DTI Sec. Domingo advises Cebu exporters to apply product diversification By Fayette C. Rinen CEBU CITY, June 14 (PIA) --- Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo advised Cebu exporters to go into ‘product diversification’ amid fears of a double-dipped recession in the United States, the largest market of the local exporters here. Domingo, in a recent Communication News Exchange (CNEX) Forum organized by the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) – Central Office, with live remote points including Cebu, answered the concern of businessman Fred Escalona, the executive director of Phil Export-Cebu. Escalona elevated the concern of the local exporters here over grave apprehensions of a double-dipped recession in the US basing on the latest figures on unemployment rate which is said to be very disappointing and that even US economists and President Barrack Obama himself did not discount the possibility of a drastic slide in the already stale economy. “US is our number one export market,” Escalona said and added that the debt crisis in Europe and the political instability in the Middle East, otherwise alternative markets for the country’s exports, is worsening the situation and doubling more pressure to the export sector in the country. “Our recommendation now is to go into a policy of diversification which is the best protection to sustain the industry particularly the export sector,” Domingo stressed. The trade chief explained that exporters should be innovative in sustaining their business and that given the situation, one needs to anticipate the needs of the export markets and produce products that are basically needed. Domingo also disagreed with Escalona’s description that a 7.8 percent export performance last year as released by the Export Development Council will be “flattened out” in anticipation of a further dive in the US economy. “The 1.8 percent export rate in the first quarter of this year is actually showing a growth pattern assuming that there will be a double dip in the US economy. This is why the Philippines should and is adopt a policy of diversification particularly the export sector which is their best protection” in case something happens in their major export markets, according to Domingo. Domingo said the country’s top export product is electronics accounting for a 50-percent share and which “grew by 4.6 percent in the first quarter this year while we expect a strong recovery in the second quarter by eight to 10 percent or a double digit growth.” The second exported product of the country is the coconut oil with over 100 percent growth followed by garments that rose to 16 percent and furniture that accounted for over 50 percent growth rate for the first three months this year, Domingo disclosed. “We continue to grow with some pace and we expect to exceed a 10 percent overall growth rate in the export sector later in the year,” Domingo expressed high optimism. (PIA 7-Cebu) ===========

Influenza A (H1N1) virus is now covered as seasonal flu--PhilHealth

By: Hazel F. Gloria

CEBU, June 13 (PIA) --- Beginning July 11 this year, hospital confinements due to Influenza A (H1N1) virus will be paid as Case Type A based on PhilHealth’s in-patient benefit schedule instead of a benefit package.

     

During the outbreak of the H1N1 virus in 2009, PhilHealth produced a benefit package intended for those who were infected with it to alleviate the direct medical cost for such treatment.

Hospitalization benefit for PhilHealth members and qualified dependents then was set at P75,000 and at P150,000 for qualified health care workers who rendered service in a Department of Health (DOH)-retained hospital for H1N1 cases or contracted the disease while performing their duties and or caring for an H1N1 patient as certified by the DOH.

          

However, the World Health Organization recently announced that the H1N1 virus is now shifting toward the post-pandemic phase.

It means the virus has taken on a behavior and intensity similar to that of the regular seasonal flu viruses.

This impelled PhilHealth to consider the Influenza A (H1N1) to be paid as Case Type A under the fee-for-service kind of benefit coverage.

              

 Patients admitted in a tertiary level hospital with an illness classified as Case Type A will have a maximum coverage of P500 per day for the room and board charges and a maximum of P4200 for drugs and medicines for the whole period of confinement.

It will also have a coverage of P3,200 for X-ray, laboratory and supplies; and coverage for the doctors’ professional fees. (PIA-7 with reports from PhilHealth PRO)

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DAR-Cebu to distribute 1,000 hectares of farm lots for its ‘special operation’
By Eli C. Dalumpines

CEBU CITY, June 13 (PIA) --- The Cebu Provincial Agrarian Reform Office of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is now preparing for the distribution of some 1,000 hectares of farm lots to farmer beneficiaries in the three barangays of Catmon town in northern Cebu.

Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer (PARO) Paulino Tudlasan, in an interview this morning, said his office will start to conduct the land survey sometime this month in Barangays. Baktas, Kabunga-an and Duyan in Catmon to subdivide the 1,000 hectares of farm lots that have been re-classified as agricultural lands some years back.

Tudlasan informed that the farmers that are now tilling these lots already possessed tax declaration but they are yet to be issued with individual titles as the land has not been subdivided since it was initially surveyed some three decades ago.

These lots, he cited, are part of the 1.5 million hectares that the late President Marcos ordered to be reclassified from public lands to alienable and disposable for agrarian reform purposes under the Kilusang Kabuhayan at Kaunlaran (KKK) program. It was carried over later by the Aquino government but no individual titles were issued.

The agrarian reform official clarified that this constitutes some kind of a “special operation” as the nature of these lots are different from the ones they are regularly distributing as these are owned officially by the government.

“These lands are given for free, meaning the beneficiaries won’t have to pay for Land Bank as what the regular beneficiaries do because these are government-owned,” Tudlasan said.

According to him, they will be working hard to finish the distribution of these said farm lots by November, this year. Once accomplish, they will be able to overshoot their land distribution target this year by 25 percent as this is not part of their regular operation.

Tudlasan informed they are eyeing to distribute some 3,000 hectares this year for their regular operation. This they will do to hit the target of 7,934 hectares by June 30, 2014 with the expiration of the CARPER as provided in Republic Act 9700 which extended the CARP Law.

In this connection, he urged the farmer beneficiaries in these barangays to be present during the survey so that distribution will be easily facilitated. (FCR/ECD/PIA 7-Cebu)