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

On the eve of 3 February 2021, the Association held its virtual General Meeting for the first quarter of 2021. The Meet was sponsored by i-Ripple, enabler of My Suki which intends to have as its  groceries providers the members of PAGASA. Online selling was a must-do proposition for supermarkets given the extended negative sales effect that the pandemic was wreaking on food retailers.

In showing interest in developing a platform for online shopping in their stores, the following members attended the Meet with Mr. Javier: President Steven T. Cua/Welcome Supermart, Vice President Liansel Sy/Liana’s Supermarket, Treasurer Myke Teodoro/Velamart, Director Fred and Simple Gravador/Simplicity Ministop, Director Robert and Rina Go/ Prince Retail Group, Director Edna Ontiveros/Candice Megamart, Director Arjie Lim/Andrew’s Supermarket, Wesley Lao/Drugmart Group, Susan and Charlene Lim/JC Plaza, Dustin Uy/San Roque Chain of Supermarkets, Paolo Ong/Ongville, Director Desmond Chua/Daily Supermarket and Honorary e-Sec. William Villanueva.

At the virtual Senate Hearing under the Joint Committees of Agriculture, Food & Agrarian Reform and Trade, Industry & Entrepreneurship via CISCO WEBEX on 1 February 2021, the 3-hour Meet consulted all the stakeholders & government agencies concerned in the abrupt increase in the price of pork and chicken. Among the 125 attendees were Senators Villar, Pangilinan, Zubiri, Hontiveros, Marcos, Binay and Cayetano; Secretaries Lopez (DTI) and Dar (DA); Usec. Castello & others from DA; Rosendo So & Jason Cainglet/SINAG, Chester Warren Yeo Tan/NFHRI, Edwin Chen/ProPORK, Jesse Cham/MITA, Gregorio San Diego/Egg Board, Jose Elias Inciong/UBRA, former Bats. Rep. Nicanor Briones, Ernesto Ordoñez, Alfred Ng, DTI's Ann Claire Cabochan, Atty. Victorio Dimagiba/LKI, MMDA GM Jojo Garcia, Senate Staff Joshel Regodon & Atty. Philip Lina and representatives from the BAI, BoC, NEDA, the Tariff Commission, NMIS, PSA, Toll Reg. Board, etc. Discussions revealed that prices began their uptick in October 2020. Fear of ASF contamination coupled with COVID-19 infection prevented the swift transfer of hogs from ASF-free GenSan to MM. DILG was tasked to coordinate with LGUs to allow the unhampered passage of trucks carrying hogs. DA was instructed to set aside budget for border facilities to guard against technical smuggling as MAVs were known to be abused/sold by unscrupulous traders and savings from cheaper imported meats not passed on to consumers. Senate was not in favor of tariff reduction (which favors imports) and MAV expansion (which will tilt heavily against local farmers when the smoke clears).

The National Price Coordinating Council called a Special virtual Meeting in the morning of 28 Jan. 2021 which lasted for more than three hours to analyze why vegetables, pork and chicken prices have shot off the roof in recent weeks.  Chaired by DTI Sec. Mon Lopez, he used fishbone analysis and had his key staff from the head & regional offices join in to focus on what's been causing the run-away inflation the country's been experiencing for these commodities. Supermarket operators from PAGASA & PCCTA were asked to label meat produce for sale as either local or imported. Local connotes fresher but more expensive meats as compared to the imported but frozen ones (not recently slaughtered). Consumers have a choice but must be informed. As it seems, a lot of imported meats are thawed to make them look like they are local & fetch higher prices. The idea of government allowing importation is to offer the public cheaper alternatives at a volume that does not negatively impact the produce of local growers.

PH under state of calamity due to swine fever, typhoons, price manipulation newsinfo.inquirer.net