The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) recently allowed the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) to raise its electricity rates by 25 centavos a kilowatt-hour (kWh). The increase under the company’s performance based regulation will be reflected in its May billing to its customers.

I HAVE said it before. If we are to change the 1987 Constitution, if we are to go through with it at all, the best option is through a constitutional convention. The Constituent Assembly is not an option because people don’t trust the politicians in Congress.

FACTORY output continued to contract for the fourth consecutive month in February as manufacturers in all major sectors cut capacity due to weak demand brought about by the global economic crisis.

The European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) said the Philippines should further develop five strategic sectors that could help the country strengthen its trade relations with the European Union (EU).

THE Asian Development Bank warned that rice yield potential in the Philippines and other Asian countries are likely to decline by half due to the impact of climate change.

Amid worst economic crisis since Great Depression   WASHINGTON: The IMF and World Bank have warned the global economic crisis is turning into a “human calamity” and called on members to speed up pledged aid and give even more to help the most vulnerable.

Morality rate of children under five declining   MORE than half of Filipino married women used some form of contraceptives last year, the National Statistics Office (NSO) reported Monday. According to the preliminary results of the 2008 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), the agency said 51 percent of the married women in the Philippines…

Despite the global financial crisis, more Filipinos are still hopeful that their personal quality of life will improve within a year, results of a nationwide survey released on Monday revealed.

Q. I’ve been having headaches for the past five days. It’s all over my head. It’s tolerable but irritating. I have high blood pressure and I’ve been taking amlodipine 5 mg. daily for five years now. My BP is controlled at 120/85. Should I worry about my headache? — Alvin, 42, Parañaque

MANILA, Philippines – A Manila court granted yesterday a civil society group’s request for the country’s three largest oil firms – Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Chevron Corp., and Petron Corp. – to open their books of accounts for examination by the government to determine if they are guilty of monopoly, predatory pricing or cartelization.

There are two commodities that politicians, anxious to improve their popularity ratings, constantly rant about when prices seem to be on the upturn: rice and oil.

EQUALIZER: It is clear from the confusion that followed the Supreme Court decision allowing 32 more Party-List groups to send congressmen to the House of Representatives that the PL system needs revisiting.

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Joker Arroyo yesterday slammed the Supreme Court (SC) over its ruling that the party-list representatives are entitled to 55 seats in the House of Representatives.

MANILA, Philippines – More adult Filipinos are expecting their personal quality of life to improve in the next 12 months, the latest survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

MANILA, Philippines – Oil companies rolled back their pump prices by P1 per liter yesterday in step with last week’s lower crude costs in the world market.

We already know that an unhealthy lifestyle contributes to skin aging. But sometimes, for us to really believe it, we need to be faced with the cold harsh evidence. What can be more blatant than seeing one identical twin look five years older than the other because he is a smoker and his twin isn’t?

The impact of the move of US President Barack Obama in trying to clamp down on consumers’ credit card abuses can affect the Philippines. After all, we have here billions of pesos in unpaid credit card bills.

Senator Loren Legarda slammed the deceptive practices employed by certain credit card companies, including the collection of exorbitant or unreasonable punitive interest rates and unjustifiable fees from credit card holders.

SENATORS said yesterday the Supreme Court went beyond its constitutional bounds and engaged in “judicial legislation” when it upheld the validity of the election of 32 more party-list representatives.

The Philippines needs $1.6 billion to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 40 percent and contribute to global efforts in arresting climate change, the Asian Development Bank said in a study released yesterday.

WITH rice harvests cut in half and islands disappearing as sea levels rise, Southeast Asia will be hit hard by global warming, the Asian Development Bank warned in a study released yesterday.

THE number of married Filipinas using contraceptives is increasing while the incidence of infant mortality in the Philippines is declining, the National Statistics reported yesterday.

On the eve of the swearing-in of the 32 new congressmen, the House of Representatives tossed to the Supreme Court the question of who among the 32 party-list nominees should be dropped from the roster of Congress members.

Brussels, (ITUC OnLine): The ITUC welcomed the decision of the World Bank to instruct its staff to stop using the “Employing Workers Indicator” (EWI) of its highest-circulation publication, “Doing Business”.  The ITUC has long criticized the EWI because it gives the best ratings to countries with the lowest level of workers’ protection and has been…

I HAVE said it before. If we are to change the 1987 Constitution, if we are to go through with it at all, the best option is through a constitutional convention. The Constituent Assembly is not an option because people don’t trust the politicians in Congress.

Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) said it has kept a negative medium-term outlook for the Philippine peso amid the widening budget deficit.

State subsidies to non-financial government corporations rose in the first quarter, the Department of Finance said.

MANILA–Remittances from Filipinos working and living overseas, a key pillar of the Philippine economy, are unlikely to decline this year, central bank deputy governor Diwa Guinigundo said on Tuesday.

The Philippines has been spared so far from the global crisis, as evidenced by an increase in employment rate of 1.7 percent from January to mid-April, when 500,000 new jobs were created, an official reported Tuesday.

Cuts on ‘non-people-related expenses’ MANILA, Philippines — Local companies are shunning staff cuts as a means of reducing costs and are instead focusing on improving operating efficiencies, according to a survey being conducted by the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP).