TIEZA sees better water services when Boracay reopens this Oct.
MANILA – The Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) said it expects more competition between the two water service providers in Boracay after TIEZA was recognized as the sole regulator for the service on the island.
T I E Z A s a i d i t c a n benchmark operational data of the two service providers and promote efficiency with incentives, as well as impose penalties for failure to meet commitments.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources ( DENR) earlier said that TIEZA was the sole regulator of water utilities on the resort island, allowing the agency to divide the island between the Ayala Group’s Boracay Island Water Inc. and Lucio Tan’s Boracay Tubi Systems Inc.
Before t he i s l a nd’s shutdown i n April, both TIEZA and the National Water Resources Board were claiming to be Boracay’s water regulator.
TIEZA also said that even before President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the island’s rehabilitation, the agency had already allotted more than P1 billion to improve Boracay’s water and drainage systems and had already commenced the project in December 2017.
Meanwhile, in a video posted on Facebook, the DENR said Boracay’s water requirement was 23 million l i ters per day, of which 18 million would become wastewater.
The DENR estimated that Boracay’s carrying capacity was only 19,215 tourists a day and the island could only accommodate 6,405 tourist arrivals per day with the assumption that tourists will stay on the island for 3 days on average.
Boracay is set to reopen on Oct. 26 after a 6-month shut down. ( News)
ABS-CBN
MANILA – The World Bank has downgraded its economic growth forecast for the Philippines for this year, following the slower- than- expected growth in the first six months of the year.
A c c o r d i n g t o t h e Philippines Economic Update (PEU) released by the World Bank, economic growth is now pegged at 6.5 percent this year, lower than the earlier forecast of 6.7 percent.
The update came after growth slowed to 6.0 percent in the second quarter of the year from the 6.7 percent in 2017, being the year-to-date growth to 6.3 percent.
“Heightened g l o bal uncertainty and ri sing domestic inflation weighed on the Philippine economy in the first half of 2018,” Rong Qian, senior economist for the World Bank in the Philippines, said at a press conference in Taguig City.
This is the third downgrade so far on the Philippine economic outlook after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week revised lower its outlook to 6.5 percent from the 6.7 percent it earlier forecast.
Last month, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) also downgraded its outlook to 6.4 percent from the earlier outlook of 6.8 percent.
Among the downside risks cited by the World Bank are the rising interest rates in the United States which could raise external financing costs and eventually weaken the local currency.
“To manage t h e s e r i s k s , m a i n t a i n i n g s t rong macroeconomic fundamentals is key. At the same time, accelerating s t r uctural r e f orms t o i mprove i nvestments i n physical infrastructure and make better use of capital, l abor, and technology to increase productivity remains a very important agenda for the Philippines,” said Mara Warwick, World Bank Country Director for the Philippines.
“I n t h e l o n g - t e r m, sustaining high productivity growth is critical for the c o untry t o become a prosperous society free of poverty,” Warwick.( News) added GMA