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Philippines: Contrasting policies
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. is persistent in his advocacy to reach out to the unbanked sector via the digitalization of banking and financial services and the expansion of the reach of financial institutions.
The House of Representatives has joined this move by approving the Bangko sa Baryo bill which aims to expand financial services to unbanked areas.
But to better served the unbanked sector, the Lower House should better take a look at a provision in the 2018 General Appropriations Act which seems to be achieving the opposite.
The said provision placed rural and thrift banks in the bottom of a list in terms of allowable deductions to public school teachers’ salaries.
And because there is no assurance that teachers will still have funds remaining (the law also mandates a minimum P5,000 take-home pay) after payment to those higher in the hierarchy such as those owed to government institutions, savings and loan associations and mutual benefit associations, provident funds, insurance companies, rural and thrift banks will have no choice but to not lend to teachers anymore.
It will be unfortunate if the government continues to implement policies promoting financial exclusion.
PECO to lose franchise?
Just recently, I wrote about the controversy involving the threatened non-renewal of Panay Electric Co.’s (PECO) legislative franchise to distribute electricity in Iloilo City, which it has been doing for the past 95 years.
Side by side with this is a proposal also in Congress, to grant More Minerals Corp. a franchise to distribute electric power in Iloilo.
According to House Bill 8132 filed by Rep. Gus Tambunting, the quality of PECO’s service has been wanting and customers have been complaining about overbilling, poor customer relations, distributor-related power outages, inadequately maintained lines, among others.
Tambunting said that Iloilo City is one of the most progressive cities in the country and that unless the city’s increasing power demand is fully addressed by a reliable, fair, and efficient power distributor, such gains are in danger of being stymied.
The solon emphasized that MMC, through its parent Monte Oro Resources & Energy Inc. and its listed parent Apex Mining, possess the required capability, financial resources, and experience to give the people of Iloilo City the electric distribution company they deserve.
If the leadership of the House Committee on Legislative Franchises is to be upheld by the members of the House of Representatives, the utility firm Panay Electric Co. (PECO) is going to lose its legislative franchise to More Minerals Corp., because of PECO’s record of inefficient service as the sole distributor of electricity in Iloilo City for almost a century.
The House Committee on Legislative Franchises, led by Palawan Rep. Franz Alvarez, is said to have recommended the grant of a franchise to MMC.
It has been reported that the Energy Regulatory Commission has castigated PECO for failing to refund P631 million in overbilling to its customers. The reports also say that customer bills increased by as much as 1,000 percent under a new metering scheme.
PECO is managed by the Cacho family of Iloilo, which according to critics, has failed to adapt to the modern times and make its service world-class.
Alvarez said this sorry record of incompetency and inefficiency has swayed committee members to no longer extend PECO’s franchise.
Singapore-based consulting firm WSP, which was contracted by the Iloilo Economic Development Foundation to study the systems of PECO, noted that the utility firm has yet to fully implement measures to make it a world-class utility, eight years after the business community made its recommendations.
PECO, through its counsel lawyer Manases Carpio, earlier assailed the House committee’s endorsement of the grant of power of eminent domain to MMC, even as Carpio said that the committee’s decision is patently void, illegal, and unconstitutional.
Carpio has also urged the committee to conduct more public hearings, this time inviting PECO representatives and other stakeholders.
WCK sponsors new church
The Wong Chu King Foundation will sponsor the construction of the Sto. Domingo Parish Church to be located within the Basilica of Our Lady of Piat compound in Cagayan.
With this, the Piat Heritage Museum, which is inside the Basilica, will be transferred to the Pilgrim’s Inn Building.
The Minor Basilica is a shrine where the centuries-old image of the brown Madonna, known as our Lady of Piat, is officially enshrined.
After a series of calamities and a fire that reduced both the church and convent of Sto. Domingo, built in 1740, to an irreparable state, the Archdiocese of Tuguegarao had to abandon the deteriorating church and convent and merge the parish to the Shrine of Our Lady of Piat.
The Archdiocese of Tuguegarao, headed by Archbishop Sergio Lasam Utleg, together with Basilica rector and Sto. Domingo Parish Priest Fr. Fredel Agatep, came up with the idea of constructing another parish to avoid conflicts between the pilgrims and parishioners regarding the use of the Basilica. The Basilica is primarily for the use of pilgrims, while the parish church is for the parishioners. With a separate church for weddings, funerals and other parochial functions, the local Catholics of Piat can freely use the Sto. Domingo Church without interfering with the pilgrims who gather at the Basilica for their devotions and Eucharistic celebrations.
Target date of completion of the Sto. Domingo Parish is March 30, 2019 in time for the founding anniversary of WCK Foundation.
Fr. Agatep said the archdiocese gave the foundation the opportunity to sponsor the construction due to the Wongchuking family’s deep Catholic faith and the founder’s philantrophic work
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Source: https://www.philstar.com/business/2018/10/10/1858649/contrasting-policies#AxxRHmXW8QcsYBAa.99