PAGASA held its 1Q 2017 General Membership Meeting at the freshly opened Chinese Restaurant called Red Spice inside Okada Manila.  Barely a month old, the posh casino played host to the Association on 25 Jan. 2017, just a few days before it did this year’s Ms. Universe contestants and organizers after the pageant proper. Discussed were the latest trends and consumer behavior as well as moves by the major players in getting a foothold of the industry. Invited that evening were the former PAGASA Members who have sold their operations to the bigger players to give their retrospective opinion of the how’s and why’s of things when they sold their businesses.  Present for this were: Jaynith’s Supermarket, the SuperBudgetlane Group, Susana Mart and Purity Supermarket. Absent were Sioland (now Southern Emerald), New Life Supermarket and the Parco Chain of Stores.

 

PAGASA was invited to the Asia-Pacific Alliance for Disaster Management (A-PAD) Phils. Int’l. Symposium on 24 Jan. 2017 held at the Heritage Hotel in Pasay City.  Speakers at the Symposium included A-PAD Chairman Mr. Faisal Djalal, Senator Francis Pangilinan, DSWD Sec. Judy M. Taguiwalo and Mr. Guillermo “Bill” M. Luz/Senior Adviser to the Phil. Disaster Reliance Foundation (PDRF).  In the pic is STC surrounded by the organizers of the Symposium.

On 16 Jan. 2017, the Committee on Ecology under the Chairmanship of Cong. Estrellita Suansing called a Technical Working Group (TWG) Meeting at the Villar Hall, South Wing Annex of the House of Rep. to discuss the proposed PLASTIC PRODUCTS REGULATION ACT. Among those present were former Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who was very insistent in passing the said Act within this 17th Congress together with Rep. Suansing.  They proposed to have Supermarket Operators act as collectors (with segregated collection bins) for all types of plastic products (i.e., old wash basins and drums included) as brought to them by the buying public to which STC objected and retorted that limit these to plastic bags and we have a deal.  After all, that is PAGASA’s Position on the collection of used plastic bags to aid recyclers by providing them the correct plastics to recycle (into plastic bags again).  This scheme has already been adopted by the QC Government and has been put in place the last few years with good results.

 

STC went to Bacolod City in the province of Negros Occidental and visited PAGASA’s Member there on 15 Jan. 2017.  Mark Gomez operates two KJ Foodmarts and 26 Munsterrific C-Stores in areas surrounding Bacolod.  Thanks to the boom in Business Process Outsourcing, it has contributed to the mushrooming of C-Stores in Mega-Bacolod.

On 13 Jan. 2017, PAGASA’s PRO William Villanueva attended the Consultation Meeting by the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) at their office inside the DENR Compound along Visayas Ave., QC to ascertain the needs of stakeholders in relation to solid waste management (SWM) as well as act as a pre-work activity leading to the Symposium on SWM at the Quezon Circle on 1/27/17.