THE almost traditionally debt-laden National Power Corporation always needs money, so why is Malacañang demanding that it hand over its 2005 dividends of P2.6 billion, especially at this time when the Palace continues to claim government has so much funds it is running out its ears?

Amid fears of massive funds misuse on the eve of elections in May, the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) is demanding that Malacañang “fully explain” its demand on the Napocor. It questioned the logic of the move to “sequester” the money, raising as it does the suspicion that with elections in four short months, it could be used to fund the administration campaign.

“In the context of unresolved misuse of government resources and scandals that have plagued the Arroyo administration, the use of these extraordinary dividends from a debt-ridden agency can only lead to strong suspicion that the funds may be used for election-related activities,” said FDC president Ana Maria Nemenzo.

Executive Order 599 issued by President Arroyo on January 18, 2007 mandated Napocor to turn over its 2005 dividends “in the interest of national economy and general welfare.” Under the same order, the President even adjusted the power corporation’s dividend rate on net earnings to 3 percent.

But Nemenzo said that cash-strapped and financially unstable Napocor needs the dividends that it could use to reduce its obligations, either in interest or debt stock, while the government is wallowing in funds that it even prepaid some dollar loans.

The FDC said that although the power corporation posted net earnings of P86 billion in 2005, its only positive gains in the past 10 years and allegedly the highest in the past 70 years, it also incurred losses in 2006. 

CENTRAL bank officials believe that now or anytime soon is the opportune time to come out with a new retail treasury bond sale program for overseas Filipino workers, when interest rates are low and investor sentiment still sharp.

FILIPINOS may be tremendously benefiting from $12 billion worth of annual remittances sent by relatives working abroad, but seen from a broader scale there could be blips that might weigh down on income equality, local employment and country competitiveness, a labor economist said Friday.

IF done in a clean and honest manner, the coming midterm election could be a good barometer of the real pulse of the people on such issues as Charter change and the legitimacy of the Arroyo administration, the vice president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said on Sunday. 

THE high cost of raw materials and the high demand for services have prompted Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp.’s mother company to hold off any major investments in the country for the meantime, Edgar Chua, the company country chairman, told reporters on Saturday.

LUZON and the Visayas appear to be attractive sites for companies planning to put up ethanol distilleries following the enactment of the alternative fuels law, according to the Department of Agriculture.

THE almost traditionally debt-laden National Power Corporation always needs money, so why is Malacañang demanding that it hand over its 2005 dividends of P2.6 billion, especially at this time when the Palace continues to claim government has so much funds it is running out its ears?

WORRIED it would open the door to further “tinkering of similar money and other funds,” Anakpawis party-list Reps. Crispin Beltran and Rafael Mariano have called for an investigation into the plan of the Presidential Commission on Good Government to use the P1.9-billion dividend of Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF) for undisclosed projects.