Highlights of the Board of Directors' Meeting
By Antonette I. Belmonte
- In the absence of the Chairman and the Vice-Chairman of the Board, the Vice President for the Visayas, Engr. Pacito R. Manlangit, presided and called the meeting to order at 1:15 pm with the Corporate Secretary, Ms. Antonette Belmonte confirming a quorum with 10 members of the board present.
- Resolution approving the corrected minutes of the previous meeting of the Board of Directors held on 16 September 2009.
- Discussion and clarification of matters arising from the previous meeting: UP Law Center expressed willingness to conduct a study though they cannot represent PCTA if the association files a case against MTRCB.
- Resolution granting the President full discretion on how to proceed with the issue of Solar Entertainment Corporation's arrears with the PCTA.
- Resolution continuing the services of Santos Parungao Aquino Abejo and Santos Law Offices on the Smart MyTV case that is pending at the NTC.
- President Leo Wong reported on the courtesy call with the new NTC Comm. Gamaliel Cordoba on September 17 together with some members of the board. On September 23, he received an email advise from Engr. Leonardo S. Lota informing the board of his resignation due to health reasons. The president also reported on the Regional Forum held on September 24 at Cagayan de Oro City. Two observations were made: first, the strong feelings held by members against MTRCB, and second, the very positive effect the technical seminars brought to the members in terms of the association's extending help to the cable operators. The Board was also informed by Mr. Dabao about the two bills that are pending in Congress which are HB 1247 authored by Congressman Romualdo of Camiguin and HB 1684 authored by Congressman Jose De Venecia. The president also attended a meeting on October 13 regarding disaster preparedness where the association expressed willingness to assist in disseminating information to the public on how to be more prepared in case of disasters.
- Resolution confirming the disbursement worth Php100,000 representing PCTA's donation to the Philippine National Red Cross on October 8, 2009 for the benefit of the victims of typhoon Ondoy.
- Resolution giving amnesty to all inactive members, through payment of only two years in arrears and signing up of at least one (1) full delegate to the PCTA Convention.
- Technical committee report on the technical seminars in Cagayan de Oro on September 24-25 which was also attended by NTC Regional Director Teodoro D. Buenavista. There were 32 attendees at the Cable Installers Seminar and 31 attendees at the Cable Technicians level, where 24% passed the examination for Level 1 and 29% passed the exams given for Level 2.
- Programming committee informed the board that FOX is now known as Fox International Corporation (FIC) and Star has a new name as well. ACCION will still be the program distributor of the new programs of FOX while Cable Boss will handle some.
- Special Events committee is actively inviting members to attend and participate in the coming convention. Mr. Merilleno also reported that a tentative schedule of activities is ready and with the help of Engr. Paras, majority of the timeslots have already been filled. With regard to the sponsorship, they have 80 booths to fill and about 20 are already confirmed, namely, Cable Boss, TBN and Ricklee plus the Gold and Silver sponsors.
- The Golf Tournament will be held at Eagle Ridge with about 40 players . Also, a 10% discount will be given to early bird delegates until December 31, 2009. Australian Network will sponsor the lanyard.
- Resolution to approve the working budget for 2009-2010 as presented by the treasurer, Ms. Eloisa D. Balmoris.
- Other matters were also discussed such as the option of the PCTA filing a case against the MTRCB; drafting of a local ordinance while the Cable Theft Bill has not yet passed in the Senate, and the scheduling of the next board meeting on November 18, 2009 in Bacolod City.
- Meeting adjourned at 4:45 pm
