Category: General

PUTRAJAYA, The Ministry of Transport (MOT) and the Road Transport Department (RTD) have not given approval to online insurance renewal platform BJAK Sdn Bhd (BJAK) to carry out road tax renewal transactions.

RTD in a statement today said that it takes a serious view of the advertisement issued by BJAK Sdn Bhd (BJAK) through bjak.my website and BJAK social media in relation to the Motor Vehicle License (LKM) or online road tax transaction services offered to the public including the free road tax programme.

RTD said a statement displayed by BJAK through its website that “Online roadtax renewal at BJAK has been audited, validated and approved by RTD” is untrue and misleading to the public.

“This department has also received a number of complaints from the public, among which road tax renewal carried out through the BJAK website, did not have the validity period of road tax updated,” according to the statement.

The department also explained that there is no system integration between the RTD System (MySIKAP
) and the system used by BJAK.

At the same time, it said the department had also received complaints of dissatisfied members of the public who had to pay additional charges when renewing the road tax imposed by the platform.

“This department would like to emphasise that neither MOT or RTD have approved the imposition of any additional charges currently imposed by BJAK on its customers.

“RTD wants to encourage road tax renewal transactions through RTD counters, kiosks, RTD Mobile counters, MyJPJ applications, RTD public portals and RTD business partner platforms (Pos Malaysia, MyEG and PUSPAKOM) only,” he said.

The department said that the operation carried out by BJAK related to the road tax renewal transaction was without the permission of RTD.

Therefore, the public is advised to be careful with any platform that offers illegal road tax renewal services to prevent fraud and losses, apart from referring or contacting RTD first for more information.

“This department is committed to ensure the safety and
well-being of the public, especially RTD customers, is always maintained,” it said.

Any official complaint can be channelled to RTD through the RTD Official Complaint Portal – https://jpj.spab.gov.my/.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

MANILA: The Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair to be conducted in Mindanao this week is part of the fulfillment of the election campaign promise of unity of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., a Mindanao lawmaker said Monday.

In a press briefing at the House of Representatives, Assistant Majority Leader and Lanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong debunked claims that the Marcos administration is not taking care of Mindanao.

‘To give you a shorter answer, hindi po totoo yon. Dahil alam po natin ang Presidente, nung umpisa po siyang nangampanya nung 2022, ang kanya pong slogan talaga ay Unity, (that is not true. We all know that when the President started his campaign in 2022, his slogan is unity)’ Adiong said.

He said the Bagong Filipinas Fair has already been conducted in Bukidnon, Sultan Kudarat, Davao de Oro, and Agusan del Norte, and will be rolled out in Zamboanga and Tawi-Tawi on May 9.

‘So nakita po natin (we saw) how the President actualizes the promise (of unity) that he mentioned during the
campaign and how he will keep that promise up until the end of his term,’ he said.

‘From the northern part of Luzon to the southern tip of the Philippines, nakita po natin napuntahan niya ang Luzon at pupuntahan niya po, ang (we have seen that he has visited Luzon, he went to) Tawi-Tawi, that’s the farthest island in the Philippines closer to our neighbor in Borneo,’ he said.

Adiong also noted that the Marcos administration would build ‘one of the longest bridges of the country’ that would be connecting Lanao del Norte and Ozamis City ‘to make it easier for the commuters and for transportation of goods, for the inland trading exchanges of goods in between and among provinces in Mindanao.’

He also pointed out that President Marcos is also respecting the peace and electoral processes in Mindanao.

‘He will make sure that in 2025, we will respect the right of the people to elect their choice of leaders. In 2025 come BARMM elections that will be the first election…So, I don’t think it’s fair to say that the Pr
esident is actually neglecting Mindanao,’ he stressed.

Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker and Quezon Rep. David Suarez said he has personally seen the delivery of Bagong Pilipinas services in several Mindanao provinces and could not understand why there are claims that President Marcos is neglecting Mindanao.

‘Hindi bababa sa isang bilyong piso worth of various programs and projects iyong nai-implement ng mga (Various programs and projects worth a minimum of PHP 1 billion were implemented by) national government agencies and national government departments. So, all these programs are being flooded to specific provinces and regions, in all areas of our country,’ he said.

Source: Philippines News Agency

LAOAG CITY: Regional carrier Sky Pasada has reopened its hub at the Laoag International Airport with flights to Basco, Batanes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting this week.

Government records showed the hub closed in 2003 due to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that infected over 8,000 people and resulted in at least 774 deaths worldwide.

‘We’re glad to welcome additional flights to the Laoag International Airport and hopefully to revive international routes such as China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan,’ Ilocos Norte Governor Matthew Joseph Manotoc said on Monday.

He expressed support for sustaining the Laoag-Basco route that caters mostly to frequent business travelers and students, the reason the carrier is known as the ‘jeepney of the sky.’

To boost the new route, Manotoc said he will be reaching out to the local officials of Batanes to come visit the province for benchmarking activities, among others.

He also hoped that the airline would launch more routes connecting Laoag to Calayan in
Cagayan and Baguio City via Binalonan, Pangasinan as earlier announced on Sky Pasada’s Facebook page.

The inaugural flight from Basco landed at Laoag International Airport on Saturday, carrying 13 passengers. The return flight saw nine passengers on board, demonstrating the growing demand for interconnectivity within the region.

Meanwhile, the governor announced that the Philippine Airline’s Laoag-Cebu route will discontinue on July 31.

‘We face some challenges with the viability or load of Cebu-Laoag because in Cebu, there are a lot of options with very competitive options as compared to Laoag,’ Manotoc said, adding that it would be revived through seasonal flights because tourism in the province is also seasonal.

‘We are not like Boracay, Palawan, and Siargao where we have people all year round. Perhaps, we can explore other routes,’ he said.

Since December last year, PAL and the Ilocos Norte government have teamed up to boost the Laoag-Cebu flights as the latter agreed to shoulder as much as 20 seats
per flight.

The ‘hard block price’ is equivalent to 20 seats per flight in support of PAL’s operation to a new destination.

Source: Philippines News Agency

MANILA: The government’s revenue collections has so far reached more than PHP1.4 trillion as of end-April this year, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said on Monday.

The end-April preliminary data was higher than the PHP1.3 trillion revenue collections recorded from January to April last year.

In his speech during the Government-Owned- or Controlled Corporations (GOCCs) Day celebration held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City, Recto said the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collected PHP912.9 billion, up by 16.3 percent from the same period last year.

Collections of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) also went up to PHP299.6 billion.

Non-tax revenues, meanwhile, reached PHP206.4 billion.

‘We expect both our tax and non-tax revenues to dramatically increase over the coming months as we intensify our revenue mobilization efforts,’ Recto said.

He said the government will hopefully reach its revenue collection target of PHP4.3 trillion.

“So medyo [we’re] hitting the target. Pero fi
rst four months pa lang (Looks like we’re hitting the target. But it’s still the first four months). Let’s see if it’s sustainable for eight more months,” he said.

The bulk of the tax revenues amounting to PHP3.05 trillion will be generated by the BIR, while the BOC is expected to collect close to PHP1 trillion.

Source: Philippines News Agency

MANILA: President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s refusal to use water cannons is proof that the country does not wish to escalate tensions in the West Philippine Sea, an official of the National Task Force for the WPS (NTF-WPS) said Monday.

NTF-WPS spokesperson, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Commodore Jay Tarriela said the mission of the Philippine Navy and the PCG vessels in the WPS is merely to maintain the country’s presence in the region and assert the country’s sovereignty, ‘not to cause damage to other vessels that would potentially escalate tension.’

‘How can the pro-China trolls explain why [Marcos] will not allow the PCG to use water cannons if they claim that he wants to engage in war and escalate tension in the WPS?’ he said in a statement posted over X.

He said the threat of war with China is merely a ‘pro-China narrative of threatening the Filipino people’ based on ‘lies and misinformation they are spreading to confuse and mislead.’

‘Their true intention is to make us submissive and silent in the f
ace of the illegal presence, provocative actions, and bullying tactics of the China Coast Guard and Chinese Maritime Militia against the Filipino fishermen, the PCG and even the AFP,’ he said.

On Monday, Marcos said the Philippines has no intention of ‘attacking anyone with water cannons or with such offensive weapons’ in an interview on the sidelines of the 2024 Government-Owned and -Controlled Corporations Day at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

Using water cannons would only increase regional tension and that the country ‘will not follow the CCG and other Chinese vessels down that road”, he said.

On April 30, the PCG’s BRP Bagacay and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources vessel BRP Bankaw were on a routine humanitarian mission to distribute food and other supplies to Filipino fishermen near Bajo de Masinloc when they encountered at least 10 Chinese ships.

Both Philippine vessels were attacked with water cannons and were repeatedly blocked through dangerous maneuver
s by the Chinese vessels.

Source: Philippines News Agency

MANILA: The Department of Tourism (DOT) is set to host the first United Nations Forum on Gastronomy Tourism for Asia and the Pacific in Cebu in June.

DOT Secretary Christina Frasco said the forum would serve as a platform to celebrate gastronomy tourism while bringing together destinations and international experts to exchange best practices.

‘Our goal is to showcase how significant food is to our culture, and highlight our gastronomic delights and the Filipinos who excel in this craft,’ she said in a news release Monday.

The event from June 26 to 27 is a prelude to the country’s hosting of the 36th Joint Commission Meeting for East Asia and the Pacific and South Asia on June 28.

Frasco has led the DOT in various gastronomic programs which President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. promotes in his latest vlog as ‘regional cuisines play an important role in the world-renowned Filipino brand.”

Programs include the Philippine Eatsperience and the Philippine Experience Program (PEP).

The PEP recognizes the pivotal r
ole of food and gastronomy in shaping the country’s tourism landscape.

The Philippine Eatsperience, launched in April, offers travelers an authentic taste of Filipino hospitality while visiting Intramuros and Rizal Park.

The DOT is also working on staging the first-ever Halal Travel and Tourism Expo in Manila to develop a Muslim-friendly travelogue of the Philippines and collaborating with RestoPH to provide more Muslim-friendly food and Halal-certified food in the metro.

The country won at the Halal in Travel Awards 2023 as an emerging Muslim-friendly destination.

‘We hope that with the President’s endorsement, we will foster a stronger community that would champion our local cuisines, and above all, give employment to more Filipinos,” Frasco said.

Source: Philippines News Agency

IPOH, The announcement that Perak will supply water to Penang through the Kerian Integrated Green Industrial Park (KIGIP) to Seberang Perai will hasten plans to develop the new water treatment plant in north Perak, Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad said.

He said that the state government welcomed the announcement made by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim yesterday, adding that Perak had previously applied for allocation from the Federal Government to build a water treatment plant following Penang’s willingness to buy treated water.

“We expect this project to be late but what the Prime Minister announced was a good step and indirectly the construction of the water treatment plant can be expedited,’ he told reporters at the 2024 Adilfitri Open House at Perak Darul Ridzuan Building here today.

On news that some Perak Land and Mines Office (PTG) staff were on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) radar, Saarani said he left it up to the commission to investigate whatever complaints re
lated to the department.

“I believe the MACC isn’t just focused on that particular department as they monitor everyone, but as there is a case there, so focus falls on that.

“The state government itself wants transparent enforcement done and we leave it up to the authorities to conduct their investigation and will not interfere,’ he said, adding that the state government had implemented many changes in the administration of state land, including the introduction of e-tanah.

A former Perak PTG deputy registrar was charged with cheating the Perak Agricultural Land Board, resulting in the subdivision of Malay reserve land covering an area of approximately 649.2 hectares in 2012.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency