Following the TWG Meeting last 26 February, the House Committee on Ecology quickly called a follow-up Meeting on 5 March 2020.  (This was to be PAGASA’s last physical meeting for a long time in view of the upcoming but unexpected lockdown due to COVID-19.  The next TWG Meet for this purpose was held on 30 June 2020 but was virtual in nature.  PAGASA failed to attend that one.)

In the Senate for TWG Mtg on Amendments for Retail Liberalization Act. Senate wants to decrease min.cap.to $500k. Philippine Retailers Aassociation bats for $1M min.cap.while PAGASA is batting for $1.5M. Current min.cap.since d year 2000 is $2.5M but there are only a few takers.

Congressional Committee on Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Technical Working Group (TWG) Meeting on 25 September 2018 requesting food retailers to provide free space for MSME Suppliers.

PAGASA was invited to the Technical Working Group Meeting in Congress on 23 March 2018 chaired by Committee on Health Rep. Helen Tan, M.D. as it presses on more restrictions on the sale of cigarettes. A very popular bill attended by a host of Congressmen, the bill intends to raise the age for legal smokers to 21 and above instead of the current 18. It proposes that retailers keep cigarettes completely out of sight of customers (only a standard sign in the store would inform smokers that a store sells smokes). Supermarkets will be banned from selling anything less than a full pack of cigarettes, etc., etc.  Japan Tobacco International’s CEO was there to calmly remind the good congressmen that their company was politely invited to invest in the Philippines and JTI even invested some more when it bought Mighty Cigarettes. JTI has not made a single centavo in profits since it invested in our country the last few years.

On 4 May 2017, PAGASA was invited to the deliberations for the Internal Rules & Regulations (IRR) of the Expanded Consumer Act by the Senate Committee on Trade, Industry & Entrepreneurship based on the bills filed by Senators Bam Aquino & Ralph Recto to update the public on circumstances surrounding online retailing and the newer forms of modern commerce.  At the session were DTI Usec. Ted Pascua and Laban Konsumer Chairman (& former DTI Usec. Vic Dimagiba) who “battled” it out over definitions, semantics and legal parlance on certain terms, clauses and stipulations of the proposed Expanded Consumer Act of the Philippines. Session was adjourned by 1pm and to be continued at a later date.  Though a lot of the participants were barristers, STC gave his practical two- cents’ perspective on a more realistic approach on how things are done in the workplace regarding sales and consumers’ rights.

In the morning of 28 Nov. 2016, the Technical Working Group for the new “No Shortchange Act” met for the fourth time (and the first time after consultative public hearings were held in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao).  The TWG was honored by the presence of new DTI Usec. Ted Pascua as he chaired over the meeting to straighten out issues brought to fore from the regional public hearings.  PAGASA’s STC and PCCTA’s Carling Cabochan were the only two representatives from the private sector to attend this Meeting (the rest were all from DTI’s different divisions except for BSP’s Roy R. Hernandez). There appeared difficulty in the enforcement of this law as nearing the completion of the crafting of its Internal Rules and Regulations (IRR), gray areas (contradicting laws) make implementation both cumbersome and troublesome.

After the first Congressional Hearing on the proposed Exact Change Bill, a Technical Working Group (TWG) headed by Davao del Norte’s Cong. (and Senior Vice Chairman of the House Committee on Trade & Industry) Anthony Rafael del Rosario was formed. PAGASA’s Steven Cua was invited to give inputs from the supermarket’s perspective regarding said Bill in order to protect the interests of all stakeholders. Also present were representatives from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Department of Trade and Industry and the consumers group at this Meeting held on 26 May 2014.