The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is planning a support package for the country’s shipbuilding industry to enhance further its capability while addressing connectivity not only around the islands but in Asean as well.

In her presentation at a recent summit, Rafaelita Aldaba, DTI assistant secretary, said the support package applies to roll on, roll off (Ro-Ro) operators and for those establishing maritime industrial parks.

Ramon Lopez, DTI secretary, said the agency is looking at developing further the industry where there are current players like Cebu and Subic.

A number of Korean and Japanese companies are active participants in the sector.

“It would be good if there are more players,” Lopez said.

Shipbuilding is currently one of the activities entitled to incentives under the Investment Priorities Plan.

Lopez said shipbuilding is one of the 12 subsectors being promoted in the new industrial policy of the DTI under its Inclusive Innovation Strategy.

In that strategy, the DTI hopes to attract more shipbuilders and ship repair facilities for RORO as well as small – and medium – sized vessels

Lopez said this is also in support of the Ro-Ro Davao-General Santos-Bitung (Sulawesi) route launched in April by the Philippines and Indonesia aimed at boosting trade in the regions.

The Philippines has been the fourth largest producer of ships since 2010.

As of 2010, the Philippines had 15 manufacturers of shis, three manufactured metal sections of ships (all Filipino), with the remaining building ships (six Filipino, two Japanese, one Korean and one Singaporean.

Source: malaya.com.ph

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IBA, Zambales: Unknown to many, this province can offer not only marine and forest products but mineral deposits that may save the country’s economy.

In an interview with The Manila Times, Gov. Amor Deloso said Zambales is rich in at least 27minerals that include chromite, gold, manganese as well as natural gas that can generate enough revenue to boost the economy and pay for the country’s huge foreign debts.

“We have the potential. Many of you have not known of our province until today and I am here to tell you that Zambales is just waiting to be ‘re-discovered’. Perhaps we could be the country’s savior,” Deloso said, during the three-day 22nd National Press Congress here.

However, he said to be able to do this, certain national policies must be recast and redirected towards more practical solutions to the country’s problems rather than creating additional burdens.

He said the national government must first give its full share to the local government unit as the community gets its resources mainly from local taxes.

Zambales has an annual income of P1.3 billion with a small chunk of it coming from local taxes of the mining industries.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas recently announced that the country’s total debt to foreign creditors dropped by 1.8 percent – from $73.8 billion to $72.5 billion at the end of March 2017.

Source: manilatimes.net

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It’s the perfect time to say “I told you so” and “It’s too late.”

Health experts are saying they were right after all in opposing the early implementation of an antidengue immunization program and parents are worried and angry about the dangers that lie ahead for their children who had received the vaccine whose manufacturer said could do more harm.

“We advised the Department of Health (DOH) leadership then, the Congress and Senate that mass vaccination is not advisable without a rigid selection or serological testings,” said Anthony Leachon, a member of the DOH expert panel on dengue formed by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III’s predecessor, Paulyn Ubial.

Leachon said the medical status of more than 700,000 children who had been vaccinated in Metro Manila, Calabarzon and Central Luzon is unknown since they were not checked for prior exposure to the dengue virus.
On Wednesday, pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur admitted that its Dengvaxia vaccine could cause more severe cases of dengue for those who had not been previously infected.
“We will need massive surveillance program to track them,” Leachon told the Inquirer in a text message.
“It means some of them will develop severe dengue, we don’t know who. All of them will have to live with this possibility for the rest of their lives,” he added.

The DOH suspended the vaccination program on Friday and ordered the close monitoring of everyone who had been vaccinated.

Health Secretary Duque, however, assured that Dengvaxia has a 30-month protection period for those who had been vaccinated, whether the person was previously infected or not.
The news spread on Friday, angering parents whose children had been vaccinated.
Razel Segovia Cablao of Malabon City has two daughters, aged 9 and 11, to worry about. They received Dengvaxia just five days before Sanofi released results of its study

Cablao, whose daughters have not had dengue before, told the Inquirer they got the shots in the house-to-house vaccination project of Barangay Potrero.
“My husband and I thought we could have some peace of mind knowing our daughters would be free from sickness, then you find out that they’re actually at a greater risk just because (the DOH) did not vet their vaccines properly,” Cablao said.

FIRST SHOTS In April 2016, the government introduced to the country’s public health system the world’s first vaccine developed to combat dengue fever. A much-publicized immunization drive targeted over 700,000 schoolchildren, among them this girl in Iba, Zambales province, whose shot was administered by then Health Secretary Janette Garin. —MALACAÑANG PHOTO

She worried about getting the second and third shots for her daughters after several online reports said doing so would expose them to greater risks.

Aissah Andrada’s 11-year-old son got his first shot in October at the barangay’s health center in Pasig City.

“This could have been prevented if only the DOH did not rush implementing their program not knowing the full risks,” said Andrada, who is from Cainta, Rizal province.

The P3.5-billion antidengue program placed high hopes on the Dengvaxia vaccine developed by French pharmaceutical company Sanofi. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

Both mothers said their children have not been stricken by any serious illness so far. They plan to consult other physicians regarding the risks of completing the shots.

They wanted the DOH to release guidelines on what parents should expect and what they could do to minimize the risks for their children.

“The children should not be made to pay for the DOH’s failure,” Andrada said.

Esperanza Nocum’s 14-year-old son received the vaccine back in August when local health center personnel gave free dengue vaccine shots at their barangay hall.

The 41-year-old mother from Caloocan City said she already had plans to have her son vaccinated so he would be healthy and safe from diseases, including dengue, which he has not had. The boy was born with a heart condition and had undergone a heart surgery.

She said she had planned to take him to a private pediatrician for vaccination but it would have cost her P4,000.

“So we grabbed the opportunity offered to us, and since it was from the Department of Health, I thought it was trustworthy,” Nocum said.

However, after Sanofi made the announcement, she couldn’t help but fear for her son.

“I thought I could have peace of mind since he is already vaccinated,” she said. “I am so dismayed. What would they do now that the vaccine is already in my son’s body?”

She said at least 100 children were vaccinated along with her son.

Like the other parents, Nocum was concerned about whether to get the next Dengvaxia dose scheduled for February. —WITH REPORTS FROM TINA G. SANTOS, KRIXIA SUBINGSUBING, JHESSET O. ENANO AND JOVIC YEE

source:newsinfo.inquirer.net

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The Professional Regulation Commission announced Tuesday that 1,114 out of 2,093 examinees passed the Customs Broker Licensure Examination given this month.

Maricel Aviso Añonuevo (Philippine Merchant Marine School in Las Piñas) and Auren Clarence Jaranilla (Lyceum Subic Bay Inc.) topped the exams with a rating of 91.75%.

Jigo Panopio Arevalo (Lyceum of the Philippines University in Manila) came in second with 91.25%, while Angelica Olarte Macatangay (LPU-Batangas Inc.) placed third with 90%.

The successful examinees who garnered the highest places in the exams are the following:

You can check the roll of successful examinees here.

Source: news.abs-cbn.com

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OLONGAPO CITY—The Roman Catholic Church here is concerned that the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority has allowed ship-to-ship transfers of liquefied natural gas or LNG at the Port of Subic, which it noted can be a risk to the public if not handled with care.

by: Fred Villareal

Rev. Fr. Daniel O. Presto, administrator of the Diocese of Zambales, said the Church was completely unaware of the STS operations at Subic, and had they known, “they could have studied the issue well and their community could have acted accordingly.”

Subic freeport officials, Presto added, “did not involve the Church” in the LNG transfer.

SBMA Chair Atty. Wilma Eisma previously said the Port of Subic stand to earn tens of millions of pesos from this project from services, including tugboat services, port services and anchorage, chandlers, bunkering and food supplies.

Eisma said the port seeks more STS work in the coming months.

The diocese of Zambales has taken an anti-coal and anti-mining stance, Presto said, and sees the LNG operation as dangerous too.

“We champion the protection of the environment and actively campaign for public safety,” he said.

STS operations involve big oil tankers carrying LNG, to be conveyed to smaller vessels bound to different ports for distribution to markets in and outside the country. Such operations address the shipping of petroleum and other energy products to ports that cannot accommodate bulk carriers because of depth issues, the Church said.

Last April 27, SBMA conducted an STS transfer of LNG at the freeport between the industrially-busy Hanjin Shipping complex in Subic town and a stretch where hotels, high-end restaurants and bars are lined up on the Olongapo City side, it noted.

The 105,335-ton Malaysian-flagged Seri Bakti of Jovo Group Company Ltd. Guandong (JOVO) of China, anchored in Subic Bay, transferred an initial LNG load to feeder vessel S/S Polar Spirit, a 72,524-ton Bahamas-flagged vessel, the diocese’s sources noted.

The last transfer was done Nov. 19 with the Seri Bakti a lot nearer to the Hanjin shipyard, where welding and other “ignitable activities” are done practically nonstop, it added.

Seri Bakti’s operations in Subic Bay are said to be a minimum of two transfers per month, and will increase to a maximum of six transfers per month toward the end of year, the Church said.

Zambales Gov. Amor Deloso, in a separate interview, said he wished his office were at least advised by the authorities beforehand, if not thoroughly consulted “on operations that are of public concern in the province.”

“My hands are tied on such issues, since the country’s law that governs freeports, Republic Act 7227 that created the SBMA, grants such economic zones’ authorities a free hand to the use of the zones — too free for comfort,” Deloso said.

“Any intervention from me as the governor of the province to this LNG STS transfer, or any concerns at all, will just be dismissed as ‘politicking,’” he added.

The national government, through state-run Philippine National Oil Co., is looking at six proposals for an estimated $2-billion LNG terminal in Batangas that could break ground in 2018, the Department of Energy said previously.

Source:manilastandard.net

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