TRAPPED. This is a view of the extent of the landslide that hit the small mining community of Itogon, Benguet province, on Tuesday. Rescuers are rushing to reach 13 miners trapped overnight in a gold-mining shaft in Itogon that has been flooded by heavy rains dumped by Typhoon Hagupit, officials said. Another landslide in Baguio City killed three people and injured at least seven others. Several houses were also destroyed. --AP

RP corruption rank poorer

THE Philippines’ image as a good place for doing business has taken another hit, with the country dropping to 141st place—among 180 countries—in Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2008, which measures the perceived levels of public-sector corruption in a given country.

The index draws on different expert and business surveys, and scores countries or territories based on the degree of public-sector corruption as perceived by business people and country analysts. The 2008 CPI scores 180 countries, the same number as the 2007 CPI, on a scale from zero, which means highly corrupt, to 10, which means highly clean.

DOF approves IRR of Tax Relief Package Law

THE Department of Finance on Tuesday night approved the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 9504, the tax relief package law, three days after getting the third and last version from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

NSCB urged: Think out of the box

REPRESENTATIVES from various government agencies and the donor community urged the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) to look into the viability of other options to rid the Philippine System of National Accounts (PSNA) of data issues, and ease the agency’s problems with manpower and funding.

Etta to GSIS: Come clean on GIP

FORMER Rep. Etta Rosales has called for more “participatory, democratic and people-oriented” economic solutions for the Philippines to resolve domestic economic problems and survive the global financial crisis.

GSIS: Fund managers for $.4B to be picked

STATE-OWNED Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), which still has to deploy $400 million of its $1-billion investment portfolio in overseas markets, has decided to proceed with the selection of its fund managers, but this time under more rigorous terms.

Camago-Malampaya Oil Leg deal award puzzling

SO it’s “Filipino First” that’s the controlling policy, not “full public bidding.”

After nullifying—with the excuse that it wanted a “full public bidding”—a de facto agreement with a foreign firm to develop the Camago-Malampaya Oil Leg (CMOL), which would have helped the country source oil from the existing natural gas and oil reservoir in Palawan back in 2006 and earned it millions of dollars in oil-import savings, the government is now set to simply award the same deal to a local company that had invoked the Constitution’s “Filipino First” policy.

DTI moves on tainted-milk scare

THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has sent monitoring teams to help intercept milk brands found to be contaminated with melamine.

Also, Trade Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya has appealed to supermarket owners to voluntarily withdraw from their shelves imported milk until tests from the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) are completed.

New spike won’t be used by oil firms

THE spike in oil prices in the world market should not be used by local oil firms to raise their prices, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said on Tuesday. His remarks were followed by Eastern Petroleum Corp. chairman Fernando Martinez’s assurance that local oil prices would not be affected by the sudden increase.

Flour millers eye import cuts

THE higher cost of wheat in the global market and the diminishing purchasing power of Filipinos, who still prefer rice over bread, have led local millers to plan slightly reduced wheat imports this year—to 1.8 tons from 1.9 tons in 2007.

No deployment ban to Somalia

IN the wake of the unabated piracy on the Gulf of Aden that resulted in the hostaging of Filipino seamen, Malacañang advised Filipinos against boarding ships passing through the waters off Somalia.

FDIs in Subic rise on Korean deals

SUBIC BAY FREE PORT—Anchored by a $175-million golf resort project that is by far the biggest to be approved in this free port this year, foreign direct investments (FDIs) in Subic by South Korean companies surged to a total of 46 projects worth some $199 million from January to August.

A LABORATORY technician prepares to conduct tests on milk products of different brands at the Bureau of Food and Drugs laboratory in Alabang, Metro Manila. The Philippines has banned all milk importation from China as a precaution against the spread of melamine-contaminated baby formula that has sickened more than 53,000 Chinese, mostly infants. --AP