Headlines, Bylines and Datelines

By Jesus F. Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak

October 14, 2008–Local officials from Mindanao Tuesday welcomed the Supreme Court decision declaring as unconstitutional the memorandum of agreement that would have given Muslim rebels control over an expanded territory in the south.

Interviewed by abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak, the most vocal critics of the MOA on ancestral domain said the tribunal’s ruling should be a lesson to the government to be more careful and transparent the next time it negotiates with the Muslim separatist groups.

By a vote of 8-7, the Supreme Court declared on Tuesday that the deal forged by the national government with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was unconstitutional. The signing of the MOA-AD in Malaysia was cancelled last August 5 after the court issued a temporary restraining order, based on a complaint filed by local officials in Mindanao whose areas were covered by the agreement.

Petitioners said the deal was tantamount to the creation of a separate state in Mindanao. Under the agreement, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and territories that would vote for inclusion in the Moro homeland through a plebiscite would form the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE). The agreement would also empower the BJE to establish its own courts and police and the power to independently deal with foreign governments.

“We are very elated and pleased,” Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat, one of the petitioners, told us. Six Muslim barangays in Zamboanga’s Sacol Islands were included in the proposed BJE.

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 By Jesus F. Llanto    

October 9, 2008–Local government units should focus on five key sectors to become competitive tourism destinations, an expert on tourism told local officials Wednesday.

During the 2008 Local Government Unit Summit held in Makati City, Samie Lim, vice chair of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), said that to develop a strong tourism industry, policies and investments must focus on the five A’s of tourism—arrival, access, accommodations, attractions, and activities.

Lim, who was behind the PCCI’s BizTour5 program that aims to develop private sector initiated tourism programs, said there should be available budget airlines, and chartered planes, cruise liners and ferries to accommodate the arriving tourists. He added that there is a need to develop travel agencies, tour guiding businesses, and world-class airports and seaports.

Investments, he said, should also be poured to tourism infrastructures like roads, ports, energy, telecommunication facilities and sewerage system.

To develop the accommodations needed by the industry, Lim said the country must follow the model of Malaysia.

“Malaysia created a chain of hotels in every major province,” he said adding that these hotels were used not only as for tourist accommodations but also as venues for regional and local conferences.

LGUs should also try to develop historical, cultural and heritage sites and build parks, museums and camping sites, and it must offer sports and recreation activities.

The influx of tourists, Lim added, will help boost the growth of shopping malls, medical tourism facilities, retirement homes, spa and resorts, casino-hotels and convention centers.
(abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak)

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By Jesus F. Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak

October 9, 2008–Local government units (LGUs) were urged to develop business-friendly environments to attract investments from the fast-growing business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

During the 2008 Local Government Code Anniversary Conference held Wednesday in Makati City, local officials were told that they should adopt policies that would make them attractive to BPO investments.

LGUs were also encouraged to follow the measures done by the Bacolod City government in supporting the BPO sector. Bacolod City passed an ordinance endorsing accreditation of Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) sites, and promoted Bacolod as ICT hub by participation in conferences and trade shows and by using website and brochures.

“LGUs sometime have to see themselves as business planner, catalyzer, and enabler instead of being just enforcer,” said Bacolod City councilor and Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for Information and Communications Technology chair Jacelle Batapa-Sigue.

Sunshine industry

Considered one of the sunshine industries—along with mining, agri-business and tourism—that can be tapped by local government units, the BPO industry has employed around 300,000 workers and has estimated revenue of US$ 4.9 billion in 2007.

Dan Reyes, president of Sitel and of the Business Process Association of the Philippines, said that among the advantages of the country in attracting BPO investments are the Filipinos’ English-speaking ability, their cultural affinity to the United States, competitive labor, real estate and telecommunication costs. (abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak)

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Photo Credit: www.newsbreak.com.ph

By Jesus F. Llanto

October 8,2008-Local government units (LGUs) should improve their competitiveness to attract more investments and to develop their local economy, local officials and private sector representatives said in a LGU summit held Wednesday in Makati City.

Speaking at the 2008 Local Government Code Anniversary Conference, government officials and private sector representatives said improving the competitiveness at the local level and developing a strong local economy can help the country cope with the effects of the global economic slowdown.

“Harnessing LGU competitiveness is important in mitigating the effects of economic crisis,” said Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno in a statement read by DILG undersecretary Austere Panadero.

Puno said the 17 years of the implementation of the Local Government Code has enabled the LGUs to increase their contribution to the national economy. “The Local Government Code (LGC) is instrumental in raising the local economic development and the growth of cities.”

The LGC, which was enacted 17 years ago, devolves some functions from the national government, like taxation, registration of business to local government units—provinces , cities, municipalities and barangays

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By Jesus F. Llanto
Newsbreak, Researcher
   
Tuesday, 08 July 2008–Cities that have experienced significant cuts in their revenue shares starting this year due to the creation of new cities are likely to lose their competitiveness and, as a consequence, miss opportunities to attract investments.

This was the opinion expressed by local governance experts and local officials at the recent launch of the 2007 Philippine Cities Competitiveness Report (PCCR) of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in Makati City.

Source:www.davaocity.gov.ph

Done every other year, it was the fifth time that the AIM measured the business-friendliness of select cities in terms of infrastructure, cost of doing business, dynamism of the local economy, human resources and training, responsiveness of the LGUs to business needs, and quality of life.

The study classified this year 90 cities into three categories: Metro cities, or those comprising metropolitan areas in Manila, Davao, and Cebu; mid-sized cities, or non-Metro cities with population more than 200,000 residents; and small-sized cities, or those with less than 200,000 residents.

Wholesale conversion

Experts and local officials said the almost wholesale conversion of municipalities into cities in the past two years has reduced the old cities’ share in national taxes or the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), which is used by LGUs to finance their operation and deliver basic services.

The direct effects of less IRA on infrastructure development, and consequently on the cities’ general competitiveness, may show in the next round of surveys to be conducted by the AIM Policy Center. (abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak)

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By Jesus F. Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak

May 27, 2008–Major cities in the Philippines generally take longer to issue business-related permits and licenses compared to most cities in the world, thus constraining their growth and competitiveness, a recent study shows.

Twenty-one cities in the country are able to authorize numerous and varying procedures in starting businesses in their jurisdictions because, according to a private sector representative, they were given “too much autonomy” under the Local Government Code of 1991.

A representative to the government-created National Competitiveness Council suggested then that some of the taxation powers of local government units (LGUs) be reverted to the national government.

In a study conducted by the International Finance Corp. (IFC) and the World Bank on the ease of doing business in cities worldwide, the Philippines ranked 133rd out of 178 countries.

‘Redundant, outdated’

Dealing with a Philippine city to start a business takes an average of 18 procedures and 35 days and costs 27 percent of the income per capita, according to the study. The number of procedures is only two less than the figure for Equatorial Guinea, the country with most procedures to start a business.

“Cities should cut down on unnecessary, redundant, and outdated procedures, and they should take a look at all the procedures that their customers have to go through,” said Vincent Lazatin, executive director of the Transparency and Accountability Network, during the presentation Monday of the Doing Business in the Philippines 2008 study at Intercontinental Hotel in Makati City. (abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak)

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RELATED STORY:
LGUs urged to cut red tape

Photo Credit: www.en.wikipilipinas.org

By Jesus Llanto
Newsbreak, Researcher

April 22, 2008-A big majority of current provincial governors are scions of political families, according to a survey conducted by Newsbreak, representing little diversion from the political profiles of past batches of governors.

Newsbreak’s survey, however, showed an encouraging trend of these political scions having diverse professional backgrounds compared to the from-college-to-politics path that many members of political dynasties had been traditionally known to take.

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