PAGASA Pres. Steven T. Cua paid "Ang Probinsiyano" Partylist Rep. Ronnie Ong a visit at his office in Congress on the same afternoon of 19 Feb. 2020 upon the latter’s invitation to discuss his proposed bills re. Fraudulent Senior Citizens/ PWD Cards & the possibility of retailers employing productive senior citizens in their stores.

On the same afternoon of 19 February 2020, Congress held a Hearing on relaxing the conditions for foreign retailers to invest in our country. The American Chamber of Commerce as well as a few other foreign Chambers in the country cited their reasons why conditions must be relaxed. These were opposed by local retailers headed by PAGASA and the PRA.

A well-attended Hearing in Congress on the 19th of February 2020 delved on the proposed increase in wages as chaired by Partylist Representative Enrico A. Piñeda.  Much discussion on the timeliness and affordability of employers to absorb another round of wage increase came to fore.

The Senate’s Committee on Environment and Natural Resources called for a Joint Meet with the Committees on Trade, Commerce & Entrepreneurship, on Ways & Means and on Finance regarding Single-Use Plastic Bags on 18 February 2020 at the Sen. Geronima T. Pecson Room.  Introduced was the concept on Expanded Producers Responsibility (EPR). Producers are supposed to device a way to retrieve and recycle the goods that they produce to minimize the harm that these products do to our environment.  The Meeting was chaired by Sen. Cynthia Villar and attended by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian.

 

 

 

The afternoon of 13 February 2020 had PAGASA meeting in Congress with a Technical Working Group on the proliferation of fraudulent I.D.s issued out to People With Disability (PWD) or the specially-abled.  Of course those who represented the sector (PWDs) at this Meet vehemently denied that their Associations were Involved or in cahoots with any syndicate in the Issuance of said fake IDs. Clarifications had to be made by STC regarding how retailers can spot people with real disabilities as those hard-of-hearing and the like are very difficult to spot by our personnel in the selling area. Also, the different modus operandi of syndicates involved in fake IDs were tackled.

On the eve of 5 February 2020, the Philippine Amalgamated Supermarkets Association held its 1st Quarter General Meeting inside All Day Supermarket along C-5/Libis.  PAGASA normally holds its GenMeets at a place where there is a new business model or format to see and learn from.  For this edition, erstwhile member All Day Supermarket was the store on expose.  We were generously toured around the store and its warehouse by Pippo and treated to dinner as well. Everyone had a grand time touring this beautiful store.

On 5 February 2020, (R) Jose Manuel "Sam" Remolacio of All-Asian Centre for Enterprise Development (ASCEND) did a research study on sugar suppliers and how fairly they treat retailers when it comes to price fluctuations. Study of ASCEND was done in behalf of the Philippine Competition Commission.

A Congressional Hearing was held on 28 January 2020 by the Committee on MSME Dev't. on a proposed bill to require supermarkets to provide 10% space in ones selling area to MSME suppliers for free. I respectfully declined by saying that even without legislation, most supermarkets do provide spaces for free for "deserving" MSME suppliers.

On 27 January 2020, PAGASA Pres. Steven T. Cua  was invited as a Speaker at the Midas Hotel & Casino by the National Academy on Science & Technology (NAST) for a forum on Single-Use Plastic Bags.  He discussed the pros and cons of using these at supermarkets; that together with other stakeholders, we may come up with a win-win situation.