Mga Panghitabo (News)

 

IEA trims world oil demand, cuts supply forecast

Reuters
First Posted 17:53:00 06/10/2008

LONDON, United Kingdom — World oil demand will rise at its slowest pace in six years during 2008 as a recent raft of subsidy cuts in several Asian countries cuts into oil demand, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Tuesday.

The adviser to 27 industrialized economies said in its monthly Oil Market Report that global oil consumption will now rise by 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year, 230,000 bpd less than its previous forecast.

The head of the IEA’s oil industry and markets division, Lawrence Eagles, told Reuters this year’s demand growth will be the slowest since 2002.

Rising oil prices have forced several developing economies in Asia to slash subsidies in recent weeks. India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Taiwan have all revised their administered prices of fuel, which the IEA said would tame oil demand growth in the region slightly.

"The lull in oil demand growth, however, may only be temporary as strong economic growth remains the key driving force," the IEA said, adding that prospects of a substantial cut in subsidies in China and the Middle East were remote.

The IEA raised its forecast demand for oil from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) for the year by 300,000 bpd to 31.6 million bpd.
It cut its forecast for non-OPEC supply growth to 460,000 bpd, against 680,000 bpd in its previous report.

Oil prices pared losses after the IEA’s report. US crude was 25 cents down at $134.10 a barrel by 0820 GMT, off lows of $133.41. Oil hit a record high of $139.12 a barrel last Friday.

 

Don’t make a mess in your own backyard

Actor Rudy Fernandez, who passed away recently, reminds me of an ugly incident many years ago involving him and former President Erap.

Rudy was a struggling actor in the ‘70s during the martial law years.

At that time, actress Nora Aunor was at the peak of her stardom and many male actors wanted to have her for a girlfriend.

One of them was Rudy. The young actor wooed Nora more than the other aspiring and rising actors.

When then San Juan Mayor Joseph Estrada, himself a movie star, heard about the young upstart courting his “lady love,” he became jealous.

The actor-mayor allegedly beat up Fernandez black and blue.

Fernandez had a relative who had connections with martial law bigwigs who complained to the much-feared Metrocom Intelligence and Security Group (MISG) about the mauling.

An arrest, search and seizure order (Asso), martial law equivalent to a warrant of arrest or search warrant, was promptly issued against Erap.

The then mayor was detained at the MISG for several days.

While in detention, Erap met then Philippine Constabulary 1st Lt. Panfilo Lacson and his superior, then Capt. Reynaldo Berroya, of the MISG’s police intelligence branch.

Erap and Berroya became drinking buddies while the former was in detention.

Lacson, on other hand, kept a distance from the mayor-actor because he was, and still is, a teetotaler or nondrinker.

Erap’s close ties with Berroya and Lacson were born in those few days inside the MISG headquarters.

I should know. I covered the MISG, first for the Times Journal and then for the Bulletin Today, since renamed the Manila Bulletin.

See how fate has a way of playing with people’s lives?

* * *

GMA television network had better handle the sexual harassment complaint of a 23-year-old employee of its network subsidiary very well, otherwise it would lose credibility among its viewers.

The employee, who quit her job, said she was sexually harassed by a GMA executive while they were on a team-building seminar in a San Mateo, Rizal resort.

GMA network is neck and neck, or slightly ahead of ABS-CBN in the ratings game.

Many viewers who shifted their loyalty from ABS-CBN to GMA network news and current affairs, for one reason or another, might go back to ABS-CBN.

* * *

Sexual harassment in the workplace is very real. So real that a law has been passed penalizing offenders.

But legislators have not given their attention to the sexual harassment of housemaids by their male employers. Now, this is more common!

Congress should pass a law penalizing male employers who sexually harass, or abuse, their maids.

* * *

I’m not a saint, but I have utmost contempt for fellow machos who make their female subordinates the object of their excess sexual energy.

Why do they make a mess in their own backyard? Why can’t they go elsewhere, if they have problems with their wives?

Ang dami-daming babae sa labas, sa sarili mo pang bakuran ka magkakalat!

* * *

If you want to follow the activities of my public service project, “Isumbong mo kay Tulfo,” please log on to www.youtube.com and search for isumbongmokaytulfo.

“Isumbong” has been off the air (radio and TV) for two years now, but we’re still helping the oppressed and distressed who come to us.

 

 

Daboy, the courageous

 

MANILA, Philippines - Action star Rudy Rernandez, battling periampullary cancer for two years now, has said more than once that he’s prepared to meet his Maker.

“I’ve always known I was brave,” he told Inquirer Entertainment. “I just didn’t realize I had this much courage to face God.”

That was the last time we sat down with him, just five weeks ago, in the White Plains home that he shared with wife Lorna Tolentino and sons Ralph and Renz.

He said it more than once, actually—“I’m okay; I accepted this right away—in-between many other insights and a lengthy and unemotional discussion of his condition, plus funny anecdotes about his big-screen tough-guy friends who are “always on the verge of tears when they see me these days.”

He noted his rapid weight loss: “Before I got sick, I was about 175-180 pounds. I liked it when I was 175. After my Whipple operation (to remove parts of his pancreas, bile duct, gall bladder and duodenum) in May 2006, I dropped to 170. I liked that, too, because it looked good on television (he did two teleserye). Now I weigh only 160 pounds. Few of my old clothes still fit.”

It was April 27, a day before Rudy and Lorna left for the United States for a third cycle of Rexin-G, the “tumor-targeted injectable gene therapy vector.” In January, Rudy had rejected a third protocol (drug combination) of chemotherapy.

Upbeat

The couple were upbeat about the prospects. Lorna, her husband’s primary nurse and caregiver, explained: “Compared to chemo, Rexin-G is heaven for Rudy.”

She said the first two Rexin-G cycles had restored Rudy’s color. “With chemo, he looked ashen.”

Although the drug has been approved for prescription by the local Bureau of Food and Drugs, US regulatory authorities have yet to grant the same imprimatur on it.

Rudy was enrolled in clinical trials at the Sarcoma Oncology Center in Santa Monica, California. “We go to the US,” Lorna explained, “because they can immediately give him another drug if Rexin-G fails. The first three cycles are a test. If all goes well, they can give Rudy six to eight cycles.”

Thankful

Lorna described their trips to the center: “We go to the fourth floor, where all sorts of clinical trials are conducted. We see patients who are alone, some with no arms or legs… Then there is a small room with two chairs—that’s the room for the Rexin-G trials. I told Rudy the first time we went, ‘You are so fortunate because you never have to go alone, you’re not in a wheelchair or on a gurney, and your body is intact.’”

She herself was thankful for that, Lorna said. “When we’re in the US, we have no driver, no house help. What we have, are caring and dependable friends.”

Rudy recalled that close friends thought he should have his Whipple operation in the US. He opted for the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan, with an “excellent team” of surgeons led by Dr. Samuel Ang, “one of the best, if not the best.”

He told his friends, “If I’m going to die, I’d like to be around you and my family.” What also crossed his mind was, “What if I die on the operating table in the US? Kawawa naman ang asawa ko. Problema pa niya kung pa’no ako iuuwi. Saka ginawin ’yan e. ’Di ba ang hirap no’n?”

Back in 5

Lorna was prepared for a long stay in America. “I just had a massage, a long one,” she told us that afternoon. “Wala ako n’yan sa US e. But we should be back in a month.”

They were back in five days. She explained in a text message: “They found an obstruction in Rudy’s billiary duct. We came straight here [to CSMC].” He needed another surgery.

On June 1, he asked to be brought home. Early the next day, we got this message from Lorna: “The battle is out of our hands now. I’ve surrendered Rudy to God. My faith is with Him.”

On Wednesday night, Daboy reportedly had a seizure but refused to be brought back to the hospital—apparently his way of saying, yet again: “I’m not afraid; I’m ready.”

 

 

Pacquiao claims pound-for-pound No. 1
By Roy Luarca
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:34:00 06/10/2008

MANILA, Philippines—When Manny Pacquiao fights David Diaz on June 28, he will carry with him the awesome reputation as the world’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter.

Formerly ranked No. 2 by FightFan.com, the Filipino ring icon was elevated to the top on Sunday following the retirement of former topnotcher Floyd Mayweather Jr. on Saturday.

The Filipino ring superstar also used to hold Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound honor.

Pacquiao, the reigning World Boxing Council titlist, is seeking Diaz’s WBC lightweight belt at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

A victory over Diaz will make the GenSan superstar the first Asian to hold four crowns in different divisions and the first Filipino to rule the 135-pound category.

The 29-year-old Pacquiao, also acclaimed as the world’s best fighter in 2006, made his professional debut at 106 lb in 1995 and has been fighting top boxers since 2003.

Among Pacquiao’s prominent victims are Mexican greats Marco Antonio Barrera, whom he beat twice, and Eric Morales, whom he defeated twice in their fight trilogy.

Pacquiao beat World Boxing Organization British super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe for the honor.

Another Mexican, Juan Manuel Marquez, from whom Pacquiao wrested the super featherweight crown in March 15 also in Las Vegas, was rated No. 3.

Mexican WBC super bantam champion Israel Vasquez came in fourth, followed by unbeaten Puerto Ricans Miguel Cotto, the WBA welterweight champion, and Ivan Calderon, respectively.

Ranked from seventh to 10th were Bernard Hopkins, Kelly Pavlik, Winky Wright and Rafael Marquez.

Meanwhile, Diaz turned 32 on Sunday in his hometown in Chicago, where he has been in training at the JABB gym since last month.

 

Power consumers using P500 subsidy for other ‘needs’
By Abigail Kwok
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 15:49:00 06/10/2008

MANILA, Philippines — Hundreds of electricity consumers trooped to five Land Bank branches in Metro Manila on Tuesday to claim the P500 power subsidy promised them by government, but a number said they were using the money for other purposes.

“Ipantataya na lang namin ito sa lotto, baka manalo pa kami ng mas milyon [We will just bet this on lotto, we might win millions],” said Manuel Ababat, a resident of Pag-Asa, Quezon City.

“Ipambibili ko na lang ito ng NFA [National Food Authority] rice, madami-dami din akong mabibili [I will use this to buy NFA rice, I can buy quite a lot with this],” said Ena Sapaen of San Francisco del Monte, Quezon City.

The one-time P500 subsidy was given by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to small electricity consumers to help pay their current bill as part of government’s efforts to help the poor cope with the rising costs of power and other expenses.

But the target beneficiaries complained the P500 was “limited and not enough.”

“Ayaw ko na sana kunin eh, kasi ang liit lang, tsaka yung pamasahe ko pa, kaso pwede na rin [I didn’t want to take it at first, because it is too little plus I had to spend for fare, but it will do]” Ababat said.

“Maganda sa isang banda kaso hindi maganda kasi one time lang [It’s good on one hand but, on the other, it’s not because it is just one time],” said Sapaen.

Despite this, the Land Brank branch in Quezon Avenue was filled with hundreds of consumers who lined up to claim the subsidy.

Branch manager Simeon Sarte said that as of posting time, more than 130 consumers have already availed of the subsidy. “The number of people increased today, which is the second day,” he said.

The bank began handing out the subsidy last Friday.

Electricity consumers from the National Capital Region (NCR) can avail of the subsidy during banking hours until Friday, said social worker Elenneth Avelino.

“We are prioritizing Metro Manila and NCR. After this week, titignan naman namin ang sa [we will look at] Region III and IV,” she said.

Avelino added that consumers are required to present their April to May billing statement and one valid identification card with photo to avail of the subsidy. Only those consuming 100 kilowatt-hours and less can avail of the subsidy, she added.

“Hindi na kailangan ng authorization letter, kahit hindi nakapangalan sa inyo yung bill, basta may valid ID kayo pwede [You do not need an authorization letter, even if the bill is not in your name, as long as you have a valid ID],” Avelino said.

Sarte said the subsidy would be given in cash.

Although bank security was normal, Sarte said they would be ready to beef up security in case the number of consumers increase.

“They enter in batches of six. As of now, the distribution is peaceful and orderly,” he said.

But consumers said the problem of high prices of electricity would not be solved by the subsidy.

“Dapat higpitan ng Meralco (Manila Electric Company) ang sistema nila para hindi yung pangkaraniwang tao ang nadadamay sa kapalpakan nila [Meralco should tighten its system so ordinary people do not have to suffer from their mistakes],” Sapaen said, referring to the systems loss passed on to consumers by the giant power utility.

 

House panel OKs gov’t subsidy for oil, power consumers

By Maila Ager

MANILA, Philippines — A resolution that will require the government to subsidize consumers of power and oil using the projected P16.7-billion collection from the 12-percent value-added tax on oil this year has been adopted unanimously by the committee at the House of Representatives tasked to study the matter.

The ways and means committee expressed its support Tuesday for House Joint Resolution 18 filed by Speaker Prospero C. Nograles that proposed the redistribution of P6.5 billion to households, whose electricity consumption was 500 kilowatt hour (kwh) and below, while the remaining P10.2 billion would be used to provide subsidy in fuel consumption.

Of the P10.2 billion, P8.3 billion will be used in providing approximately P1.30 per liter subsidy for diesel to benefit public transport utilities and commuters and P1.9 billion will be redistributed to subsidize P1 per liter of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) consumption of households, the resolution said.

But Teresa Habitan, director of the Department of Finance, asked the committee led by Antique Representative Exequiel Javier, to reconsider the 500-kwh cap for power subsidy.

Javier had proposed two options on how the subsidy would be given away: One is for government to distribute the money to households through the Department of Social Welfare and Development and another is for government to “directly pay electric companies the subsidy for its consumers and in the case of fuel, it can be in a form of subsidy paid to oil companies.”

“Perhaps, if you want to be able to service those who really need the subsidy, the House may reconsider the cap that you used and just simply keep the lifeline rate of 100 kwh,” Habitan told the committee.

“Those who consume 500 kilowatt hours will be able to afford paying and if in fact, they find it difficult to pay, then they can reduce the number of kilowatt hours they consume,” she said.

If the real intention is to help those who are really needy, Habitan said the middle-class must be encouraged instead to use more energy efficient technologies or to turn off some of their light or reduce the number of electronic equipment that they have in the house.

The committee instructed the DoF official to just submit the proposal for consideration when the measure reached the floor.

Habitan also told the committee that exempting lifeline users would mean a revenue loss of P465.7 million for the government.

The government, she said, would also incur a revenue loss of P1.9 billion every year if the VAT on systems loss would be scrapped.

 

Obama ramps up search for a running mate

Tuesday, June 10, 2008 08:54 AM

WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama ramped up his search for a running mate on Monday, consulting with one congressional ally by phone and dispatching members of his vice presidential vetting team to the Capitol for meetings. Sen. Dick Durbin said he had spoken with Obama, his fellow Illinois senator.

Jim Johnson and Eric Holder, who comprise two-thirds of the group Obama has asked to help guide his search, met separately with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Reps. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and Rahm Emanuel of Illinois.

Obama’s campaign announced last week that he has asked Johnson, Holder and Caroline Kennedy to help guide the search.

 

Oil rises slightly in Asia to around US$135 a barrel

Tuesday, June 10, 2008 12:45 PM

 

Senators slam investors’ grilling
By Christina Mendez
Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Opposition senators took to task their colleagues from the administration bloc yesterday for ganging up on members of the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce during a recent hearing on the JFC’s letter to President Arroyo regarding amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA).

Senators Panfilo Lacson and Francis Escudero joined Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Sen. Manuel Roxas II in criticizing the apparent disrespect shown by Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Miriam Defensor Santiago and Joker Arroyo to JFC officials, especially Hubert D’Aboville, president of the European Chamber of Commerce.

D’Aboville, who got most of the dressing down from Enrile, was also designated as the group’s spokesman during the hearing last Friday by the Senate committee on energy chaired by Santiago.

“Resource persons invited by the Senate deserve the courtesy of guests appearing before any Senate committee hearing. Bullying, cutting, insulting or yelling at them won’t help the Senate get the information that we need to help us do our legislative work,” Lacson told reporters in a text message.

“Worse, driving them out of the country will put to waste billions of dollars being spent by our government, both here and abroad to attract foreign investments and make them stay and continue investing in our country. I think Senators Enrile, Arroyo and Santiago crossed the line of statesmanship in that committee on energy hearing last Friday,” Lacson said.

“While I can identify with their patriotism, I do not agree with their methodology that is a bit high handed to say the least,” Escudero added.

Over the weekend, Pimentel said the intense grilling of the JFC officials who appeared before the Senate last Friday was “overkill” on the part of his colleagues.

Roxas said the foreign investors had been denied the right to express their views over the issues affecting them.

“I think what happened was overkill. I would have treated the matter differently. But it would simply have been a matter of style. Every senator has his own way,” Pimentel said.

Enrile, Arroyo and Santiago claimed the JFC’s letter was an intervention into the country’s policies and governance.

Enrile went ballistic and even told the businessmen to get out of the country if they do not like the way things are being run here.

Roxas said the foreign businessmen simply clammed up after getting scolded by the veteran lawmakers.

“As investors, they also have the right to express their views on issues involving their businesses. They can do this through the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry), the President, congressmen and senators. That is okay with me,” Roxas said.

Enrile lashed at Henry Schumacher, vice-president of the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Inc, whom the senator accused of lobbying for the EPIRA since its creation 2001.

After the hearing, D’Aboville told reporters that as far as he is concerned, what he went through in the Senate would not affect foreign investments in the country.

 

Biotechnology pushed to ease food shortage
By Marianne Go
Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap told delegates at an international agriculture conference in Italy that biotechnology is key to the world’s quest for food security amid the current shortage in the global food supply and escalating food prices.

An agriculture official clarified that it was not a blanket endorsement of the use of genetically modified organisms.

The Philippines also appealed to international donors to increase fund support for the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, Laguna, to improve agricultural productivity research.

In his statement at the recent Special Meeting on the Food Crisis convened by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, Ambassador to the UN Hilario Davide Jr. urged donor institutions to increase funding for the IRRI as part of the measures to curb the global food crisis.

Yap cited the program of the Department of Agriculture (DA) in the Philippines that applied biotechnology to raise the quality and quantity of food crops through the development of varieties and seeds that are virus and pest-resistant which could survive dry spells and flash floods induced by climate change.

“Ultimately, biotechnology has evolved to be the hope in securing food for the world’s growing population,” Yap said last week during an international agricultural biotechnology meeting hosted by the United States and Egypt at the sidelines of a three-day global food summit of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

US Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer, Professor Magdy Madkour of the Ains Shams University of Egypt, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Henrietta Fore, C.S. Karim of the Ministry of Agriculture of Bangladesh, Dr. Shivaji Pandey, director of the FAO Plant Protection Division, Minister Laurent Sedogo of the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Fisheries of Burkina Faso and Minister Hilary Onek of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries of Uganda were among the panelists in the biotechnology forum.

The meeting was held in between sessions of the FAO-hosted High Level Conference on World Food Security in Rome which was attended by heads of states and other top government officials from over 40 countries plus representatives from multilateral financial institutions.

The conference was held to discuss strategies and initiatives that would squarely address the new challenges to global food security.

Yap pointed out that the biotechnology revolution has benefited Philippine agriculture in terms of increasing “overall productivity through increased farm yields and competitive agricultural products that would translate into higher farmers’ income.”

He said “biotechnology is not the panacea to all our food security needs and economic development crusades.”

“We consider it (biotechnology) as one of the means to pursue agricultural modernization and achieve our national economic goals,” Yap said. Yap explained that the country’s policy includes measures to comply with international standards on the safe use of genetically modified organism (GMO).

“We have enough protocol that comply with the United Nations policy on the safe use of GMO products. Be that as it may, we have enough non-GMO products right now that deliver bigger yields for our farmers so we want to focus on the propagation of these products first,” Yap said.

Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) Director Joel Rudinas, however, clarified that biotechnology involves a wide range of operations ranging from tissue culture to genetic manipulation and the government’s policy is not a blanket endorsement of GMO.

Rudinas admitted that the government allows certain GMOs but subject to strict rules.

Any application for the use of GMO seeds has to undergo a long process by the BPI before commercial distribution.

Yap said the DA has applied biotechnology to produce high-value products from traditional crops such as rice, papaya, and coconut, improving carabao reproduction and upgrading the country’s livestock industry, boost fish production.

Davide. the Philippines Permanent representative to the UN, urged the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Internal Fund for Agricultural Development and development partners to donate more research funds for IRRI.

“The research of IRRI, the world’s main repository of rice seeds as well as genetic and other information about rice—the crop that feeds nearly half of the peoples of the world—has been, unfortunately, tremendously slowed down because of cuts in funding for agricultural research,” he said.

The envoy cited the case of the brown plant hopper, a tiny fly that has caused havoc across East Asia.

“Damage to rice crops which has caused reduced production output would have been prevented if only IRRI’s budget for research had not been cut or reduced,” he said.

He cited IRRI reports that the brown plant hopper is multiplying by the billions and chewing through rice paddies in East Asia, threatening the diets of many poor people.

Davide said China, the world’s biggest rice producer, has announced that it was struggling to control the rapid spread of these insects which could destroy as much as 20 percent of a harvest. 

Although no fewer than 14 new types of genetic resistance varieties of rice have been discovered, Davide said the budget cuts prevented IRRI from moving further to develop more hybrid rice varieties. 

“If money is available for research, IRRI can accomplish the task in four to seven years and save millions of people from hunger, from death,” he said.    — With Pia Lee-Brago