BLACK clouds cast an eerie tone over the Makati skyline as heavy rains drenched parts of Metro Manila on Monday, with the weather bureau warning people in high-risk areas to take precautions as a new weather disturbance could trigger flash floods and landslides. Typhoon Helen maintained its strength at press time, remaining stationary over Northern Luzon while triggering rains in other parts of the island. --NONIE REYES

VAT, fiscal reforms stay–GMA

PRESIDENT Arroyo on Monday justified current policies of her administration to manage whatever surprises may arise from whatever direction the global and national economy takes.                       

She cited the adequacy of her policies and strategies in thumbing down calls to review her major economic policies, as record inflation levels, seen to rise even more as oil prices continue to climb, cut deeply into people’s pocketbooks.

Pagasa warns against floods, slides with new storm; veggie prices rise

LESS than a month after Typhoon Frank ravaged Luzon and the Visayas, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said another weather disturbance is threatening the Philippines.

This, as the prices of vegetables, especially from producer areas still recovering from Frank’s onslaught, were reported higher by government price monitors; the same with certain types of fish, the supply of which has been disrupted by a fishing ban in the Visayas after Frank caused the sinking of a ship that carried, besides 800 people, cargo of 10 tons of the highly toxic pesticide endosulfan.

Fast-paced global changes spur 3-year export development plan

THE semiprivate Export Development Council (EDC) has completed the crafting of a three-year Philippine export-development blueprint that takes into consideration the current global and national economic situation.  

Sergio-Ortiz Luis, president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation (Philexport) that cochairs the EDC, said they are doing a final check of the export assumptions, including the official targets for 2008 to 2010. “We will submit it to Malacañang.”

Bold ambition: With P44B, rice self-sufficiency eyed by 2010 

CEBU CITY—The government is eyeing 98-percent national rice sufficiency by 2010 through a P43.7-billion program for the agriculture sector; and P4.15 billion has already been released to rehabilitate irrigation facilities and build new ones to expand services to more farmlands.

This was according to Presidential Management Staff chief Serge Remonde, who also told the Visayas Regional Development Council here that for the first time in decades, rice production is outpacing population growth.

Early probe of North Rail fiasco urged

SENATE Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. is pushing for the early resumption of the Senate inquiry into the “anomalous” $500-million North Rail Project (NRP) to ascertain what is really happening with the undertaking that got mired in a series of controversies.

Pimentel pointed out that the troubles hounding the NRP can be traced to the “serious infirmities” in the project agreement between the Philippines and China, which gave the Chinese Export-Import Bank (Eximbank) the authority to choose and designate the contractor for the project without any public bidding.

Ducut: ERC will fulfill mandate

SIGNALING her awareness of reservations over her appointment to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), newly named ERC chief Zenaida Ducut assured the public on Monday that the agency will retain its independence under her.

“Familiarity and closeness to political personalities may be true, but we have a duty here [ERC] to uphold its mandate, and it is my duty being its chairwoman to uphold the independence of this body,” Ducut told reporters in an interview.

PCGG loses case vs Menzi estate

LEGAL setbacks continue to whack the Presidential Commission on Good Government’s (PCGG) bid to recover alleged ill-gotten wealth of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, members of his family and associates: The Sandiganbayan recently ruled in favor of the estate of the late Swiss-Filipino industrialist Hans Menzi, from which the government claimed P201.14 million.

In two resolutions, the antigraft court’s Fourth Division ruled that the government, through the PCGG, failed to present proof that the disputed money was ill-gotten, thus, it has no right to recover or to claim ownership over it.

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RESIDENTS and workers of a privately run slaughterhouse in Vitas, Tondo, Manila, clash with Manila City Hall police as they protest the forcible takeover by the city government of the abattoir. Councilors joined the protest against the arbitrary takeover, where ensuing scuffles caused injuries to some of the protest leaders. --ROY DOMINGO