Don’t wait for Valentine’s. This family in Benguet simply but eloquently embodies the notion that Filipinos are a loving people, and don’t need Valentine’s Day to show their affection for each other. --Nonie Reyes

THE government has decided to reschedule another bid round for the 25-year concession of the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) amid the push of some industry stakeholders for the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm) to negotiate with the lone bidder group of Citadel Holdings Inc. Terna SPA.

FROM $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion in additional funds are needed to help countries immediately put in place systems for rapid response to a hit by the dreaded avian influenza or bird flu virus, according to the World Bank.

THE European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are scheduled to begin negotiations for a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) in May at the sidelines of the Asean economic meeting in Brunei. The blocs expect to sign the trade deal within two years.

WITH Indonesian-owned First Pacific Group and NTT Group of Japan already on board with their ownership of common voting shares, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. as it is has already become a foreign-controlled telecommunication company.

STATE-OWNED Land Bank of the Philippines is putting up for sale, via public bidding, some P4 billion worth of acquired assets in two to three weeks, its asset sale manager said on Tuesday.

TRADE Secretary Peter Favila threatened local cement manufacturers with a flood of imported cement to lower prices if they could not satisfactorily explain or justify the rise in their prices in the past few weeks. “They are saying sales is low, so why are they raising their prices?” 

THE corporation which transformed parts of a Manila dumpsite into a port is currently in talks with the country’s three biggest petroleum companies for the possible relocation of their Pandacan oil depots to an area near the North Harbor.

SMART Communications Inc. announced Monday that it will soon launch pilot projects in the Middle East and Europe to offer low-cost remittance services using its mobile phone-based financial services platform.

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24 Pinoy hostages freed in Nigeria

A GROUP of 24 Filipino hostages abducted by Nigerian gunmen on January 20 were freed Tuesday, Delta State Governor James Ibori said.

The hostages, employees of Seereederei Baco-Liner GmbH, are now on board a company vessel and heading to Warri, an oil town in the Niger Delta, Ibori said by text message.                                

More than 200 people, about half of them expatriates, have been kidnapped in Nigeria’s oil-producing region in the past year. Both militant groups and criminals kidnapping for ransom have been behind earlier abductions.                                           

A group claiming responsibility for the attack said the men were released “on humanitarian ground without ransom from any quarters,” according to an e-mail statement.                                  

Seereederei Baco-Liner is a shipping company based in Duisburg, Germany.  (Bloomberg)