DESPITE the rising prices of oil and basic commodities, the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) sees spending by companies on missionary projects in communities where they operate to remain flat.

“They can’t afford not to do CSR [Corporate Social Responsibility] efforts,” MAP president Ed Chua told the BusinessMirror. “Especially companies in for the long-haul can’t spend on corporate social responsibility.”

Chua, who is also country manager for Pilipinas Shell, said the surging oil price and inflation are reasons enough for companies not to hold out on their missionary programs.

Paul A. Aquino, president and chief executive of Philippine National Oil Co-Energy Development Corp. (PNOC-EDC), said the board has approved 2.5 percent of the company budget for extraneous activities to be allotted to CSR.

Aquino said for the past four years, listed PNOC-EDC— largest producer of geothermal energy—spends an average of P167 million annually for CSR activities.

Last year, this amount partly helped 6,072 patients and supported 43 barangay health centers, according to the company’s 2007 financial report.

PNOC-EDC, which is also in a legal dispute for drilling near Mount Apo, said total cost incurred by the company to comply with environmental laws for 2007 was at P98 million. The firm posted revenues of P18.8 billion last year.

“If we don’t do CSR, which connotes for us security and continuing operations, we would stop, and that would mean a loss of P100 million a day,” Aquino said.

To encourage companies like PNOC-EDC, MAP launched a campaign to award some of its 900 individual-members who led their respective companies in making CSR a part of their respective corporate strategies.

According to member Lydia P. Sarmiento, this means the company should have, among others, included CSR in their board agenda and have allocated budget for its implementation.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development defined CSR as “the commitment of business to contribute to sustainable economic development, working with employees, their families, the local community and society at large to improve their quality of life.”

LA Union—Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) may put up another cable-landing facility, this time in the south, the phone giant’s chairman said right after the inauguration of the Philippine leg of the $550-million fiber-cable network.

PCCI wants energy sector to explain rate issues

FILIPINO businessmen want the players in the power sector to start explaining—in clear and detailed terms—why the country is suffering from “unreasonably high-power rates.”

CEBU electricity consumers may soon see the end of their low much talked-about low power rates.

Aboitiz Power Corp. (APC) said it will apply for a rate reset under the performance-based regulation (PBR) of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for their distribution companies, effectively increasing their power rates by 2010.

DESPITE the rising prices of oil and basic commodities, the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) sees spending by companies on missionary projects in communities where they operate to remain flat.

SECTION 5.2 of Republic Act (RA) 8799 (Securities Regulation Code of 2000) does not qualify the Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) jurisdiction when it mandates that it “shall retain jurisdiction over pending cases involving intracorporate disputes submitted for final resolution,  which should be resolved within one year from the enactment of this Code.”