Business

Foodpanda riders halt work to ask the management for an additional delivery fees.*Nico Delfin photo Several food delivery riders have temporarily halted their work, as they called on the management to increase their fees. The Foodpanda riders gathered near the Bacolod City Government Center Monday, July 4, to express their dismay that they almost have no take-home income due to the increase in fuel prices. They said the delivery fee they received ranged from P15 to P21, depending on the distance of each food delivery transaction. This is not enough, they stressed, adding that their daily income was around P350. They said that the management has earlier promised to raise the minimum delivery fee to P45. In a statement, Foodpanda said that the welfare of their delivery par...

Negros Occidental Vice Governor Jeffrey Ferrer* Negros Occidental Vice Governor Jeffrey Ferrer along with sugar planters in southern Negros called for unity in the sugar industry under the new administration. “Hope remains high for us in the sugar industry with no less than President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. heading the Department of Agriculture,” Ferrer said in a press release. In turn, “it is best for the various stakeholders in the sugar industry to unite and stand behind our new president and DA secretary especially now where the industry is beset with major problems,” Ferrer added. The same sentiment was echoed by Roberto Cuenca, president of the Asociacion de Agricultores De La Carlota Y Pontevedra Inc. (AALCPI) who congratulated the 17th president of the country ...

A diesel price rollback is expected on Tuesday, July 5. Diesel should go down by P2.80 to P2.90 per liter from July 5 to 11, Unioil Petroleum Philippines said Saturday. Gasoline should have no price change to a rollback of P0.10 per liter, it added.*

The price of pork has has gone up by P2.11 per kilo.*Richard Malihan photo There is an increase in the average price of beef, pork and chicken meat in Negros Occidental. Provincial Veterinarian Renante Decena in a report to Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson on Monday, June 27, attributed the increase   in the price of meat products to the high cost of feeds, successive oil price hikes and the low supply of chicken meat for the local market. The provincial average price increase per kilo for beef was at P0.09, pork - P2.11 and chicken meat - P3.20, Decena said. San Carlos has the highest average price for beef at P355 per kilo and pork at P315 per kilo, while Victorias City has the highest price of chicken meat at P245 a kilo, he added. The current provincial average price ...

Negros Occidental Vice Gov. Jeffrey Ferrer* Negros Occidental Vice Governor Jeffrey Ferrer said he will conduct consultation with various sugar refineries to “restart their operations as soon as possible” amidst rumors of a sugar shortage. “There have been reports that low sugar stocks are due to hoarding, but this is an allegation that needs to be verified first. On the other hand, if indeed true, I will reach out to various refineries in the province if they are willing to open their mills to refine raw sugar in order to address the perceived shortage in the market,” Ferrer said in a press release Tuesday, June  28. Ferrer said he is confident a solution will be presented soon as “we have a president-elect that has made agriculture among his priority programs.” Neverthe...

Perspective of a PRDP funded slaughterhouse* The World Bank through the Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP) and national agencies will help fund big ticket infrastructure projects of Negros Occidental, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said Monday, June 27. Negros Occidental that is faced with a cut in its National Tax Allotment (NTA) next year is continuing to seek outside sources of funding, Diaz said. Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson, it his inaugural speech Saturday, cited the construction of the PRDP-funded 90 lineal meter Himoga-an bridge in Brgy. Puey, Sagay City, and slaughterhouses in Hinoba-an, Cauayan, Murcia, Toboso, Binalbagan and San Carlos City. Diaz said the P57.5 million bridge will be funded by the WB through a grant, with only 10 percent to be shoulder...

Expect another fuel hike on Tuesday. Unioil Petroleum Philippines on Saturday said it projects that for June 28 to July 4, the price of diesel will go up by P1.20 to P1.40 per liter. Gasoline prices will increase by P0.10 to P0.20 per liter, it added. On June 21 fuel companies hiked the prices of gasoline by P0.80 per liter and diesel by P3.10.*

Mayor-elect Javi Benitez with Global Strategic Business Process Solutions president Mark Matsuyama and vice president Jonathan Lochbaum (l-r) in Victorias City.* Mayor-elect Javier Miguel “Javi” Benitez led the recruitment and groundbreaking rites for the structure that will house Global Strategic Business Process Solutions, the first Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company in Victorias City, Negros Occidental, on Friday, June 24. “We welcome Global Strategic in Victorias City, as we move forward to creating more job opportunities for Victoriahanons,” Benitez said Sunday, June 26. “We need to bring in more job opportunities and upskill our people for economic development. When we have a happy and productive workforce, it will improve the quality of life of everyone, “he ad...

The Sugar Regulatory Administration said on Friday, June 24, that there has been a lot of false information regarding Sugar Order No.3 series of 2021-2022 and the sugar situation of the country. “There are again a lot of unfounded statements and accusations being hurled and spread,” the SRA said in its statement. The SRA said the following are its answers to the “unfounded “ statements: Unfounded Statement #1:There is plenty of sugar, we have 60 million metric tons of sugar.Fact:There was never a time in history that the Philippines was able to produce 60 million metric tons of sugar. Our highest production ever recorded was 2.5 million metric tons. Sugar data is available on the SRA website under Historical Statistics and Industry Update. As of June 12, 2022, our final es...

The entire country, not only Negros Occidental,  is faced with challenging and hard times  ahead with the strengthening of the dollar against the peso and the rising fuel prices,  Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said on Thursday, June  23. The Philippine peso  was P54.4840 to the dollar on Thursday. “Especially that we are an importing country, prices of commodities will  also go up and very clearly we see that also in the fuel price,” Lacson  said. That is why he favors the postponement of  the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan  elections for at least a year so government resources can instead be used for  pressing needs, and food security, he said. Rep. Martin Romualdez (Leyte)  said that postponing the barangay elections w...