Financial and business news and articles
Posts tagged gloria macapagal arroyo
State of calamity declared in Mindanao amid power crisis
Mar 12th
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has approved a recommendation declaring a state of calamity in Mindanao, allowing government to use disaster funds to address the power crisis besetting the Philippines’ second-largest island.
This was disclosed on Thursday by Mindanao Development Authority chairman Jesus Dureza, who, until last year, was the Arroyo government’s press secretary.
Dureza made this disclosure [...]
GMA vows peaceful transition of power
Mar 11th
MANILA, Philippines – President Arroyo yesterday vowed to ensure a peaceful turnover of power to the next chief executive on June 30, assuring critics that she would not stay a day longer in office.
In a speech to the military, Mrs. Arroyo said she would respect the nation’s democratic process, which requires her to make way [...]
Partial failure of elections can make Speaker Arroyo acting president
Mar 10th
Whistleblower Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada on Tuesday reiterated warnings of a partial failure of elections that could allow President Arroyo to extend her term in Malaca ñang.
This can happen in a scenario where the local elections are successful, but the poll machines fail to transmit the results for the national seats, Lozada told Newsbreak on the [...]
Arroyo bares new round of Cabinet shuffle before polls
Mar 9th
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Monday announced a new Cabinet reshuffle affecting two departments, two months before the May 10 elections.
Education Secretary Jesli Lapus will be heading the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), while Trade Secretary Peter Favila will become a member of the central bank’s Monetary Board (MB), Mrs. Arroyo said in her speech [...]
Related posts:
House panel asks Arroyo to declare power crisis in South
Mar 2nd
The House energy committee on Monday approved a proposal asking President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to declare a power crisis in Mindanao.
The motion proposed by Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez was unanimously approved, “recommend[ing] that the President act under Section 71 of the Epira [Electric Power Industry Reform Act] law and that she determine and declare that there is an acute and a present, actual shortage of electricity."
Rodriguez’s motion also asks President Arroyo to “call Congress to a special session," allowing both chambers “to pass a joint resolution to address the Mindanao problem under terms and conditions to be set by Congress."
Upon determination by the President of an imminent supply shortage, “Congress may authorize, through a joint resolution, the establishment of additional generating capacity under such terms and conditions as it may approve," Section 71 of the Epira said.
The special session should be held by March 8 to immediately address the energy shortage in Mindanao, where residents of several provinces experience at least four hours of rotating brownouts everyday, Rodriguez told reporters after the hearing.
The motion was approved after Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes himself said he has recommended that the President invoke the same Epira provision to allow the government to produce additional electricity.
The Department of Energy (DOE) expects rotating brownouts in Mindanao to last until June, as the El Niño phenomenon has dried up water supplies.
As a result, electricity production of hydropower plants in the region has plunged by 60 percent, Reyes said in his presentation before the committee.
"The Mindanao monthly power supply and demand outlook shows that until June this year the grid will continue to experience supply shortage," Reyes said. "The situation is expected to improve once the El Niño ends starting July 2010 and that the hydroplants will be back to their normal operations."
In Malacañang, presidential deputy spokesperson Gary Olivar, said President Arroyo would weigh the pros and cons of declaring a power crisis in Mindanao, including allegations linking the energy shortage to possible election failure and corruption.
He said that it’s “irresponsible talk."
“Even now the opposition is already politicizing the issue with irresponsible talk about election failure and even corruption in procurement," Olivar said.
“Let’s give the President enough time to make her way through this minefield — not only the legitimate issues for her to consider but also the innuendos being raised by overheated campaign rhetoric," Olivar added.
Business groups fault policy inconsistency in Shell tax row
Feb 25th
Two more business groups on Wednesday questioned the government’s bid to collect back taxes from Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., citing the case as another example of inconsistent policy that would turn off investors.
In a joint statement, the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) and Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) urged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to resolve the tax dispute lest the country’s attractiveness be sullied further.
The Court of Tax Appeals early this month ordered Pilipinas Shell to pay P7.35 billion in back taxes after the Bureau of Internal Revenue reversed its stance and sided with the Bureau of Customs on the issue.
Pilipinas Shell, the agencies said, should be paying duties on its imports of cracked gasoline and light catalytic cracked gasoline on top of the excise tax it already pays. Customs went on to threaten Shell that it would seize its imports unless it settled its tax deficiency.
The oil firm since then has offered to post a surety bond with the Court of Tax Appeals to cover the back taxes while a final court decision is pending.
Despite the ceasefire between the two camps, two business groups expressed concern over the alleged instability in government policies.
"We cannot understand the retroactive application of the ruling as it sets a dangerous precedent that will discourage investments and investors," the MAP and FINEX said.
"There’s no way an investor can calculate risks associated with abrupt changes in government policies. He is not going to invest in a country with an inconsistent and uncertain regulatory climate. He will just go elsewhere," they added.
"We ask the President to immediately step in and resolve this issue, which seriously questions the government’s sincerity in promoting a favorable business environment in our country. The damage to the image of the country cannot be underestimated if this anomalous situation continues," the groups said.
Other business groups — the Joint Foreign Chambers, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Employers Confederation of the Philippines — have likewise hit government’s handling of the tax dispute.