MANILA, Philippines — Diversified technology and manufacturing firm Honeywell International Philippines Inc. expects revenues this year and next to grow by at least twice the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) as it takes advantage of opportunities and demand for services in the aerospace and construction industries.

Honeywell International Philippines president Jeffrey Estrella said in a briefing the company expects a good performance this year, with revenues targeted to grow twice the country’s GDP.

“In the Philippines, we should be growing around two, three times the GDP. We are quite well positioned here in almost all businesses of Honeywell,” he said.

The government has set a 6.5 percent to 6.9 percent target for this year’s GDP growth.

In the third quarter, the Philippine economy grew by 6.1 percent, lower than the 6.2 percent in the second quarter and the 7.2 percent growth in the third quarter last year.

For next year, Estrella said the company’s revenues as a minimum, should also grow two to three times the GDP.

In the last two years, he said Honeywell’s revenues in the Philippines have been growing more than double the GDP.

He said the company expects revenue growth this year and next to be driven by all its business segments.

The aerospace business segment, in particular, is expected to be among the drivers of revenue growth with carriers in the country modernizing their fleet.

Honeywell has products and services for commercial, defense and aerospace aircraft.

Apart from aerospace, Honeywell also expects its building materials business to contribute to revenue growth given the country’s construction boom.

Estrella said construction activities being undertaken not just in Metro Manila, but also in other parts of the country such as Iloilo, Cebu, Davao and Cagayan de Oro, offer opportunities for Honeywell’s building technologies.

Apart from aerospace and building technologies, Honeywell is involved in performance materials and technologies covering technologies and automation solutions for manufacturing, as well as petroleum refining, petrochemical and gas processing industries; and safety and productivity solutions covering mobile computers, voice-enabled software and workflows, bar code scanners, and printing solutions.

Honeywell recently opened its central office in Taguig City which hosts more than 110 employees, including those involved in human resource functions, to cater to Honeywell’s operations in the Southeast Asian region.

Apart from the central office in Taguig City, Honeywell has a facility in Subic Bay which provides maintenance, repair and overhaul for commercial aviation wheels and brakes.

Headquartered in New Jersey in the US, Honeywell is a Fortune 100 company with presence in 970 sites, employing 110,000 individuals.

Source: philstar.com

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CASTILLEJOS, ZAMBALES – Two war veterans who are native of this town were honored on Tuesday at the Philippine Navy Officer’s Clubhouse in Taguig for being a part of the Philippine Expeditionary to Korea (PEFTOK) in 1950.

86-year-old Dominador Salalila and 89-year-old Santiago De Guzman, both residents of Barangay San Nicolas, were awarded with the Peace Medal by the Korean Veterans Association and the Patriots and Veterans Affair of the Republic of Korea.

Salalila and De Guzman were also given the Official Proclamation as Ambassador for Peace by the Korean government, which included scholarships to their grandchildren and great grandchildren. The two Castillejos natives are just 544 out of the 7,000 who are still alive.

The Korean government have always awarded the Peace Medal to Korean War veterans. They have also been giving scholarships and exposure trips to the Korean culture, government and the country itself as their expression of gratitude and appreciation for the Filipino soldiers.

Since 1975, the Korean government has also been inviting veterans to participate in its annual Revisit Korea Program.

Source: Zambales Herald Newsweekly FB page

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Photo Credit: NewsTarget.com

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – At least 60 hectares of grassland in Zambales has been reforested through the use of a cost-efficient technology, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional office here.

Arthur Salazar, DENR-3 deputy director, said in a press conference on Tuesday that a group of upland farmers from the Malatapi Community Livelihood Center, Inc. (MCLCI) in Candelaria, Zambales, has managed to reforest the area without planting any seedlings — thus at no additional cost from the DENR — but through the Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) method.

The MCLCI is a people’s organization (PO) and beneficiary of the DENR’s community-based forest management program (CBFMP).

“What these upland farmers did is to find surviving tree species or seedlings including wildlings in the grassland area, then, they uprooted the grass around the tree, combined with grass pressing by foot to clear the surrounding of the tree species from weeds. This method of forest restoration is technically called ANR,” he said.

Salazar said ANR is a cost-efficient technology of rehabilitating degraded forest land and shrub vegetation by taking advantage of trees already growing in the area, and by protecting and nurturing it.

“They have protected the tree species from grass fire and grazing by establishing fire lines or fire breaks to make sure its survival. They have also constructed a look-out tower for regular monitoring against any forest disturbance,” he said.

Minerva Martinez, chief of the conservation and development division (CDD) of DENR, said the MCLCI has replaced the cogon (Imperata cylindrical) and talahib (Saccharum spontaneum) vegetation in their area with surviving indigenous forest tree species.

She said some of the tree species that have been released from grass are now vigorously thriving in their area.

Paquito Moreno, Jr., executive director of DENR-Central Luzon, said ANR is a technology being promoted by the Association of South East Asian Nations-Republic of Korea (ASEAN- ROK) Forest Cooperation Organization (AFoCO) to fast-track the restoration of degraded forest lands and watershed with less cost to the government.

“This AFoCO project in Zambales is only one of the demonstrations of ANR technology. It is also being applied in Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, and Singapore to improve the ASEAN region’s forest,” he explained.

He said the four-year project, which was started in 2016, has provided MCLCI with various skills trainings on ANR application, forest development, landscape restoration, and vulnerability assessment.

Recently, 16 international delegates from Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, and Korea visited the ANR area of MCLCI in Zambales to observe the successful implementation of the technology and exchange best practices and experiences in forest restoration, Salazar added.

MCLCI has 35 members, is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) since 1997, and a CBFM program beneficiary of DENR, managing more than 1,400 hectares of forestland.

AFoCO was first proposed by the Republic of Korea in June 2009 and was formally established in November 2011 with Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam as member-countries.

Source: pna.gov.ph

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CITY OF SAN FERNANDO— This capital of Pampanga province pressed on with the 106th edition of its Ligligan Parul (Giant Lantern Festival), where the city’s craftsmen showed off nine two-story-high lanterns that represented the Star of Bethlehem

Eleven judges, who included diplomats and artists, chose the lantern of Barangay Dolores to be the best lantern in the festival’s staging this year.

Designed by tricycle driver Teddy Aguilar and using rotors made by Darwin Dayrit, the Dolores lantern featured an image of the belen (Nativity scene), which sparkled with 20 patterns of lights.

The crowd cheered the rotor operators who made the lights dance with the music. Rotors are aluminum sheets rolled into barrels. Operators are able to move this contraption through a car wheel fitted to the rotor.

The crowd watched the operators, whose moves were caught on camera from behind the scenes and beamed live to the audience on large screens.

This was 43-year-old Aguilar’s first time to design a giant lantern. For more than 20 years, he was a handyman in many similar projects.

The village received the revolving trophy and bagged the top cash prize of P150,000. Aguilar and his team will get a share of P30,000 from the prize while the village will keep the rest of the amount to pay some of the cost of building the lantern, which runs to as much as P600,000.

The lantern of the defending champion, Barangay Telabastagan, designed by Arnel Flores, placed third while the entry of Barangay Calulut, designed by Eric Quiwa, was second. These villages got P75,000 and P100,000, respectively.

The other competing villages were San Juan, San Nicolas, Del Pilar, Sto Niño, San Jose and Sta. Lucia.

Special citations were given to the late musical composer Benito Escasa, who composed the festival’s official song, and to Ernesto Quiwa, who, with

50 years of experience of making lanterns, has been regarded as a local living treasure.

The competition came in three rounds. In the first round, the lanterns performed one after the other while three lanterns performed as a batch in the second round. The last round saw all the lanterns displaying their full designs and colors.

“This is so good, fantastic … There are so many dancing lights,” said Jonny Fukuhara, 29, a visitor from Tokyo.

“I have not seen big lanterns like these,” said British tourist Susan Western.

Marion Jaime came all the way from Iligan City in Mindanao to watch the festival while Jan Chong drove from Caloocan City in Metro Manila to catch the event. “The designs are unique and the event is very organized,” Chong said.

Source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

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Photo Credit: portcalls.com

MANILA, Philippines — ICTSI subsidiary Subic Bay International Terminal Corp. (SBITC) is ready to accommodate the annual surge in shipments to meet the growth in consumer demand this holiday season.

“The country’s appetite for imported goods is typically highlighted during the Christmas holiday up until Chinese New Year. With a healthy GDP outlook, we can expect this trend to remain a key driver in container volume growth in the months to come,” SBITC said.

SBITC, the container port operator of Subic Freeport Area, said cargo volume has experienced continuous growth for 13 straight months since 2017.

“Recently, we have confirmed further investments in port equipment and systems to continuously outpace market growth. This allows the terminal to remain healthy from a utilization standpoint which we continue to deliver to our customers both at the quay and our gates,” SBITC said.

Goods that commonly pass through Subic Freeport include agricultural equipment, grains and fertilizers, electronic parts and general department store merchandise for North and Central Luzon businesses, particularly in Pampanga and Bulacan.

Aside from shipments coming in from Manila, SBITC said it has seen an influx of inquiries from markets in Visayas and Mindanao who see the SBMA and SBITC as key levers to their supply chain strategies for their respective markets.

“Businesses in North and Central Luzon benefit most from our services, but we have seen shipments destined not only for Manila, but in Visayas and Mindanao as well. SBITC works with other ports in the Philippines to ensure operational excellence is attained as goods move through these key markets that are in and out of the Philippines,” it said.

SBITC said its utilization of the one-stop-shop would further ease shipments since all necessary documentations with its key partners will be accomplished inside the terminal.

“From enough space and manpower to increased efficiency through our one-stop-shop, our terminal is ready to accommodate the surge of cargo handling services not just this holiday peak season, but well into 2019 and beyond,” SBITC said.

SBITC is a common-user and multi-purpose terminal, providing on and off-dock marine port cargo and container handling services.

Source: philstar.com

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