Bogus entities

Transportation and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas may have suspended the award of 489 “dead” provincial bus franchises that used to be held by Pantranco North Express Inc., (PNEI) but more remains to be done.

Secretary Roxas should not only permanently cancel the award. He should also identify the culprits behind this, especially following recent reports that the sale of these franchises to Pantranco employees was done by two bogus entities, a labor union and a corporation with expired Securities and Exchange (SEC) registration.

According to Lawyer Hazel Minoza,   the lawyer of a group of bus operators opposed to the sale, the SEC registration of the Pantranco Retrenched Employees Association (PANREA) was revoked on Dec. 1 2005 by the SEC for its failure to file its general information sheet from 2000 to 2005 and its financial statement from 1999 to 2005.

The SEC revoked the registration of PNEI, the corporation from which the PANREA acquired the lines, on July 2, 2003 also for violating reportorial requirements of the commission.

Minoza noted that two entities with no SEC registration actually sold and bought 489 bus franchises which had been declared dead 20 years ago, an expired status consistently sustained by the government transport bodies for almost two decades.

A certification from the SEC’s Company Monitoring and Registration Department dated June 5,2012 certified the revocation of the PANREA registration while another certification dated April 19, 2012 certified the revocation of the PNEI registration.

The sale of the 489 franchises was approved by the Land Transport Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) late May, while the nation’s attention was focused on the impeachment trial of ousted Chief Justice Renato Corona.

The SEC certifications cast doubt on the claim that there were really legal entities involved in the sale of the controversial franchises, according to Minoza.

Five companies owned by the Hernandez family, Pangasinan Five Star, Bataan Transit, Victory Liner, Cisco and First North Luzon, acquired the 489 lines in a wholesale grant, which is unprecedented in the history of the LTFRB.

Pangasinan Five Star, Victory Liner and Bataan Transit, according to LTFRB files, were once hard-core opponents of the franchise revival. They said the lines had long expired and can neither be sold nor transferred to other parties.

Many bus operators protested the sale, citing a body of rulings from the DOTC and the LTFRB that the lines had long expired.

Just last January, the LTFRB informed Agham Party list Rep. Angelo Palmones that the lines had long expired. He has filed a resolution seeking a congressional investigation of the sale, which he said may have been done in a “ brazen and illegal” manner.

Palmones also noted the hasty nature of the sale, which he said is an assault on the integrity platform of President Aquino.

Modern hospital for breast cancer patients

The newly-elected chairman of the Philippine Foundation for Breast Care, Inc. (PFBCI) has vowed to construct a building in Metro Manila to house the foundation’s office and state-of the art clinic to help the growing number of breast cancer patients in the Philippines.

Businessman Andy Lugtu, the first non-doctor chairman of the foundation, said he will also seek funding from local and international institutions to buy modern hospital equipments because of the growing number of patients who are seeking help from the foundation.

Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado-Revilla administered the oath-taking ceremony of the new officers of the Philippine Foundation for Breast Care, Inc. (PFBCI) led by its chairman Andy Lugtu and Ma. Lourdes Cortez as vice chairman and president at Crowne Plaza Galleria in Ortigas, Pasig, the other night.

PFBCI provides accessible and affordable diagnostics and treatment services to cancer patients. The institution also implements several advocacy programs that aim to increase women’s awareness on breast cancer like screening, early detection, resource generation, emotional healing, and support groups, among others.

The foundation’s Breast Care Center is currently housed at the East Avenue Medical Center (EAMC) in Quezon City and needs total renovation, according to PFBCI founder Dr. Florentino Doble. PFBCI is a non-profit, volunteer-based organization founded over 10 years ago by Doble.

Doble said they created several programs because we want to impart to the people that breast cancer is curable. “We firmly believe that by educating the public on the importance of prevention and early detection, we could prevent the rise of breast cancer incidence,” Doble said.

He said breast cancer is cancer that forms in tissues of the breast, usually the ducts (tubes that carry milk to the nipple) and lobules (glands that make milk). It occurs in both men and women, although male breast cancer is rare. 

Citing latest studies, Lugtu said the Philippines is not only among the countries with the highest incidence rate of breast cancer in Asia but the highest. He learned that one out of 13 women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime.

Lugtu, vice chairman of Manila Nature’s Link, maker of popular supplement vitamin Malunggai Life Oil, said the breast cancer survival rate in the Philippines is below 40 percent, meaning one patient out of 49 is likely to die. 

Breast cancer research has revealed that all women are at risk. Approximately 70 percent of breast cancers occur in women with none of the known risk factors.

Only about five percent of breast cancers are inherited and about 80 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer will be the first to be victims in their families.

Breast cancer is the leading killer of women ages 35 to 54 worldwide. More than a million women develop breast cancer without knowing it and almost 500,000 die from it every year. One out of four who are diagnosed with breast cancer die within the first five years. No less than 40 percent die within 10 years.

He added that the global incidence of breast cancer has tremendously risen by 256 percent the past 30 years with Southeast Asia increasing by 479 percent.    

On the other hand, estimated new cases and deaths from breast cancer in the United States in 2012 reaches a 226,870 (female), 2,190 (male) while deaths: 39, 510 (female) and 410 (male). It is estimated that 226, 680 women will be diagnosed with and 39,510 will die of cancer of the breast in 2012.

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