Cusi Signs Pantawid Pasada Program Joint Memorandum Circular

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PANTAWID PASADA: The DOE and the heads of the implementing agencies of the Pantawid Pasada Program sign the Joint Memorandum Circular, providing the implementation guidelines for the fuel subsidy scheme. (L-R) LTFRB Chair Martin B. Delgra III, DOE Sec. Alfonso G. Cusi, DOTr Sec. Arthur P. Tugade, DBM Sec. Benjamin E. Diokno, LBP President Alex V. Buenaventura, and DOF ASec. Antonio G. Lambino II.

MANILA CITY- Department of Energy DOE) Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi signs today, Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) No. 1, series of 2018, providing the general guidelines for the implementation of the Pantawid Pasada Program. The signing event took place earlier this morning at the Multi-Purpose Hall of the  Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

The DOE is one of the six implementing agencies of Pantawid Pasada, which will provide fuel vouchers to qualified franchise holders of public utility jeepneys (PUJs). The Department of Transportation is the lead implementer of the program.

Under the JMC, the DOE is responsible for coordinating with oil companies to ensure their acceptance of Pantawid Pasada Cards as mode of payment. In addition, the DOE and the Landbank of the Philippines (LBP) will be in charge of identifying areas with limited or no access to retail Point of Sale systems, where vouchers instead of cards will be honored.

In his message, Sec. Cusi stated that the DOE has been proactively implementing mitigating measures to help cushion the public, particularly the country's vulnerable transport sector.

"We called on our partners in the oil industry to grant fuel discounts to public utility vehicles, in addition to their CSR programs. This resulted in our MOAs with Petron, Shell and Phoenix Petroleum," he said.

He also expressed that the Energy Department will be ready to extend any assistance that may be needed by its partner agencies to successfully implement the fuel subsidy program.

The Secretary assures the public of the DOE's vigilance in finding more ways to provide targeted relief to the public transport sector.

"Makakaasa po kayo na itutuloy ng Kagawaran ng Enerhiya ang aming maigting na pakikipag-ugnayan sa mga kumpanya ng langis para sa posibleng pagpapalawak ng PUV discounts at isulong ang pagtatagumpay ng Pantawid Pasada," Sec. Cusi emphasized.

The Pantawid Pasada Program will be implemented by the DOTr, DOE, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, Department of Finance, DBM and the LBP. 

PARTNERS FOR CHANGE: DOE Sec. Alfonso G. Cusi expresses his appreciation to partners in the oil industry who readily joined the government's efforts to provide support to the country's public transport sector.

E-Vehicles Back DOE's E-Diskarte Principle

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EV SUMMIT: Department of Energy (DOE) Undersecretary Felix William B. Fuentebella delivers the message of Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi at the 6th Philippine Electric Vehicles (EV) Summit held on 10 July in Pasay City. Usec. Fuentebella emphasized the DOE's support in championing the use of electric vehicles as well as hybrids as the future of the Philippine transport system.

The Department of Energy (DOE) underlines its Alternative Fuels and Energy Technology Roadmap during the opening ceremony of the 6th Philippine Electric Vehicles Summit on Tuesday at the SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City.

The roadmap is meant to support  the government’s aggressive “Public Utility Vehicle (PUV) Modernization Program". 

In the message of Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi that was delivered by Undersecretary Felix William "Wimpy" B. Fuentebella, he encouraged stakeholders to scale up the use of alternative fuels and energy efficient technologies.

Among others, Sec. Cusi emphasized the need to reduce the country’s oil dependence in accordance with the E-Diskarte principle under the E-Power Mo campaign that promotes a smart energy lifestyle. 

He further added that the heavy dependence of the Philippines on imported fuels makes the country vulnerable to energy supply disruptions and global price fluctuations.

He also pointed out that the current annual motor vehicle growth rate of about 6% will likely increase road transport emissions. This will result in the further deterioration of the country’s air-quality, and an increase in carbon footprint.

“A low-carbon path in the transport sector is an essential part of the Philippines’ strategic priority and we will pursue cleaner, indigenous and optimized energy and transport,” Sec. Cusi said.

On the issue of having a broader range of sustainable energy choices, USec. Fuentebella assured summit participants, "We support the development of alternative technology and fuel options that demonstrate energy efficiency such as hybrid and electric vehicles in the transport sector."

He stressed that a holistic approach must be adopted for alternative fuel technology to grow. This includes the construction of support structures (i.e. charging stations) and the need to establish strong  after-sales services to address issues on the availability of service centers and replacement parts, as well as the sustainability of e-vehicle operations. 

The DOE assures the public that it is committed to provide energy that would power industries, homes and even more electric vehicles into the future.

E-VEHICLES: The 6th Philippine Electric Vehicles (EV) Summit is until Wednesday (11 July) at SMX Convention Center in Mall of Asia in Pasay City. Leading the ceremonial ribbon cutting together with Energy Assistant Secretary Leonido J. Pulido III (3rd from L) are (L-R) Electric Vehicles Association of the Philippines President Rommel T. Juan, Nissan Assistant General Manager Dax Avenido, Senator Edgardo 'Sonny' J. Angara, Manila Electric Company Vice President and Head of Strategy and Business Development Office Raymond Ravelo, and Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation Vice President Renato Lampano. 

Some Smart Instagram Marketing Strategies for Boosting Your Brand

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It is necessary for your business to be active on the social media platforms such as the most popular Instagram that is about to hit one billion MAU very soon. Instagram has achieved a phenomenal growth in the last few years and has become an effective social media marketing platform for reaching more and more customers and potential customers from all corners of the world.

It is essential to boost your Instagram marketing for increasing your following consistently and steadily. Here are some effective and easy marketing tips for growing your brand, get Instagram followers faster and building a robust online presence for free.


Take the Fullest Advantage of All Free Instagram Apps & Tools

Instagram has recently started rolling out exclusively business profiles that look identical to the Facebook business profiles. Instagram for Business profiles come with a contact option and a CTA allowing all Instagram users to call, text, or email the business. Besides, the contact option, all Instagram business profiles would be having easy access to accurate engagement data and impression. You may consider switching over to Instagram for Business account to leverage the platform. The more knowledge you could gather about ways the users are actually interacting with the content you have shared, the better adjustments you could make for improving your customer engagement.


Create a Truly Interactive Hashtag

You must create a truly interactive hashtag for having instantaneous engagement. You must doubly make sure that you are actually using the hashtag in the right manner. The simplest strategy would be to create a hashtag that has been used by consumers to tag pictures of them along with the specific product that they have just bought.


Consider Cross Promoting Instagram Posts

Are you interested in adding new Instagram followers who already know and love your brand? You need to cross promote all your shared posts on Instagram across other social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. You could consider inviting them to follow and like your Instagram profile. Since they have already been following you on some other social networking site, they would obviously, be interested in everything you offer.

You simply cannot take it for granted that all your posts would be reaching all users connected to you on the social media. Many of them would be going away from certain social networking sites, some of them may not be that active on certain social media platforms. Anyways, no matter what, you would certainly want all your followers to be effectively engaged and connected to all your social profiles for boosting reach and engagement per post. Cross promotion helps you inform people across various social media sites about your existence on Instagram. You may get in touch with digital marketing experts for getting more Instagram likes.


Interact Effectively with Followers for Boosting Growth

If someone takes the trouble and dedicates his time to like and even comment on your posts, you must mandatorily reply and also, thank them. Even such a simple engagement could be creating a loyal customer base and you could obtain an enthusiastic supporter of your brand. You must consider integrating effective ways to convince your followers to seamlessly interact with all your posts. Just by using posts with a caption such as ‘Tag four of your friends who would like this’, you can immediately create a broader audience for attracting new followers. As they are real, being recommended and introduced via a friend, very little to no resistance is offered. This would be culminating in a number of tagged users beginning to follow your profile.


Repurpose or Recycle Interesting Content from Some Other Relevant Accounts

If you are unable to create adequate content for catering to the increasing requirements of your constantly growing following, you may repurpose fascinating content from any other relevant and useful Instagram accounts. However, do not forget to give the due credit to your original source by simply tagging his profile and even mentioning him cleverly in your caption. Today several applications are available for downloading Instagram images and saving them on your camera roll. So you could effortlessly repost them whenever you need to or wish to. Repurpose content from such accounts that have your desired target audience because many such accounts would be too glad to return your favor. So they would, in turn, repurpose your content once they find that you are sharing their content.


Use Influencer Marketing for a Broader Reach

The most effective and quickest way of reaching potential customers is through influencers that have successfully created their own audience and have an impressive following. Today, we find that more people are actually purchasing products that they come across in their feed from other influential people whom they are following. This is because they rely on them and find them trustworthy. If you are able to partner with an exceptional industry influencer, you could expose your brand to a wider audience.

Conclusion
There is no doubt that Instagram has taken the center-stage in the social media scene. Over 800 million active monthly users hand out billions of likes daily, and the stage is set for you to steal the spotlight with a glorious marketing campaign. You should switch to an Instagram Business Profile to be able to access a number of incredible insights and free tools to chart audience demographics by age or location. You can then proceed to put out product teasers and sponsored ads to reach more people, but try to be approachable instead of aggressive, because this goes a long way in building your impression. Discover the popular influencers in your field and partner with them to leverage their popularity. Also make use of user-generated content via quizzes, contests, and branded hashtags. Learn when to post, and create a posting schedule. Also learn when not to post, thus avoiding over-posting or low reach. Ideally, one to two posts a day is optimal. The last step, of course, is seeing how your plans work out by tracking performance metrics and then fine-tuning your strategy.