Coco oil maker eyes new markets

published April 23, 2010 in BusinessWorld

TACLOBAN CITY -- Filipino-owned SC Global Coco Products, Inc., based in Baybay City, is plans to penetrate new markets in Asia.

Emmanuel S. Licup, SC Global’s managing director, said the firm plans to bag deals within the year to export coconut oil and related products to South Korea, Japan, and China. These three countries are "very promising markets" for the product, he added.

The company produces organic crude coconut oil; virgin coconut oil; coconut fatty acid distillate; organic flour; refined , bleached and deodorized coconut oil; cochin; copra cake and mill; as well as coconut biofuel and lubricants.

"We’ve been working on this in the past two years. I think something good is going to come out within this year. The demand [for coconut oil] is very big, especially in China. You can tell by just looking at the population," Mr. Licup said in a phone interview yesterday.

SC Global has been supplying oil to cosmetic and food industries based in Europe and the US.

"With the opening of new markets abroad, we can utilize the full capacity of the plant for export. That’s our direction this year," Mr. Licup added.

SC Global has a capacity to process 150 metric tons of copra into oil. About 70% of its output is exported.

Mr. Licup said his company has been participating in international trade fairs to gain access to more markets. The latest trade show attended by SC Global was the Natural Products Expo West/SupplyExpo held last month at the Anaheim Convention Center in California.

"SC Global wants to continue to develop markets abroad. That’s why we are very active in participating in trade fairs in the US, Europe and Asia," Mr. Licup said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Licup was optimistic that the buying price of copra will continue to rise in the next few months.

"In the past two months, the price of copra has gradually increased. It’s a good sign because the increase is not abrupt. The effect on the economy would not be very risky. The prices of commodity coming from coconut will simply move slowly as well," he said.

SC Global currently buys copra at P24.20 per kilogram, P10/kg more than last year’s average price of P14/kg.

"It’s the time for the coconut this quarter. Market confidence in the quality of coconut oil is back and it is being translated to a lot of purchases," he pointed out.

Eastern Visayas has eight coconut oil mills, whose raw material needs are met by some 71.1 million coconut-bearing trees.

More families avail of dole-outs

published April 20, 2010 in BusinessWorld

TACLOBAN CITY -- The number of beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in Eastern Visayas has gone up to over 124,000 families.

These families will receive financial assistance in the next five years, said Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Regional Director Letecia T. Corillo. The program has been expanded from Northern Samar and Samar to all provinces in Eastern Visayas.

"We are now preparing the municipalities for the implementation and we hired people to help us do community assemblies to validate the condition of beneficiaries," Ms. Corillo said in an interview with BusinessWorld.

The validation will pave for the drawing up of a final list of beneficiaries who will receive P6,000 a year or P500 per month for health and nutrition expenses and P3,000 for one school year or P300 a month per child for educational expenses.
The amount is given to households that were predetermined by the DSWD to be among the poorest of the poor. It will continue until 2015.

"For Eastern Samar, Leyte and Southern Leyte, we are still in the social preparation stage. They will start receiving the money after elections," Ms. Corillo said.
"In Northern Samar and Samar, we’ve been releasing financial assistance for health and education," she added.

A family with three qualified children can receive the assistance monthly provided that they diligently follow certain conditions such as availment of health services by pregnant mothers and children aged 0-14 and enrollment in schools of children 3-14 years old with attendance not lower than 85% of the time. Parents are also required to attend parenting sessions regularly.

"It will not be affected by the change in leadership because there are funding agencies that are committed to provide financial assistance in case the government cannot do it," she said.

Since 2008, a total of 363,388 household beneficiaries in Northern Samar have enrolled in the program and are receiving conditional cash grants. The number doubled in June 2009 as the program expanded to all municipalities of Samar. The 4Ps was launched by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in March 2007.

Mining firm exploring five towns in Leyte to extract magnetite sand for export to China

published April 08, 2010 in BusinessWorld

PALO, Leyte -- A mining company is initially investing P200 million on a mining claim covering five Leyte towns, expecting to produce 1.2 million tons per year of titano-magnetite iron ore.

Jeric E. Lapan, general manager of Northern Access Mining, Inc. said in an interview the firm has seen progress in its exploration for magnetite sand in the towns of Tanauan, Tolosa, Dulag, Julita, and Tabon-Tabon since it started operation in 2008.

“There is a big deposit of magnetite sand in Leyte and it has been proven already by mining companies that explored in Leyte coastal communities back in 1970s. For Tolosa area alone, we are talking of three million tons concentrate,” Mr. Lapan told BusinessWorld.

Julita and Tabon-Tabon are not coastal towns but it was covered by the mining firm’s exploration because of the presence of sand. “Very few people know that when you walk 10 kilometers inland, you still have sand underneath. Whenever there is sand, there is always magnetite,” he explained.

Mr. Lapan said the firm was aiming to meet rising demand for this mineral in China.

Magnetite is a magnetic and very dense mineral of iron. It is an important source of iron for the iron and steel industries but it also has other uses as an industrial mineral to produce many “value-added” products.

High-grade magnetite is used in many chemical processes including the production of iron sulfate, which is used to purify water. Heavy concrete has a variety of uses, from baffles and containment tanks in nuclear power plants and in counter weights for washing machines.

With the community expected to oppose mining activities, the company is investing in education, a microfinancing program, and environment-friendly activities like tree planting, the official said.

“We are doing our operation slowly because we are trying to educate everyone first. While we are educating, we have started investing in the community so [residents] would feel ... the social benefit,” he added.

Northern Access Mining was established in 2008 and is still in the exploration phase.

Studies show that other than magnetite sand, Leyte also has deposits of copper, iron, bentonite, nickel, limestone, peat, and dolomite.

“None of those minerals have been measured yet. The only one that was measured is the magnetite sand. I would say that we have a lot of those here. As a young company, we want to develop our technology here in Leyte,” Mr. Lapan said.-Sarwell Q. Meniano

Dock workers seek pay hike

published March 09, 2010 in BusinessWorld

TACLOBAN CITY -- A group of dock workers in this city yesterday filed a petition seeking an increase in their hauling charges.

In its petition, the Kapungunan han mga Trabahador ngan Hornal ha Tacloban (Katrabaho) demanded that the hauling charge per bag of cement be increased 87% to P1.50 from the current 80 centavos. The petition was signed by 100 dock workers in the city.

"Most of us are earning only P20 to P70 per day. Sometimes we don’t have income if there’s no shipment," Katrabaho president Napoleon Escalona said in a statement.

To earn the current daily minimum wage of P238 in the region, Mr. Escalona said a group of 16 workers needs to carry 4,360 sacks of cement every day, or about three bags per minute. With the proposed increase, the same number of haulers will have to carry only 2,326 bags, or nearly two sacks in one minute, to earn the minimum pay.

The group said the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board had approved an increase in dock workers pay in 2004 to P1 per bag of cement hauled from the previous 70 centavos.

But many hauling companies have been implementing only 80 to 90 centavos, Mr. Escalona claimed.

Wage board secretary Florencio G. Aguilos presented the petition before wage board members during their scheduled bimonthly meeting yesterday afternoon.

"The case study presented by the laborers will guide the wage board. It’s up to them to decide on this petition and how they will want this to be treated. I cannot say how long it would take," Mr. Aguilos said in a phone interview yesterday.

The petition is the first in the region by the group for the past six years.

"We will assess if there’s a valid ground for a wage review. If we find justification for review, we will conduct consultations. It should be a tripartite discussion," wage board chairman and Department of Labor and Employment regional director Forter G. Puguon said in a separate phone interview yesterday.

The last wage order for the region was issued in May 2008. Under Wage Order No. 15, a minimum wage worker in the region’s private sector must receive P220 basic pay and P18 cost-of-living allowance. (Sarwell Q. Meniano)

Remote Eastern Visayas villages to have electricity in first half

published March 02, 2010

TACLOBAN CITY -- The government aims to power up 197 remote villages in Eastern Visayas within the first half.

Presidential Assistant for Eastern Visayas Cynthia R. Nierras said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered the Department of Energy and National Electrification Administration to release part of the P280-million nationwide electrification budget for Region 8.

"If the budget will be available early this year, electric cooperatives gave an assurance that the project will be finished by June 30, 2010," Ms. Nierras said in an interview.

Of the 197 villages without power, 134 are in Eastern Samar province, 49 in Samar, nine in Southern Leyte and five in Leyte. All villages in Northern Samar and Biliran have access to electricity.

Eastern Visayas has a total of 4,336 barangays with 4,139 having electricity as of December 2009. Remote areas tap solar and hydroelectric power as a source of electricity to reduce cost.

"In the area of rural energization, we are one of the regions with the highest accomplishment, which is above the 95% nationwide energization rate," Ms. Nierras said.

Economic planners in the region have noted the need to upgrade rural electrification given the increasing demand for energy in the next years.

In the Samar provinces, many far-flung areas have few potential customers, hindering the rural electrification initiative.

Considering the distance of some barangays from the town centers and access roads, the Regional Development Council has called on local government units to tap alternative sources of power to solve the problem. Island-municipalities in the region like Maripipi in Biliran are provided with generator sets.-Sarwell Q. Meniano