On 28 February 2020, the Chairman for PRA’s National Retail Conference and Exhibition (NRCE) 2020> Rustan’s Bienvenido “Donnie” Tantoco III called for a Meeting at his Makati Office to set the tone for this year’s NRCE. This initial meeting on themes and names for the Conference were deliberated on by the Core Organizers which included PAGASA’s STC.  Speakers were selected to match the relevant topics intended for the Summit come August.

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.)

PAGASA attended a Technical Working Group Meeting on 26 February 2020 at the Lower House for the Committee on Ecology chaired by House Speaker-elect Rep. Lord Allan Jay Quinto Velasco of the lone district of Marinduque who sponsored the latest bill on plastic bags.  This Meeting was supposed to consolidate all bills related to Single-Use Plastic Products/Materials.  It was going to be a quick succession of  TWG Meetings to swiftly solve the issue on plastics.  

Opening of Food & Hotel Expo Mla (FHEM) at the SMX in Pasay. Early visitor to our Booth Rolly Pagaspas of V81 Radio.

PAGASA was invited to be an Exhibitor at the Food & Hotel Asia, a trade show held at the SMX on 21-23 February 2020.  Visitors entered the booth of PAGASA to acquaint themselves with the Association and offer products and services to its members.

Congressional hearing on Productivity Incentive Programs. The event was attended primarily by  DOLE officers and PALSCON, handling contractual disers.  Security of Tenure Bill on Endo was also discussed.  Congress is proposing a uniform National Mininum Wage regardless of region at P750/day!  DOLE says to take the employer's perspective too as that translates to P890/day/employee when all benefits are imputed. Another proposal was to declare the minimum wage on a per industry basis. NWCP says d living wage should be P700/day in MM in 2015 given two working members/family to live comfortably incl.some R&R.

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.

On the same afternoon of 19 February 2020, Congress held a Hearing on relaxing the conditions for foreign retailers to invest in our country. The American Chamber of Commerce as well as a few other foreign Chambers in the country cited their reasons why conditions must be relaxed. These were opposed by local retailers headed by PAGASA and the PRA.

PAGASA Pres. Steven T. Cua paid "Ang Probinsiyano" Partylist Rep. Ronnie Ong a visit at his office in Congress on the same afternoon of 19 Feb. 2020 upon the latter’s invitation to discuss his proposed bills re. Fraudulent Senior Citizens/ PWD Cards & the possibility of retailers employing productive senior citizens in their stores.  

A well-attended Hearing in Congress on the 19 th of February 2020 delved on the proposed increase in wages as chaired by Partylist Representative Enrico A. Pi ñeda.  Much discussion on the timeliness and affordability of employers to absorb another round of wage increase came to fore.

The Senate’s Committee on Environment and Natural Resources called for a Joint Meet with the Committees on Trade, Commerce & Entrepreneurship, on Ways & Means and on Finance regarding Single-Use Plastic Bags on 18 February 2020 at the Sen. Geronima T. Pecson Room.  Introduced was the concept on Expanded Producers Responsibility (EPR). Producers are supposed to device a way to retrieve and recycle the goods that they produce to minimize the harm that these products do to our environment.  The Meeting was chaired by Sen. Cynthia Villar and attended by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian.

The afternoon of 13 February 2020 had PAGASA meeting in Congress with a Technical Working Group on the proliferation of fraudulent I.D.s issued out to People With Disability (PWD) or the specially-abled.  Of course those who represented the sector (PWDs) at this Meet vehemently denied that their Associations were Involved or in cahoots with any syndicate in the Issuance of said fake IDs. Clarifications had to be made by STC regarding how retailers can spot people with real disabilities as those hard-of-hearing and the like are very difficult to spot by our personnel in the selling area. Also, the different modus operandi of syndicates involved in fake IDs were tackled.

In the morning of 13 February 2020, PAGASA was invited to a Meeting called by DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez to discuss a proposal for a Memo of Understanding between manufacturers and retailers to provide for food especially in Metro Manila in the case of disaster like The Big One. Aside from PAGASA, invited were the major manufacturers of FMCGs/supermarket items.

On the eve of 5 February 2020, the Philippine Amalgamated Supermarkets Association held its 1 st Quarter General Meeting  inside All Day Supermarket along C-5/Libis.  PAGASA normally holds its GenMeets at a place where there is a new business model or format to see and learn from.  For this edition, erstwhile member All Day Supermarket was the store on expose.  We were generously toured around the store and its warehouse by Pippo and treated to dinner as well. Everyone had a grand time touring this beautiful store.  

On 5 February 2020, (R) Jose Manuel "Sam" Remolacio of All-Asian Centre for Enterprise Development (ASCEND) did a research study on sugar suppliers and how fairly they treat retailers when it comes to price fluctuations. Study of ASCEND was done in behalf of the Philippine Competition Commission.