Philippines morning news for August 20

Philippines morning news for August 20
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Philippines morning newsPHL seeks $1.96-B ADB funding for devt projects
THE Philippine government has proposed at least $1.96 billion worth of projects for financing by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other development partners.
— Business Mirror

Spain offers $300m worth of ODA for PH
The Spanish government offered $300 million worth of official development assistance to the Philippines for infrastructure, energy, food industry and tourism projects, the Finance Department said.
— Manilastandard.net

Debt prepayments hit $1.45 B in 1st half
Philippine borrowers–both the national government and the private sector — continued to prepay their foreign obligations resulting in the further weakening of the peso against the dollar, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.
— The Philippine Star

Philippines caught in US-Russia tug-of-war over submarines
The Philippines appears to be caught between the United States and Russia over the plan of the Duterte administration to purchase big-ticket military equipment, including a submarine, from Moscow.
— The Philippine Star

KT Joins Philippines’s $1.8 Bln Broadband Project
KT Corp. (KRX: 030200; NYSE: KT), South Korea’s largest telecommunications company, will participate in a nationwide project to drastically improve Internet connectivity in the Philippines, gaining a major foothold in the Southeast Asian country and neighboring region.
— AEC News Today/ PR Newswire (media release)

Only P1.4B of P8-B fund for free tuition program used – CoA
THE Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) disbursed merely 18.11 percent or about P1.449 billion of the P8 billion allotted by the government in 2017 for the free tuition program.
— The Manila Times

Tawi-Tawi town gets P20 million from PRDP for seaweed project
The Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) has allocated about P20 million for the development of the marine industry in a town in the island province of Tawi-Tawi.
— BusinessWorld Online

P14B spent for sewage projects
West Zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services Inc. (Maynilad) has spent almost P14 billion in capital expenditure (Capex) projects to expand sewerage coverage in the West Zone since the company’s re-privatization in 2007.
— Malaya

Presidential car museum opens in Quezon City
The National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) and the Quezon City (QC) government inaugurated on Sunday the Presidential Car Museum inside the Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City.
— Philippine News Agency

EU Healthcare & MedTech business mission to Singapore, Philippines
During 28 August 2018 to 4 September 2018 the EU Business Avenues in South East Asia programme will take selected European companies in the Healthcare and Medical Technologies sector to Singapore and Philippines.
— ScandAsia.com

PT&T’s P9.1-B capital increase
HOUSE of Investments Inc. (HI) has authorized capital stock of 3.75 billion shares consisting of 1.25 billion common share with par value of P1.50 per share, and 2.5 billion preferred shares with par value of P0.40 per share.
— The Manila Times

BPI unveils first dollar-denominated income fund in Philippine market
BPI Asset Management and Trust Corp. (BPI AMTC) recently launched the BPI US Dollar Income Feeder Fund, the first dollar-denominated income fund in the country.
— Business Mirror

Villafuerte, CamSur execs told to return P24.75M
The Commission on Audit (COA) has ordered Camarines Sur 2nd Dist. Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr. and other officials to return to the government P24.75 million spent on a private foundation unlawfully created by the provincial government.
— Philippine Daily Inquirer

PAL to open ticketing offices Sunday in aftermath of massive flight cancellations
Philippine Airlines said that all of its 42 ticketing offices nationwide will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
— ABS-CBN

PH, Nigeria bolster ties on trade, aquaculture, anti-drug trafficking
he Philippines and Nigeria have agreed to continue working together to enhance not only their economic and technical cooperation but also the collaboration in the fight against terrorism, illegal drugs and other areas.
— Philippine Canadian Inquirer

Oil, Gas Deal with Philippines Could Help China Politically
Experts say a plan for China and the Philippines to jointly explore oil and gas in the South China Sea could help China politically.
— Voice of America

Weak peso, low FDIs, skills mismatch and lack of jobs
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects the Philippines’ “current account deficit to hit 1.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), or five times wider than the previous projection of 0.3 percent of GDP”, says one broadsheet last July 30, 2018.
— Philippine Daily Inquirer

Gov’t to reward well-performing schools, hospitals with incentives
The Department of Finance (DOF) said non-profit private schools and hospitals that perform well and adhere to high standards of service would continue to enjoy the current low income tax rate of 10 percent under the proposed corporate income tax reform bill.
— The Philippine Star

Govt inks deal with co-ops for broadband link project
THE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), National Electrification Administration (NEA) and the Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association Inc. (Philreca) signed a memorandum of understanding last week to formalize an undertaking meant to provide high-speed and affordable broadband in remote and rural areas of the country.
— Business Mirror

Asian Games: Thailand overwhelms returning Philippines in women’s volleyball
Regional power Thailand dealt the Philippine women’s volleyball team a sound beating on Sunday afternoon, scoring a 25-22, 25-12, 25-15 ripping of the Filipinos, who are playing in the Games for the first time in 36 years and clearly looked like they would need a lot of catching up to do.
— Philippine Daily Inquirer/ The Jakarta Post

Poland open doors for Filipino workers
Poland is in talks with the Philippines to bring in more Filipino workers to fill a labor shortage even as Warsaw continues to resist refugees and migrants from the Middle East and North Africa.
— Inquirer.net/Daily News Cebu

FCO Minister Mark Field to champion rules-based international system in Manila
The Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific is visiting Manila on the second leg of a 6-country tour of Southeast Asia.
— AEC News Today/ PR Newswire (media release)

Philippines to participate in Australia’s naval war games
The Philippine Navy said on Sunday that it will send a 300-man contingent to participate in Australia’s premier multilateral naval war games, Exercise Kakadu 2018, which will kick off on Aug. 31 and end on Sept. 15.
— Xinhua

San Miguel to invest P6 billion in 2 projects
San Miguel Corp., the country’s diversified conglomerate, is pouring roughly P6 billion into two new projects including a new manufacturing facility for “ready-to-eat” products, which are part of the company’s ambitious expansion projects for its food business.
— The Philippine Star

Duterte increases bounty for ‘ninja cops’ to P5-M
President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday increased the reward money for the head of each “ninja cop” to PHP5 million urging them to surrender in 48 hours.
— Northbound Philippines

Pangasinan town suffers P25-M agri losses in rains, flooding
The continuous rainfall in the province caused by weather disturbances that intensified the southwest monsoon has incurred PHP25 million losses in the agriculture industry of this town.
— Northbound Philippines

Cebu’s opposition seeks to void P18-billion SRP project
MEMBERS OF the opposition Barug Team Rama have asked the court to nullify the P18-billion Kawit island development project following Friday’s contract signing between the Cebu City government and the Gokongwei-led company Universal Hotels and Resorts Inc. (UHRI).
— BusinessWorld Online

Duterte’s daughter starting to shore up support for him
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte thinks political dynasties are bad.
— The New Paper

Duterte hits out at China over “nasty” words
President Rodrigo Duterte has called out China for shooing away a Philippine military aircraft over the disputed West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), according to the Manila Times Online report on Saturday.
— Thai PBS

Soft commodities hit record low with more losses seen for sugar
Soft commodities are getting hit by one blow after another, and some traders are predicting the worst is yet to come for sugar prices.
— Business Mirror

Philippines’ hollow victory over China
In an Asean multilateral meeting in Cambodia in 2012, the Philippines’ then-foreign secretary, Alberto del Rosario, found himself in an uncomfortable diplomatic situation.
— Bangkok Post

Gov’t to focus on supply solution, not tariff cuts 

Realizing that tariffs of most commodities are already at minimal levels, the multi-government agency Committee on Tariff and Related Matters (CTRM) has proposed supply-side interventions to minimize the impact of inflation and lower the prices of agricultural commodities instead of further tariff cuts.
— Manila Bulletin

Finance officials set Beijing meeting to discuss infra fund
Filipino and Chinese officials are scheduled to meet in Beijing this week to address the issues and challenges in the financing of several ‘Build, Build, Build’ infrastructure projects in the Philippines.
— Manilastandard.net

Lenovo sees PHL ‘fastest-growing’ PC market in SE Asia
LENOVO Philippines, ranked second in the local PC market, said it sold 2 million PC units last year, garnering between a 14-percent and 15-percent share of nationwide sales.
— Business Mirror

Data privacy lifts IT spend
The National Privacy Commission (NPC) is seeking amendments to the Data Privacy Act (DPA) to enable the agency to slap fines on violators as a middle ground, according to privacy commissioner Raymund Liboro.
— Malaya

LTFRB to open 10,000 slots for TNVS franchises
The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) is set to open 10,000 slots for franchises of Transport Network Vehicle Service (TNVS) units of ridesharing companies, an official announced yesterday.
— The Philippine Star

 

Feature photo Stefan Munder

 

Find our previous morning news feature photos in the AEC News Today Morning News Feature Photos gallery where you will find a pictorial display of daily life throughout the Asean Economic Community (AEC).

Philippines morning news by AEC News Today is your one stop source for Philippines news on matters of governance and policies affecting Asean business communities. It is published M-F by AEC News Today: Governance, not government; policies not politics.

 

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Stella-maris Ewudolu

Journalist at AEC News Today

Stella-maris graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, Education from Ebonyi State University, Nigeria in 2005.

Between November 2010 and February 2012 she was a staff writer at Daylight Online, Nigeria writing on health, fashion, and relationships. From 2010 – 2017 she worked as a freelance screen writer for ‘Nollywood’, Nigeria.

She joined AEC News Today in December 2016.

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