PAGASA Board held its 2nd Quarter Meeting at the Grand Ballroom of Solaire Resort and Casino on 13 July 2014. Present (L-R) seated were Sec. Karl Tan (SuperBudgetlane), Pres. Steve Cua (Welcome Supermart), Dir. Edna Ontiveros (Candice Megamart), Treas. William Villanueva (Purity) and Dir. Fred Gravador (Simplicity Ministop). Standing behind is Dir. Myke Teodoro (Velamart).  Present but not in picture is VP Liansel Sy (Liana’s).

On 9 July 2014, PAGASA was invited by the Senate’s Committee on Trade, Commerce and Entrepreneurship together with the Committee on Ways and Means, and Finance to act as resource for a new bill. The former is headed by Sen. Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV and the latter by Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny”M. Angara; both of whom were present at this public hearing to determine the need to set up regional Emergency Warehouses with the intention of catering to the various disasters that occur year-in-and- out in the different areas of the country. Government agencies (DTI represented by Usec. Zenaida Maglaya handling Regional Op’ns; DND; DSWD; DOF; NFA) and NGO’s (Red Cross, CARD, Hapinoy) who responded to relief operations were invited to submit their Position Paper on the matter.

STC is interviewed at dawn popular tv program “Umagang kay Ganda” to clear up discrepancies of SRPs (Suggested Retail Price) coming from suppliers and those from the DTI.  As it seems, DTI did not agree to requests for price increase of certain SKUs by some suppliers whereby the notice of disagreement was announced after suppliers have  already increased prices to retailers (not thinking that DTI would disagree; as in most past cases). In the early morning of 2 July 2014, STC aired the Association’s plea for clarity/synchronization in DTI’s coordination with suppliers so retailers can comply with greater ease in “aligning” prices with SRPs posted by the DTI for basic necessities and prime commodities. Anchors for the day’s early news were (L-R) Anthony Taberna, Bernadette Sembrano and Jorge Cariño.

In behalf of the Food & Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Prof. Larry Digal of U.P.-Mindanao consults with STC on 1 July 2014 regarding the prospects of getting organic rice on the shelves of supermarkets. Together with Ms. Balgos, they try to pinpoint the factors which will allow producers to penetrate the mainstream of supply chain to get people to accept this product given its price premium.