PhilJets Expands Operations with Acquisition of Two New H130 Helicopters

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Since its inception, three and half years ago, PhilJets, the aviation start-up is pursuing its growth and its objective to develop aerospace, aviation and tourism in the Philippines while contributing its share to develop the country image and aviation standards.

Over the years, PhilJets started to assert itself and gain credibility towards major market leaders and actors through strong partnerships, as with Jewelmer, Grab with the GrabHeli or more recently with Citibank for the launch of their Citi Prestige credit cards. PhilJets also set up a complete & diversified aviation strategy with strong connections not only with worldwide manufacturers but also with worldwide players. Thanks to the increased customer’s confidence, the company is growing and now aims at covering the whole archipelago. Indeed, before the year ends, PhilJets will welcome a new helicopter H130, previously ordered in January whose delivery is planned for October. This will be PhilJets’ 5th helicopter under its AOC fleet and its 4th Brand New H130 under operations.

The company, has recently placed a new order for 2 additional H130 this September from Airbus Helicopters Southeast Asia, the subsidiary of Airbus Group. The H130 helicopter is one of the best on the market for corporate and tourism, as it is a lightweight helicopter tailored for passenger transportation, sightseeing, aerial survey as well as medical airlift. These helicopters will be operated by PhilJets Aero Charter Corp, the group air transport subsidiary, in order to sustain the company activities growth over the country.

Flores is Speaker at Int’l Peace Day, Road & Belt Int’l Conference

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Writer, college teacher and realty entrepreneur Wilson Lee Flores is invited guest speaker at the September 21 “International Peace Day” rites on September 21 (Wednesday) afternoon by International Peace Diplomacy Corps at Makati Diamond Residences in Makati City; and the September 26 International Conference on the Belt and Road Economic Initiative in Xian City, Shaanxi province.

The Xian Conference focuses on the $4 trillion Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road, known as “The Belt and Road Initiative” is a development strategy linking 60 countries of Asia, China, Africa and Europe via land and sea infrastructures and trade. The regions linked by the Belt and Road Initiative covers about 40 per cent of the world’s economy and more than half of the world population

A writer on business, economics, geopolitics, culture and other topics, Wilson Lee Flores is a college teacher, winner of three Palanca literary awards and a record 13 Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA) including two CMMA Hall of Fame Awards such as “Best Business Column”. He is author of 5 books on Philippine business published by De La Salle University Press. Flores also bought and revived the 77-year-old, pugon-style Kamuning Bakery Cafe in Quezon City. .

Wilson Lee Flores was also guest speaker at the September 9 Dedication Day of Grace Christian College in Quezon City and at the September 13 iCon Information Conference of the UST Journalism Society at the TARC Auditorium, University of Santo Tomas.

Globe Seeks to Step Up DPWH Collaboration to Minimize Fiber Cut Incidents

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Globe Telecom is seeking to further strengthen its collaboration with the Department of Public Works and Highways in a bid to minimize, if not totally avoid, fiber cut incidents that often lead to disruption of telecommunication services.

Earlier this year, the DPWH issued a memorandum directing its field personnel and contractors “to observe extreme caution in the execution of their construction works” to help ensure uninterrupted services of utility companies including those of telecommunication providers. The department specifically directed its field personnel and contractors to provide maps highlighting ongoing projects within a given locality and provide the data to utility companies “to avoid accidental cutting and damaging of their lines and facilities that may cause power and communication breakdown.”

In addition to this, however, Globe is asking DPWH, through separate letters to DPWH regional contractors, to make erring contractors accountable and penalized for cable cut incidents. To discuss its proposal, Globe is seeing to have an audience with regional directors concerned “in the hope of forging lasting partnership with the DPWH,” said Globe Operations Admin Support Director Raul Taroy.

“The growing incidence of fiber cuts is getting to be a major concern for us and we would like to appeal to DPWH and their contractors to take caution in undertaking road construction activities in order to avoid unnecessary cable cuts. We also believe that penalizing DPWH contractors for such incidents would compel these contractors to be extra cautious in the execution of their projects and thus avoid recurrence of accidental cuts and damage to our cable facilities,” Globe General Counsel Atty. Froilan Castelo said.

According to Castelo, network disruptions caused by fiber cut incidents adversely impact not only the company’s operations but could also potentially affect delivery of government services including emergency response, pointing out that Globe provides access to both 911 and 8888, the government’s emergency and complaint hotline, respectively, as well as inbound and outbound SMS accessibility for 2286 (Bato), a text hotline for the public to directly report incidents to the Philippine National Police.

Castelo revealed that since the start of the year alone, the telecommunications provider already experienced a total of 117 cable cuts attributed to road-construction related activities undertaken by DPWH contractors. According to him, some of these cable incidents have led to major network disruption that affected call, text and internet services of Globe. Even barring major network disruptions, cable cut incidents cause at the very least poor quality of service delivery to consumers, not to mention, additional repair costs to the company, he said.

The company’s bid for a closer coordination with DPWH is also in line with efforts to strengthen its business continuity program. “By working closely with the DPWH, we hope to address a major concern in ensuring delivery of our major services at all times,” he added. Globe Telecom is the first telecommunications provider in the Philippines to secure an enterprise-wide business continuity ISO certification. The certification attests to the company's readiness in ensuring delivery of critical telecommunications services to its customers even during disasters.