On 7 September 2017, PAGASA’s STC was given the honor to be the first speaker at the Opening Ceremonies of the long-running food fair Food & Drinks Asia 2017.  He was also one of two ribbon-cutters (given the scissors) at the same event. Cheers were in order and that was done at the booth of Ralph’s Wines & Spirits with Ralph Lim Joseph himself (to the right of STC), Josephine P. Miranda/Show Organizer, Joseph Ross Jocson, MNSA/Pres.-Packaging Institute of the Phils. (taking a group selfie) and Noel Paguia/Pres.-Food Caterers Assn. of the Phils.

 

PAGASA was invited to the celebration in the Philippines of the National Day of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on 2 Sept. 2017 at the New World Hotel in Makati.  PAGASA Pres. Steven T. Cua was able to have a picture taken with H.E. Ly Quoc Tuan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the Philippines together Madame Vu Thji Tam Dan and daughter.  He was able to rub elbows too with the key security officers of the said Embassy in the country. To STC’s right is Senior Col. Nguyen Van Hung/Defence Attaché of the Embassy.

 

 

On  24 Aug. 2017, PAGASA was invited once more to the august chambers of the Phil. Senate to attend the extended hearings on proposed tax on Sugar-Sweetened Beverage (SSB).  As usual, the room was filled and STC had to stand for two full hours before a medical practitioner vacated her seat after the doctors had attested to the varying but non-conclusive studies relating sugar intake from processed drinks to the incidence of diabetes in the different countries covered by various studies. The lawmakers were in a quandary as whether to tax SSB via the volume of these products per se or whether to do so based on the sugar-content of said products.  Adopting the latter seems more appropriate when attributing the incidence of diabetes to the amount of sugar intake of a patient from SSBs.  However, legislators are not sure whether our good people at the Food & Drugs Administration (FDA) are capable of releasing information about the level of sugar content of any given product as quickly as when a product is approved by them; so these products may be taxed accordingly soon as they are out in the market. Adopting the first approach is easier to implement but less fair given the direct proportion by which a product may lead to incidence of diabetes.

 

The annual Retailers Conference at the SMX from 10-11 of August 2017 by the Philippine Retailers Association (PRA) was filled with retailers of all sizes, shapes and colors. The Philippine Amalgamated Supermarkets Assn. (PAGASA) is the food retail segment of the PRA and has been an Associate Member of the PRA for the last twenty years. The Conference had among others Mr. Irwin Lee/CEO of the Rustan Supercenters, Inc. (gray coat; maroon tie) who spoke authoritatively on global retail trends, Ms. Erica Ng/ Senior Editor of WGSN Insight Asia Pacific (HK) in black, Swede Mr. Anders Barlund of Phil. Mackinsey & Co. On its 30th year, PAGASA took care of the Breakout Session for Supermarkets on Day 1 from 3:00-5:00pm.  Guest Speakers were DTI Usec. Teodoro Pascua who spoke on the partnership between the public sector and retailers, Ms. Shirley Zhu of IGD based in Singapore on Asian Retail Trends and A.C. Nielsen’s Managing Director Patrick Cua on “Winning at Point of Sale.”  Songwriter Jim Paredes spoke on the importance of music in Establishments as an officer of FILSCAP. This year’s edition of the Conference was made “memorable” as an earthquake registering 6.1 on the Richter Scale momentarily interrupted the Conference and resulted in an early end for the annual event.

 

The Vietnamese Embassy in the Philippines held a Forum and brought in Businesses from Vietnam keen on supplying the Philippine market.  STC takes a photo with the new Vietnamese Ambassador H.E. Ly Quoc Tuan and his hardworking Commercial Counselor Ms. Vu Viet Nga with a foreign visitor.  After lunch, the program on 28 July 2017 at the Diamond Hotel focused on Business Matching between invited local businessmen and their counterparts from Vietnam. 

 

On the night of 26 July 2017, the PRA held the Retailer of the Year Awards at the Grand Ballroom of the Solaire Hotel and Casino.  At the audience were the Who’s Who of the Retail World in the Philippines including past PAGASA GenMeet hosts (L-R) Patrick Cua/A.C. Nielsen, Victor Javier/e-Ripple and Bernard Chua/formerly of Hewlett-Packard and now with Amazon Web Services (in pic with PAGASA Dir. Robert Go/Prince Retail Group and STC).  Special Guest of Honor is DTI Sec. Ramon Lopez who urged retailers in Mindanao to provide displaced Maranaw businessmen with some store space to do business with at favorable rates and asked retailers to look into the Halal Business. Invited Presenters of the Awards that evening were Robert Go who is also currently the President of the Cebu Retailers Association> an affiliate of the PRA and STC who is partnered with DTI’s Dir. Lilian Salonga. The evening ended with a bang to celebrate the winners for the year.

 

 

On 21 July 2017, the local Government of Quezon City published on a daily regarding an Ordinance banning food stores located a hundred meters from public or private schools (from pre-school to high school) from selling and/or promoting “junk foods and sugary drinks.” The Association itself received a soft copy of the local Ordinance only on 31 July.  As such, PAGASA wrote the City Mayor and primary sponsor of the Bill Councilor Irene R. Belmonte a Position Paper regarding this Prohibition and the fact that stakeholders were not invited to comment on the Bill.  Position Paper  was submitted to the office of the good Councilor and received at 1:30pm on 16 August 2017 by her staff Ms. Rose Lapada.

Qatar-based Al Jazeera visited one of the supermarkets of PAGASA Pres. Steven T. Cua to interview him regarding the state of retail economy on 20 July 2017 just four days short of President Duterte’s State of the Nation address in Congress.  They wanted to feature in their news how local business people are taking to the rather radical approach of the current administration to solving the perceived ills of society.  Of course, STC told it like it is both with the good and the bad; how the President is coping given his campaign promises with unorthodox solutions yet finding difficulty to rid society of age-old menaces.  At the same time, unwelcome remarks as well as perceived security problems are hindering foreign tourists from finding the Philippines to be the safe heaven it used to be before the strife in Marawi and the drug issue in the urban centers. Foreign investors are focusing on how the economy is holding up a year into the administration of President Duterte.

 

Representing PAGASA at the PRA GMM for the 2nd Quarter at Novotel Hotel at the Araneta Center on 29 June 2017, STC listened to PRA’s Legal Counsel and a partner at the Bengzon, Negre, Untalan Intellectual Property Attorneys Office, Atty. Ferdinand Negre (in coat) present very clearly “How to Use Intellectual Property to Create Value for your Retail Business.” He was aptly joined by the very informative Atty. Jesus Ros-Division Chief of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines>an entity under the DTI.  They gave very fine examples of how understanding Intellectual Property Rights can make your brands earn strong equity.