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River of
life, Residents
of Myawaddy and neighboring provinces ride a transit boat
in the Moei River for 10 baht ($.30) crossing to Mae Sot
town in Thailand and back to Myanmar. An average of 1,000
people cross the border every day, trying to escape the
hard life under the ruling military junta. The cyclone
that devastated Myanmar’s agricultural heartland in early
May did not hit this part of the country. But neglect and
corruption and a brutal counterinsurgency campaign are
enough to mire citizens in poverty. Please see “A
tragic life, with or without the cyclone,”.
--VJ VILLAFRANCA |
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TOP STORIES |
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‘TCC
data used to hurt firms’ |
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FINANCE
Secretary Margarito Teves confirmed Tuesday the serious
misgivings aired by business groups—citing past experience
of harassment by unidentified parties—over the submission to
a congressional public hearing of the Department of
Finance’s (DOF) sensitive database on operations of
companies seeking to avail themselves of tax-credit
certificates (TCCs) issued by the government as incentives.
As a
compromise, Teves offered to allow the “viewing” of the
confidential private company documents sought by Rep.
Arnulfo Fuentebella from the DOF’s One-Stop Shop (OSS) Tax
Credit and Duty Drawback Center. |
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At
crucial Meralco meeting, contest is too close to call |
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WINSTON
Garcia, president, general manager and vice chairman of the
board of trustees of the Government Service Insurance System
(GSIS), is pitting himself against the Lopezes in Tuesday’s
annual stockholders’ meeting of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).
Will he
succeed in toppling the Lopezes, who once lost Meralco to
the government 36 years ago? |
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Garcia ready for ‘boos’ in lions’ den |
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LOTS of
mocking and boos.
This is the
scenario the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS)
expects at Tuesday’s much-anticipated annual stockholders’
meeting of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco). |
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VAT
windfall to reach P18.6B; government urged to buy back
Petron |
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THE
government is looking at an P18.6-billion windfall—or more
than the P16-billion to P17-billion earlier estimates—from
the 12-percent value-added tax (VAT) on oil, largely due to
the skyrocketing cost of imported crude in the world market,
finance officials informed members of a congressional
oversight panel Monday. |
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Telcos lean on Charter |
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TELEPHONE
companies on Monday leaned on the basic law to support their
contention that it would be unconstitutional for the
government to compel them to give free short message service
(SMS), or text.
Executives
of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), Digital
Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (Digitel) and Globe
Telecom added that offering SMS for free to the public will
only make the situation worse because they anticipate a
deluge of texting (SMS sending) once it becomes free again,
as it was in the beginning. |
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‘Corrupt’ RP haven for whistle blowers |
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THE
Philippines may be one of the most corrupt countries in the
world, but then, it is also one of the top five countries
that protects whistle blowers—at least in the private
sector.
A study by
global accountancy firm Grant Thornton International,
released by its local partner Punongbayan & Araullo (P&A),
said 67 percent of Filipino enterprises have embedded formal
measures to accommodate whistle blowers, way above the
global average of 45 percent. |
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MORE STORIES ... |
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LAWYER Estrella
Elamparo, GSIS senior vice president, gives reporters her
agency’s own take on what to expect at the Meralco
stockholders’ meeting.
--ROY DOMINGO |
