CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — As the Philippine export industry continues to explore other market options apart from the United States, industry players are encouraged to tap business opportunities in India, China and Qatar.

“There are other markets which have been considered competitors but are now actually customers, like China and India,” said Fred Escalona, executive director of the Confederation of Philippine Exporters in Cebu (Philexport-Cebu).

 Escalona said these markets offer a strong opportunity for Philippine exporters because of their high demand for well-designed, high-quality products, which are considered the strengths of Philippine exports. (Malou Mozo)

Car Sales

MANDAUE CITY, Cebu — Foreseeing a bullish year for the country’s motoring industry, a Philippine distributor of Chevrolet cars is optimistic it can hit its target of 5,000 car units sold for 2012.

“Our optimism in the industry stems from our positive sales performance last year, when car sales grew 36.4 percent with 2,763 car units sold from January to December,” said Covenant Car Company Inc. President and Managing Director Alberto Arcilla, adding that sales for 2011 posted a growth of 64 percent. (Malou M. Mozo)

Court Closure

ILOILO CITY, Iloilo — The Iloilo Hall of Justice has temporarily closed following Monday’s strong earthquake. Executive Judge Danilo Galvez announced the temporary closure Thursday upon the instruction of Supreme Court’s Deputy Court Administrator for Western Visayas Raul Villanueva.

Galvez said the decision was made by the Supreme Court as employees fear the 20-year-old building is no longer structurally sound after seeing big cracks and what appeared to be fractures in some of the building’s concrete beams. (Tara Yap)

WV Projects

ILOILO CITY (PNA) — About P3 billion worth of projects are now being implemented in Western Visayas from out of the P4.949 billion programmed projects in 2011. The programmed amount was aimed at 227 active projects distributed in various engineering districts, according to the Project Monitoring Group of the Public Works and Highways here. As of end of January this year, 140 projects are already completed; 78 are ongoing while nine have not yet started. This is equivalent to an accomplishment rate of close to 60 percent.

Of the completed projects, two were undertaken by the district engineering office (DEO) in Aklan; seven from the Antique DEOs; 19 from two DEOs of Capiz; five from Guimaras DEO; 50 from five DEOs of the province and city of Iloilo; 54 from the four DEOs in Negros Occidental and three by the DPWH regional office.

Mabilog Lauded

ILOILO CITY (PNA) — Vice President Jejomar C. Binay has lauded the high satisfaction rating recently garnered by Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog. In his letter to the city mayor, Binay said “I wish to congratulate you in garnering a 76 percent satisfaction rating in the survey conducted by Random Access Consultants Inc. of the University of the Philippines (UP) Visayas.”

The Vice President said the high rating of Mabilog “reflects the faith of your constituents that their local officials have their interests in mind. I commend you for leading the way in local government excellence.