using loose guns Alarm CV peace council
ILLEGAL fire-arms which find its way to the hands of criminal elements in the region alarms authorities at the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC-7). The alarm springs from the regional police assessment that loose firearms in the region factor to the prevalence of violent crimes, especially when Cebu registers 2090 theft and 668 rob cases within the last two quarters alone. During the recent meeting held at the Bohol Tropics Resort in Tagbilaran City, Regional Police Intelligence Chief Melvin Ramon Buenafe, in a briefing to the council cited that although there were no high profile rob, kidnapping, terror attacks of media and VIP threats, the Cebu City cases involve loose firearms. This is despite that fact that police has just capped its Operation Kontra Boga and Bilang Boga in the implementation of the national fire-arms control policy, added Buenafe. In his quarterly data presented, Pssupt. Buenafe pointed to the erratic trends in illegal firearms in the region starting with the last two quarters in 2010. Regional police records also show that only 11 thousand of the 49 thousand firearms were accounted during the Oplan Bilang and Oplan Kontra Boga in the police’s pre-election crime suppression operations. While the last three quarters showed a slight reduction in loose fire-arms, regional cops also noted a a rise in confiscated firearms in the second quarter of this year. Records said that in the 3rd and last quarter of 2009, police succeeded in recovering 495 and 424 fire arms respectively. The same down-trending was noted in the 1st quarter of 2010 with 390 weapons accounted. The 2nd quarter however (April-June) proved to...National News
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