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Tomorrow’s birthday celebration of Jose Rizal, a
practicing doctor during his life time, coincides with
the final arguments before the Supreme Court of whether
or not the country’s Milk Code will finally be
implemented. Said another way, the Department of Health
will push for the junking of the temporary restraining
order requested by the Pharmaceuticals and Heath care
Association of the Philippines (PHAP).
At stake
is P21.5 billion that Filipino families spend annually
for infant formula milk.
Basically, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III is
encouraging mothers to breastfeed their children until
they are two years old, while PHAP believes its members
are providing a healthy alternative to women who don’t
want to breastfeed for aesthetic, health, or
work-related reasons.
****
Did you
know 1:
There’s talk Alliance Francais, the cultural arm of the
French Embassy, has cut down the number of language
classes that it offers. In large part, the low turnout
can be traced to the language’s perceived
“un-usefulness” in the country outside of ordering
French dishes with panache.
Did you
know 2:
That Cebu Pacific flights to Hong Kong are usually
overbooked is good for chief executive officer Lance
Gokongwei. Unfortunately, the budget airline might not
have many repeat business if passengers with meetings to
go to are bumped off or are told to take a chance from
the Cebu end at their own expense.
****
Interestingly, when the Capital Markets Research Center
(CMRC) charged a participation fee of P800 for its
second in a series of fora on the capital markets last
Thursday, it had to add a lot more seats. The third
forum, scheduled for this October, will deal with the
bullish stock market.
CMRC is
a joint project of First Metro Investment Corp. and the
University of Asia and the Pacific.
By the
way, First Metro president Francisco Sebastian believes
that, while the country’s bond market is virtually
non-existent, it is on the verge of taking off in large
part because interest rates are at their historic lows,
the government deficit is narrowing, and inflation is
down. Hey, even the country’s saving rate is now at 30
percent.
Right
now, 80 percent or P4.4 trillion of the country’s
financial assets are controlled by banks. From 2000 to
2006, however, bank assets grew by less than 6 percent
while trust funds grew by 9.8 percent; and insurance,
11.9 percent.
Mutual
funds assets stood at only P77.7 million and, given such
a low base, generated a fantastic growth of 56 percent.
****
Bank
notes 1:
There’s a rush among middle managers of the Development
Bank of the Philippines to make the end-June deadline
for its latest retirement program.
You see,
there’s talk the bank will be cutting down on perks
given to its officers.
Bank
notes 2:
When not at his Asian Development Bank office, Asian
Bond Market Initiative head Masato Miyachi puts on his
dancing shoes. Miyachi took up ballroom dancing two
years after being assigned to the Philippines although
the initial decision was not the same one as the hero in
both the Japanese and American movie versions of “Shall
We Dance?” |
