Friends still. Members of the Jiangsu Chinese National Dance Troupe display their contortionist skills at Monday’s dinner show, “Best Wishes Philippines! Best Wishes China!” at the PICC, celebrating 33 years of Philippines-China diplomatic relations and the Fil-Sino Friendship Day. Right, as the Philippine flag makes a strong presence for this week’s observance of the June 12 Independence Day, life goes on for laborers at a building on Roxas Boulevard in Manila. --RHOY COBILLA, NONIE REYES

THE government is moving to give relief from the high cost of power, the second-highest in Asia, with a Cabinet study group presenting its recommended relief measures Tuesday—a slew of subsidies, inducements, renegotiations and options that, in the long term, is seen to redound to the tax take of the government and invite more investments if it forgoes these tax revenues for the time being.

STATE-RUN Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) is hell-bent on developing the Camago- Malampaya oil leg (CMOL) in a bid to boost efforts to lower oil and power rates.

WE have a new producing oil field.

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said Tuesday at the sidelines of the Cabinet meeting, “We are pleased to announce that the development of Galoc oil field is completed and that the first flow of oil is estimated to be commencing on June 16, 2008. This will be the first time oil-field development in the Philippines since 1992 will occur.” 

IN hopes of easing the burden not only of the poor but also of the middle class, the national government is now eyeing to peg commercial rice prices at P35 a kilo.

THE country may achieve self-sufficiency in rice production halfway into the term of the next president or by 2013, President Arroyo said Tuesday.

THE decline in export earnings from the country’s top exports has failed to temper year-on-year export-earnings growth in April, which was registered at 4.9 percent, according to data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO)  Tuesday.

CHINESE Ambassador to the Philippines Song Tao has admitted that bilateral relations between Beijing and Manila continue to face challenges both on trade and political issues, but asserted that the two countries have kept their ties strong in the last 33 years.

THE Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) is virtually dead, even if the House of Representatives approves the bill extending the law, which expired on Tuesday. It would not be enacted into law as the Senate would have no more time to pass its own version.

THE Senate ratified Tuesday night the consolidated version of the Personal Equity and Retirement Account (Pera) bill which provides for a supplementary annuity plan for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), as well as retirees from the government and the private sector who wish to augment their pension funds.

FOREIGN direct investments (FDIs), the kind the government encourages because it stays for the long haul, flowed in on net basis in March, totaling $208 million.

PHILIPPINE Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) conceded Tuesday it now faces uncertainties and risks that it never has experienced before.

AUTOMOTIVE sales in the country defied high fuel prices and posted a 14.3-percent growth in the first five months of the year.

Elizabeth Lee, president of the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc.(Campi), reported that vehicles sold jumped to a total of 50,882 units in that period compared with 44,520 units last year.

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