The Wholesale & Retail Sector Summit Consultation on Employment Recovery hosted by the DTI's CPAB & the Development Academy of the Philippines took place via Zoom in the morning of 7 April 2021. PAGASA was invited as a panelist/discussant on the local situation for wholesale/retail when it comes to employment in these industries. Also reactors were the Phil. Retailers Assn., Phil. Consumer-Centric Traders Assn., Phil. Assn. of Stores and Carinderia Operators and the Direct Selling Assn. of the Phils. Presenters came from the ILO & the WB. PAGASA Pres. STC suggested to the Dept. of Labor and Employment to allow supermarkets which are cash-strapped to pay salaries partially in the form of groceries/goods. DOLE Asec. Dominique "Nikki" Rubia-Tutay says this is not an accepted traditional form of compensation that DOLE & ILO approves of but given the situation, one may sign an agreement with their personnel to arrange this for say, up to three months only (a temporary arrangement) while economic conditions are bad. STC also suggested that LGUs encourage the elderly or those retired/WFH to go shop at supermarkets from 10:00am-2:00pm when customers are sparse in supermarkets and that Barangays/Community Leaders to continuously announce over loud speakers health safety protocols in their respective areas of jurisdiction.

PAGASA was honored to have been visited personally on the 16th of March 2021 by the Commercial Attache of the Royal Embassy of Cambodia in Manila in the person of Mr. Lao Nguon Eng. He came as a result of a February 17th meeting this year between Phil. Ambassador to Cambodia Ma. Amelita C. Aquino & Cambodia's Minister of Commerce H.E. Pan Sorasak to establish business ties in promoting Cambodian rice/goods to the Philippines.

There was the continuation of the Senate Hearing by the Committee on Agriculture, Food & Agrarian Reform in the whole morning of 9 March 2021 via Cisco WEBEX on the state of ASF and the supply/ prices of pork/chicken. The Dept. of Agriculture came out in full force to present how they intend to immediately increase the supply of pork via imports/quick transport to MM from farms and repopulate the hogs for the future. Correspondingly, the same stakeholders opined on the presentation and the loopholes in the system of the DA.  The SGS also presented how they inspect the imported pork and how they can help in sanitizing hog farms. STC represented PAGASA at this Hearing.

STC attended the 4th Congressional TWG Meeting on Single-Use Plastic Bags on March 1, 2021 consolidating some 61 bills on the issue. This is the most serious effort by the Lower House to come up with a Law that guides LGUs regarding the treatment of used plastic bags as a pollutant in our seas, waterways and landfill. Three presentations filled up the more-than-three hour virtual Meet. First one was by EU-ASEAN Green Technology Expert Dr. Evelyn B. Taboada of the University of San Carlos illustrating the Plastic Materials Flow Analysis and stressing that the Philippines ranks #3 as biggest contributor to ocean pollution worldwide. She also showed accountability by the local corporations as those whose packaging floats out the most to sea. Second presentation was done by Plastic Credit Exchange's (PCEx) Nanette Medved-Po on the worldwide movement of co-processing as having the most comprehensive solution to the problem of improper disposal of plastic bags/packaging and this having the backing of major manufacturers worldwide. A similar concept was presented by World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) Atty. Ina Cojuangco Guingona on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). As the session was about to end, STC commented on the big amounts of fines the DTI and DENR will charge violators if retailers don't charge P5 for new plastic bags if customers don't return so-and-so amount of used plastic bags (as proposed by this consolidated Bill). He politely asked who will enforce this? Inspectors of the DTI or the DENR? He said are the charges here practicable? Can they be carried out effectively? Corollary to this, has any retailer been charged with the fines attached to the No-Shortchange Law? With that, this TWG will resume again to discuss these unresolved issues.

PAGASA’s Steven T. Cua attended the Zoom Mtg initiated by DTI-CPAB on 26 February 2021 regarding Guidelines for Payment Options on the Purchase of Consumer Products & Services. It has to do more with installment purchases on motorcycles/vehicles than FMCG. Asec. Atty. Ann Claire Cabochan handled the Meeting. Asking for clarifications were PRA Chairman Atty. Paul Santos and former Philbaking President and Member of the defunct National Consumer Affairs Council Walter Co. STC made representation for PAGASA & suggestions on cash versus credit card payments for non-food retailers.

STC was invited on 16 February 2021 to the Planning for PRA's 2021 National Retailers Conference and Exhibition headed by this year's Chairman Donnie Vargas Tantoco (top right, clockwise) with Lorenzo "Enchong" Formoso III (former PRA & FAPRA Pres. & COO of Duty-Free Phils.), CJ Jesena (Ayala Malls Group), Bryan Liu (Penshoppe Group) and Kaths Laudit-Chong (Mktg. Dir. of Robinsons Land Corp.>not in pic). The Meeting tackled the Theme, Conference Date, Topics & Speakers amongst many other major details. Mr. Formoso is currently Board Advisor of Ace Hardware & CJ is back as Tenant Mgt. Div. Head of Shangrila Plaza. Donnie is with Rustan Comm'l. Corp. & Bryan is E-Commerce & Bus. Transformation Mgr. of Golden ABC, Inc.

The Congressional Technical Working Group (TWG) on the Regulation of Single-Use Plastic Bags called a virtual Meeting on 11 February 2021. Initial presentation was delivered by Dr. Elsie David, Ph.D. on Life Cycle Assessment of the different packaging materials and how they affect our environment in the long-run. (Top left, clockwise) Very ably headed by TWG Chairman Rep. Francisco "Kiko" Benitez of Neg.Occ., this TWG consolidated 61 bills on the said issue for this Congress. All major stakeholders were invited like Helen Grace Baisa (Pres.-Phil.Chamber of Food Manufacturers), Ed Sunico of Unilever and Paola Alvarez representing the DOF.  Among the many others were Rep. Gloria G. Labadlabad (Chair of d Cong.Committee on Ecology/Zamboanga del Norte), TWG Vice Chair Rep. Rufus Rodriguez/Misamis Oriental and DTI Usec. Atty. Ruth Castelo. This is the third Meeting by this TWG during this Congress.  This TWG is under the watchful eye of Committee Secretary Atty. Dilbert Quetulio & Rep. Marc Go. Also represented were PAGASA (STC), PPIA (Danny Ngo), PPCP (Henry Gaw), FPI, Climate Change Commission (Rachel Herrera), Mother Earth Foundation (Sonia Mendoza), Phil.Alliance for Recycling & Material Sustainability (PARMS' Crispian Lao), CCBPI (Coke's Marc C. Cox), DBM, NAST (Fabian Dayrit), FIC (Joshua Tan), Bus.for Sustainable Dev't.(BSD's Bonar Laureto), ECCP (Angela Edralin-Valencia), DILG, NEDA (Lara Hidalgo), Aksyon Klima (Rodne Galicha) and others. The 3-hour session delved on definition of terms> need to redefine Recyclability, Recoverability, Retrievability, Convertability, Replacement, Single-Use, Recycling vs. Compost, Plastic as a "material" vs. it’s seen as a "product;" "necessary" vs. "unnecessary" plastics, providing LGUs incentives when they tow the line and adding the subject of sustainable dev't. to school curriculum. Fact is that only 33% of barangays have recovery stations for recycling.

On the eve of 9 February 2021, STC was invited to virtually guest live on CNN-9's News Commentary Show "The Final Word" hosted by veteran newsman Rico Hizon. Topic was the uncontrolled price increases on hog and poultry products in Metro Manila. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YH3FoqYpdg