MALACAÑANG asserted on Thursday that it has been “responding strongly” to the challenge posed by inflation and urged all sectors to work together in building up national economic defenses against soaring oil and food prices.

“The 9.6-percent inflation underscores the need for the government, business and other key sectors to join hands in boosting production, conserving resources and sustaining growth in job creation to protect our living standards and competitiveness against the global escalation of prices,” Cabinet Secretary Ricardo Saludo said in a statement.

Saludo noted that the government has taken “major steps” to help consumers and the business sector cope with rising inflation, among them, the recently launched P4-billion “Katas ng VAT” assistance to the poor, sourced from proceeds of the value-added tax on oil.

Saludo also cited the P6 billion spent by the government in rice subsidy through the National Food Authority, as well as the Department of Trade and Industry’s petition to lower charges of the Manila Electric Co.

“We continue to build or upgrade roads and ports to cut transport costs, especially for food, expand irrigation and other farm supports to increase food production and tighten measures against hoarding. The government is responding strongly to inflation’s challenge,” he said.

P500-M student fund from VAT windfall to aid 60,000 college kids

PRESIDENT Arroyo on Thursday launched a P500-million student assistance fund, the second in a series of programs funded by windfall gains from the value-added tax (VAT) on oil, amid continued calls to scrap the unpopular tax on the vital resource.

MALACAÑANG asserted on Thursday that it has been “responding strongly” to the challenge posed by inflation and urged all sectors to work together in building up national economic defenses against soaring oil and food prices.

GREEN groups have intensified the campaign against global warming with the resounding call to stop wasteful consumption and disposal to reverse the impact of climate change, which is now severely affecting the poorest of the poor in developing countries, including the Philippines.

NEW YORK—The Philippines is expected to again make its presence felt in the United Nations following the election yesterday of two Filipino diplomats to important positions in the 63rd Session of the General Assembly, the Philippine Mission to the United Nations announced.

Six men, including two Canadians who are working for a mining company in Davao del Sur, were abducted on Tuesday by a group of local bandits.

Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales appealed to President Arroyo to redeclare the Marikina watershed as protected area to save Metro Manila from experiencing a water crisis.