Pasig River To Be Cleaned Up With The Use of Blockchain and IoT
​Source: https://bitpinas.com/news/philippines-pasig-river-use-blockchain-crypto-aid-rehab/

The Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC) is proving that blockchain and cryptocurrency are not only useful in finance but can also improve rehabilitation. The PRRC recently inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Cypher Odin, a local blockchain company, in helping the commission achieve a cleaner and greener Pasig river.

This article is originally published by BitPinas on October 2, 2018.

With the MOU signed, the two will work hand in hand in rehabilitating the 25-kilometer long river back to its glory. It will link both networks and will also have regular meetings to assess, identify, and provide solutions to Pasig river-related problems.

Mr. Mariano Villafuerte IV, CEO of Cypher Odin, hopes that the distributed ledger technology (DLT) from his company8 will help bring back the former Pasig river. A river where people can enjoy swimming, fishing for livelihood, dine and cruise with friends, travel, and a place where couples can hold their wedding ceremonies. The dream is to make the place lively and make it sustainable even for dolphins to visit.

Mr. Villafuerte proposes to deploy modern Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) in order to monitor the amount of garbage, water quality, tide levels, and other relevant data. The information gathered will be relayed by a trusted, peer-to-peer, and inter-agency platform. A form of blockchain technology that will provide transparency and accountability for all stakeholders.

In addition, Cypher Odin will also launch its own cryptocurrency to help save the river. The token will be called BOTcoin. It is a token that will help reward communities and companies that would help in the cleanup. He said that putting incentives and rewarding people to stop polluting are initiatives that will quickly adapt to a positive change.

“This initiative will be funded by cryptocurrency. Through BOTcoin, we plan on building SMART Islands, which will be centralized through blockchain initiatives to clean up the islands and alleviate poverty as well. BOTcoin is also running the Smart River Initiative (SRI), the world’s first SMART Rivers program, which will be the pilot program used to create the framework we need to clean out the pollution from every river, bay, and ocean.” – Mr. Mariano Villafuerte IV, CEO, Cypher Odin

Cypher Odin’s CEO also wants to tap on the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) and relevant agencies under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to have an involvement in protecting the country’s bodies of water.

“As the saying goes, you cannot clean the sink if the faucet is still running,” – Mr. Mariano Villafuerte IV, CEO, Cypher Odin
​
Notable people present during the MOU signing were Cypher Odin’s Director for Environmental Innovations,  Mr. Alfredo Lorenzo Roa; Cypher Odin’s CEO, Mr. Mariano Jose Diaz Villafuerte IV; PRRC’s Director, Mr. Jose Antonio Goiti; and Deputy Executive Director for Operations, Mr. Anshari Lomodag Jr.

​https://www.dof.gov.ph/pta/index.php/salient-features-of-ra-10143/

The passage of the Tax Amnesty Law on July 23, 2018 under Republic Act 11213 created numerous thoughts and raised so many questions in my mind.  Will it bring goodwill or chaos?  Will it be a vessel of freedom or corruption?  

The tax amnesty for me is very timely to clean up the messy records of the BIR on uncollected and unpaid taxes of any form.  This law will somehow help in the clean up but I am just anxious if this will not lead to more corruption both on the side of the government and the stakeholders.  

If this will be fully implemented and followed, we might benefit from it.

Let's take a look at its important provisions:

Title:  Tax Amnesty Act RA 11213
An act enhancing revenue administration and collection by granting an amnesty on ALL UNPAID internal revenue taxes imposed by the National Government for taxable year 2017 and prior years with respect to:

1. Estate Tax (Title II)
2. General Tax (Title III) -- Collected by BIR
   1. Income Tax
   2. Withholding Tax
   3. Capital Gains Tax
   4. Donor's Tax
   5. Value-added Tax (VAT)
   6. Other percentage taxes
   7. Excise Tax
   8. Documentary stamp tax 
3. General Tax (Title III) -- Collected by the Bureau of Customs
   1. ​VAT
   2. Excise Taxes
4. Tax Amnesty on Delinquencies (Title IV)
5. Confidentiality and Non-Use of Information and Data, and Amendment to the Statement of Total Assests and Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Networth

​Source:  www.officialgazette.gov.ph

MANILA, Philippines — Aboitiz Power Corp. has taken in partners for its Fly Ash Brick Project, a community-based initiative that will produce high-value construction products made from fly ash, a by-product of its coal power plant, as well as plastics.
AboitizPower said its unit Therma South Inc. (TSI) has signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with project collaborators Green Antz Builders Inc., United Kaibigan Cooperative (UKC) and Income Credit Cooperative for the project.
Under the partnership, TSI will provide the facilities, fly ash and training support to the communities while social enterprise Green Antz will provide the technology on how to produce the bricks.
Fly ash is one of the naturally-occurring products from the coal combustion process and is a material that is nearly the same as volcanic ash.
Its most common use of fly ash is as a replacement for portland cement used in producing concrete. Concrete made with fly ash is stronger and more durable than traditional concrete. Fly ash concrete is easier to pour, has lower permeability, and resists alkali-silica reaction, which results in a longer service life.
“The realization of this project is a delivered promise. We have made this commitment to our community back during our pre-construction days. This project will not only create livelihood for the community. It will also support the company’s thrust towards environmental stewardship,” TSI vice president and plant manager Valentin Saludes III said.
TSI is the owner and operator of the 300-megawatt (MW) Davao Baseload Power Plant along the borders of Davao City and Davao del Sur.
For workforce, UKC will recruit members solely from TSI’s host communities, Barangays Binugao and Inawayan, and manage day-to-day operations. Income Credit Cooperative, in turn, will provide financial support to set up the business.
Using technology from Green Antz, the bricks produced from the fly ash and plastics are around six times stronger than the typical hollow block. TSI’s fly ash has cementitious properties which makes it a durable material while the shredded plastics act as a thermal insulation.
Aside from being more durable and insulated, fly ash bricks also cost less than hollow blocks per square meter. Average construction cost using the traditional hollow blocks is around P1,300 per square meter while fly ash bricks cost only around P900.
“The Philippines is the third biggest source of plastics in the ocean. We wanted to create something useful out of these wastes, and that’s where these bricks come in. Each brick contains up to 100 sachets,” Green Antz president Rommel Benig said.
Green Antz is a social enterprise that has been made eco bricks for various sites in the Philippines, including NET Park and the De La Salle University Campus at Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City.


By Danessa Rivera (The Philippine Star) | Updated December 22, 2017 - 12:00am

THE housing backlog continues to influence developers with their residential projects despite the seemingly flat market price, based on Pinnacle Real Estate Market Insight report for the second quarter of 2017.

Citing data from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the country’s residential property values slightly grew by 1.1 percent in the first three months of this year, from the same period in 2016.

The Residential Real Estate Price Index edged higher by 1.3, from 115.9 in the January-to-March period last year to 117.2 in the similar quarter in 2017. Comparing it from the base level of “100” in the first three months of 2014, residential property prices grew by 17.2 percent.

While the increase is substantial, the slight increase from the first quarter of 2016 means that prices are ‘plateauing’. Nonetheless, the big players are still building due to the huge housing backlog. Approximately, half of the 6 million with housing needs ‘can afford to buy.

Study estimates that the units of residential condominium projects in Metro Manila could aggregate to 240,000 by December 31.
It is noted that major player, SM Prime Holdings Inc., the pioneering homegrown company with P1 trillion in market capitalization, will launch residential units anywhere between 15,000 and 18,000 this year as regards its housing development.
The Ayala Land Group, with P100 billion worth of projects this year, has set the launch of Alveo brand’s P40 billion worth of housing inventory, consisting of 16 new projects.
Megaworld Corp, which comes third at P146.36 billion, will be developing a P30-billion 35.6-hectare township in San Fernando, Pampanga in the next 10 years, combining residential towers, office buildings, a mall, retail hubs, school, ampitheater and events venues.
Banking on stronger-than-expected market demand, Vista Land Group upgraded its target offering to the property market from P30 billion to P42 billion worth of real-estate projects this year, including P12-billion property developments in the first quarter.
“The top developers have been leveraging their sizes to achieve an economy of scale. While most of them would be offering attractive rents and prices for their products, one of their eyes would be watching on the quality of their offerings. Buyers and tenants will remember unpleasant turnover conditions. In addition, efficiency of operations and maintenance are, likewise, viewed highly by occupiers,” Salas noted.
Small and medium players, on the other hand, are waiting for the implementing rules and regulations to get a green light, as well as the price ceiling for vertical socialized projects.
The BSP, likewise, reported the total loans released by both universal and commercial banks to the property sector.
According to latest figures, a total of P1.31-trillion loans were extended to borrowers during the first quarter ending March 31, 2017. This represents an increase of 21.5 percent for the same period last year.
“Again, this substantial increase shows that there are more people buying, and they are being financed by the banks,” said the director of research and consulting of Precsi.

By:  Roderick Abad, Business Mirror

SC says 1-hectare property grew to 66 ha after resurvey

CROWDED Houses and establishments have been sprouting on Baguio City’s hillsides and available spaces as the summer capital welcomes migrants, students, tourists and investors. EV ESPIRITU
BAGUIO CITY—Reminding the courts that they need to be “more aware of the machinations used by unscrupulous parties to acquire and title lands in Baguio City,” the Supreme Court (SC) has invalidated seven transfer certificates of title (TCT) awarded to a local property owner for lands that grew in size from about 1.181 hectares (11,810 square meters) to 66.0554 ha (660,554 sqm).
The Land Registration Authority and a land validation committee concluded as far back as 2002 and 2006 that the lots covered by the TCT issued to Gloria Rodriguez de Guzman were fraudulently expanded using a property resurvey.
But in 2009, the Court of Appeals (CA) approved the validation of five of seven TCT in Barangay Dontogan and Apugan here, despite the objections of the Office of the Solicitor General and residents of these villages.
The appeals court originally ruled against De Guzman in a 2007 decision where it concluded that “expanded areas of the lots covered by [her] titles, which were only included within the title as a result of the subdivision of the lots covered by the mother titles, cannot be validated.”
In a December 2016 order released last week, the SC’s second division reversed parts of the CA ruling on De Guzman’s land stake.
“As in this case, parties obtained more land through a resurvey of property. They filed an action of proceeding to ‘correct’ the technical descriptions or the supporting survey plans. Trial courts become participants in this scheme,” said the order penned by SC Associate Justice Marvic Leonen.
“These machinations brought about by the clearly erroneous application of doctrine should stop. Otherwise, genuine property owners in Baguio City will forever be unsure of possible land grabbing,” the order said.
These lands were being marketed by a subdivision developer in 2006 until then Mayor Braulio Yaranon, a retired judge, denounced the supposed fraud.
When the CA reversed itself and ruled in De Guzman’s favor in 2009, residents of Dontogan, Apugan and Outlook Drive protested and picketed the CA’s summer compound here.
The SC said the lands covered by De Guzman’s TCT were also subjects of a legal controversy in 1912, three years after Baguio was declared a chartered city by the American colonial government.
Baguio, built from the ground up by the Americans, was populated through the auction of townsite lands.
However, before all townsite lands were classified as alienable public lands, the director of lands filed Benguet Civil Registration Case No. 1, General Land Record Office No. 211, with the Court of First Instance (CFI) on April 12, 1919, to first settle or adjudicate private land claims.
On Nov. 13, 1922, the CFI decreed “all lands, buildings and real rights within the Baguio townsite reservation, as public properties,” and declared “all private claims not pursued in said proceedings as barred forever,” except for established reservations and private lots awarded by the court.
Following a series of legal cases involving unresolved private land claims, then President Ferdinand Marcos issued Presidential Decree No. 1271 which “reiterated the nullity of the titles.”
This provided “innocent third parties the opportunity to have their properties validated by the Presidential Decree (PD) No. 1271 committee, also called the Baguio validation committee,” the SC said.
De Guzman’s acquisitions were from titled properties nullified by PD 1271 and “did not enjoy the presumption of regularity accorded to all transfer certificates of title,” the court said, stressing that “by law, they were considered invalid unless validated by the Baguio validation committee.”
“On Aug. 31, 2006, the Baguio validation committee disapproved [De Guzman’s] applications for validation on account of the expanded areas above the original size covered by the mother titles,” the SC said.
“We rule that … the statement made in [De Guzman’s] applications that the properties were acquired by purchase is false. The expanded areas were acquired only through a resurvey of the properties. This is a valid ground to disallow the validation of the transfer certificates of title,” the high court ruled.
“Transfer Certificates of Title Nos. T-12826, T-12827, T-12828, T-12829, T-12830, T-12831, and T-12832 must, thus, be denied validation.”

By: Vincent Cabreza- Reporter / @Inquirer_Baguio
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 12:13 AM April 18, 2017

MANILA, Philippines – The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) announces that 31 out of 44
passed the Real Estate Consultant Licensure Examination given by the Board of Real Estate Service in Manila last December 11, 2016 (Written) and January 10-12 & March 29-30, 2017 (Revalida).

Roll of Successful Examinees in the REAL ESTATE CONSULTANT LICENSURE EXAMINATION
Held on DECEMBER 11, 2016 (WRITTEN) and JANUARY 10, 2017 & FF. DAYS (REVALIDA) Released on MARCH 31, 2017
1        ALBERTO, JAMES  LOFAMIA
2        ANTONIO, MA THERESA BERNADETTE  LANDICHO
3        BALDOVINO, GINA  GOMEZ
4        BALMAS, JAIME  GASPACHO
5        BAUTISTA, CEZAR  LIPARDO
6        BELLO, ESTELITA  DANDO
7        BRITON, REYNALDO JR  BANDALAN
8        DEIPARINE, MARIA LOURDES  SUYANG
9        DELA CRUZ, ALBERT  PAGCU
10        DELOS REYES, MARIA DIANA CAROLYN  ANTONIO
11        DOCTOLERO, JESSIE  BETONIO
12        DOMINGO, TERESITA  LAVILLA
13        EBARLE, HOSPICIO PEP JR  CALUYA
14        ENOLPE, REYNALDO  RULE
15        ESPEJO, EDGARDO  DUMO
16        EUGENIO, JOSEFINA  MONSANTO
17        GARCIA, PRUDENCIO JR  REYES
18        GATANELA, ELIAS JR  AMARO
19        JAVIER, JOSEPHINE  PADERES
20        MARCELO, GERARD  CASTRO
21        MARZAN, ROGELIO  BENITO
22        MONGE, VIRGILIO  SANTOS
23        NISPEROS, JONA  LEE
24        PEDROSA, FIEL  MORON
25        POTICANO, BERNARDO  IGANA
26        SAN LUIS, LILY  MANALOTO
27        SANTOS, BENJAMIN  BONDOC
28        SANTOS, OWEN  ALDON
29        TAN, BEVERLY  ANTE
30        UBOAN, ELEANOR  BORJA
31        VENTANILLA, ALRIA  MAGALONA

​ (The Philippine Star) | Updated April 3, 2017 - 12:00am

​http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/04/03/17/31-pass-march-2017-real-estate-consultant-licensure-exam

MANILA, Philippines – Ayala Corp. and LT Group Inc. (LTG), two of the country’s biggest conglomerates, are set to launch in the first half of next year their biggest joint project to date, a mixed-use 35-hectare estate development along the C-5 corridor, spanning Quezon City and Pasig.

The project is a 50-50 joint venture between Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) and LTG’s Eton Properties, ALI’s top official said.
ALI is the property development arm of the Ayala Group while LTG is the holding company of taipan Lucio Tan for his investments in airlines, tobacco, alcoholic beverages, banking and property.

“We’re going to launch in the first half of next year. It will be both in Quezon City and in Pasig,” ALI president Bernard Dy told The STAR in a recent interview.

He said both parties are now finalizing the master-plan for the mixed-use project, which will have residential and commercial spaces.

The estate, which is envisioned to be the greenest waterfront development in eastern Metro Manila, will have more than 50 percent of open space comprising of “pocket parks.”

Dy said there would be a wide array of product lines – residential, office and commercial.  “It will be broad-based. We’re going to see all our product lines,” Dy said.  

The plan also includes the construction of “an iconic bridge” over the famed Marikina River to connect both parcels of the estate in the two cities.

The sprawling 35-hectare project is comprised of a 30-hectare property in Pasig, which is owned by LTG’s Eton and a five-hectare land in Quezon City owned by ALI. It is accessible from Amang Rodriguez in Pasig and C-5 in Libis, Quezon City.
In all, the estate’s gross floor area (GFA) is estimated at 1.77 million square meters.

It will be developed in at least two phases, with the first phase to be launched starting in 2017 to 2021.

Dy expressed optimism on the project, saying the Philippines’ robust economy — 7.1 percent growth in the third quarter of the year — would be supportive of growth in the property sector.

“The market continues to be good and robust. Primarily, it’s because we have a very strong economic growth,” Dy said.
He noted this strong economic growth has been supportive of both the property and tourism industries.

In a disclosure announcing the deal early this year, Tan, chairman of LTG, said the project would be a perfect addition to the growing portfolio of Eton Properties.

“We believe that this is an excellent partnership that will enable us to build an outstanding mixed-use development which will offer a wide range of property investment and lifestyle options to customers,” Tan said.
​
In the nine months to September this year, ALI reported a P15.06 billion net income from P12.83 billion a year ago on the back of consolidated revenues of P85.49 billion during the period or 14 percent higher than the P75.05 billion a year ago.
Eton Properties, meanwhile, reported a bottom line of P249 million for the first three quarters of 2016, 26 percent more than the P197 million generated in the same period in 2015.


Source:  By Iris Gonzales (The Philippine Star)