Philippines, as a New “Breakout Nation”

I was stunned and smile after i saw the video below from Reuters regarding the Philippines as one of the new “Breakout Nations” per analysis of the Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

“Breakout Nations” are countries that could sustain fast growth. Compared to other countries the TIP(Turkey, Indonesia, Philippines) have reasonable expectations from investors.

The only thing that TIP should do is to increase its per capita income or the income per person which is calculated by the quotient between the gross national income or the gross domestic product and the total population.

Indonesia and the Philippines have to increase by 5% its per capita income by 2017 to achieve the world’s GDP per capita of $5,000 (P215,000). This could be achieved by increasing our GDP while having an aggressive population control program.

Here’s a chart for the Philippines published in CNN’s Eye On quoting the data from the World Bank and CIA Fact Book.

Good luck to us and Mabuhay Philippines… Let’s have morefuninthePhilippines!

USC-KNN Season 7 is On!

The USC-KNN kicks off its regular season for this year with a moderate number of small entrepreneurs and would-be-entrepreneurs attending the Business Plan Seminar on April 21, 2012 at the University of San Carlos-Downton Campus.

One of the rooms occupied by participants of the Business Planning Seminar

USC-KNN Committee Chair Carmen Piramide said this year’s attendees are lean and mean with most of them have the potentials to become successful businessmen.

About 60 participants from various places of Cebu came to learn the business planning lecture by some faculty members of the School of Business and Economics of the USC. A participant from Dalaguete, a town South of Cebu came as early as six in the morning at the venue. Other out-of-town participants also came from the town of Argao.

The whole day seminar includes topics such as Marketing, Operations, Human Resource and Finance. The topics are covering the aspects that are included in the business plan.

The participants are asked to make their own business plan about their intended business and are given a period to submit the plan to the KNN Committee for screening and selection process. Those who are chosen shall be included in the regular season and shall receive seed capital amounting to about P10,000 or any amount to be decided by the committee.

During the entire regular season, the winners or the finalists shall compete against each other by operating and managing their own business with the seed capital and assistance provided by the KNN program. Part of their participation will be their guesting at the radio program over DyAB1512 where they will be introduced to the public. Aside from it, they will be asked to participate in other activities like trade fair and bazaars.

The "Mentoring Session" every last Friday of the month is designed to assist the USC-KNN beneficiaries. Faculty members from the USC-School of Business and Economics provided free consultancy services to the beneficiaries who may refer or ask questions about their business during the session.

At the end of the season in February 2013, a Big Winner shall be declared and shall be given additional seed money. (Learn more about USC-KNN? Visit here.) Like us in Facebook.

New Four Species of Fresh Water Crabs Found in the Philippines

Photo by AFP

The AFP reports didn’t however include “crab mentality” of the Filipinos. lol

The four new species were found in the forest of Palawan. By the way, today is Earth Day. Let’s help “Mobilize Earth“. Here’s a video from EartDay.Org:

No Tsunami Alert in RP After Aceh 8.7-Quake

BREAKING NEWS/April 11,2012: No Tsunami Alert in RP After Aceh 8.7-Quake

The Philippines is not included in the list of Tsunami Watch by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center that listed 28 countries including Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and India.

However, PhiVolcs‘ Renato Solidum says they are monitoring the situation. The PTWC says similar quakes “have the potential to generate a widespread destructive tsunami that can affect coastlines across the entire Indian Ocean basin.”

The quake is traced 30 kilometers under the sea near Aceh–the place in Indonesia where 200,000 people were killed during a tsunami in 2004.

Filing of Income Tax Returns is Extended!!!

April 11, 2012/Filing of Income Tax Returns is Extended!!!

There is no need to hurry this weekend as the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) extends the deadline of the filing of the annual Income Tax Return (ITR) for the private sector up to Monday because April 15 this year is a Sunday.

BIR Commissioner Kim Jacinto Henares also assured that all offices of the BIR, including all Authorized Agent Banks (AAB) nationwide shall remain opened until 5pm on Saturday. AABs that normally close at 3pm are likewise asked to extend banking hours up to 5pm on Saturday.

At the BIR District Office in Mandaue City, Cebu today it’s been observed that income tax filers are not that many.Filers are usually cramming at the last day of the filing of the ITR.

This year, the BIR is using an expanded form with more personal details of the filer at the first page of the three-fold form that consists of 6 long pages in a landscape format. The personal details now includes the email address and contact number of the filer.

The new Income Tax Return form 1701 is a three-fold long sized paper with 6 pages. Spreading it would appear the form is longer than the height of a big picture frame.

However, the form like that of the ITR form 1701 above is described as more “computer-friendly” but very complicated to comprehend to many individual taxpayers. There are so detailed entries and are not in sequence unlike in the old forms that everything is summarized in the front page–from the gross compensation, taxable income, exemption, tax withheld, and up to tax due/to be refunded.

This blogger took about 2 hours to accomplish a set of three copies of the ITR 1701 form. 😦