Malacañang is standing by Customs Commissioner Rozzano “Ruffy” Biazon despite the massive smuggling of petroleum products into the country that industry leaders claim is costing the government at least P30 billion in forgone revenue annually.
Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Sen. Loren Legarda on Saturday attributed the decision of Fitch Ratings to award the country with its first-ever investment grade rating of BBB- from BB+ on the reform-oriented and transparent governance of President Benigno Aquino III.
Used-car importers in Cagayan Valley have asked Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon to allow the release of more than 200 second-hand cars and vans that arrived in Port Irene, Cagayan, on Monday, allegedly in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling upholding a 2001 executive order banning the importation of used vehicles into the country.
Sen. Sergio Osmeña has defended the inclusion of real estate transactions on the list of activities that need to be reported to the Anti-Money Laundering Council if they involve an outright cash payment of $10,000 or P420,000.
The National Telecommunications Commission might stop telecommunications companies from taking in new subscribers if their services fail to become satisfactory after the agency’s third quarter performance review due by the end of September.
The government should also tax meat and other high-fat food if it wants to shield the public, especially the poor, from unhealthy things, a union leader for a tobacco company told the Senate committee on ways and means during a hearing on increasing “sin” taxes last week.
The Senate committee on agriculture has ordered the arrest of a rice importer after he failed to show up on Wednesday for the panel’s inquiry into the alleged smuggling of P450 million worth of rice from India through the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
The Senate committee on agriculture has ordered the top Indian executive of the company that shipped P450-million worth of rice to the country to show cause why he shouldn’t be cited for contempt after he told the inquiry that the bags of rice were unloaded in Subic only for transshipment, not for domestic sale in the Philippines.
Malacañang was ecstatic Thursday over Standard and Poors’ credit rating upgrade of the Philippines to a notch below investment grade.
President Aquino on Thursday graced the inauguration of $200-million shipping berth, envisioned to become by next year the single most advanced and productive berth in the country.
The Philippines gained some standing in the international campaign against money laundering and terrorist financing by being successfully upgraded from the “dark gray” list to the “gray” list of the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Malacañang expressed confidence Thursday that the Philippines would maintain “the positive trajectory” of the 6.4 percent GDP growth registered in the first quarter.
