All systems go. Parents and students line up in Maricaban Elementary School in Pasay City for the enrollment for school year 2008-09. The Department of Education (DepEd) said the formal opening of classes for public schools is on June 10. On Monday, the DepEd led soldiers, civil-society groups and other volunteers in the massive “Brigada Eskuwela” campaign which allows citizens to help prepare underfunded schools by, among others, helping in last-minute repair and construction, and cleaning up or repainting school facilities. --NONIE REYES

IRATE senators moved Monday to summon heads of the Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines (JFC) to face a public hearing Friday to explain what Sen. Joker Arroyo denounced as the JFC’s “impropriety” in asking Malacañang not to amend the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), nor to renegotiate onerous Ramos-era power contracts that make consumers pay even for electricity they did not use.

OIL prices appearing to still have a higher ceiling than the $135-a-barrel quoted futures this week, a weaker peso and a host of other factors will make it impossible for the government to achieve its target average annual inflation rate for this year, even at the already revised 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent.

THE government is its own worst enemy, particularly if legislators elect short-term gains to pander to the people rather than stitch answers to problems brought about by the larger but a little more distant impacts of such events as global warming that would sustain macroeconomic stability for the long haul.

BUSINESSMEN have joined the chorus against scrapping or at least suspending the value-added tax (VAT) on oil. They, however, have called on government to plow back to the public the VAT windfall from much higher oil prices, now estimated to have reached P20 billion from some P16 billion just a few days ago.

STATE-RUN Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) said Monday it prepaid Y27.2 billion or around $263 million of the National Power Corp.’s (Napocor) debt. PSALM said the amount represents Tranche B of the Miyazawa yen-denominated loans extended in 1999 by the Japanese government to Napocor to finance a number of transmission projects.

THE House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms headed by PDP-Laban Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr. of Makati City has endorsed a bill seeking a snap presidential election “to put a closure on the issue of legitimacy of President Arroyo and allegations of misgovernance.”

HIS Royal Highness Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands will be in town this week for dialogues with business leaders and local chief executives, The Hague Process on Refugees and Migration (THP) project coordinator Antoine Meyer announced Monday.

DAVAO CITY—Speculation jacked up prices of rice at an alarming rate, forcing the Department of Agriculture (DA) to write Congress to place the grains under the regulated list of commodities.

Juanito Loyola, past vice president of the Metro Davao Grains Association, said the refusal of millers in Compostela Valley, for instance, to mill palay recently was prompted by speculation that the price of rice may still go up during the lean months.

TAIPEI—The Philippines can expect more investments to flow across the South China Sea from Taiwan, under a new administration whose major concern is keeping the peace with the People’s Republic of China, and increasing trade and economic ties with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, among other regional groups and trading blocs.

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AMBASSADOR Antonio L. Cabangon Chua presents a plaque of appreciation to Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales from the people of Aklan for his support in the erection of a statue to the late Jaime Cardinal Sin in his birthplace of New Washington, Aklan. The statue was built with the support of the Ambassador. At left is Fr. Rufi no Sescon Jr., newly appointed Catholic Mass Media Awards executive director.