PRESIDENT Arroyo pauses as she delivers a luncheon speech to the business community Monday in Hong Kong, where she attended the Asian Investors Conference and presided at the unveiling of financial tools to help migrant workers cope with the impact of the rising peso against the dollar. --AP

THE price of various commodities, particularly those of food and oil, were seen in March to push inflation higher, averaging between 5.3 percent up to 5.9 percent during the period.

In a text message, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said this, compared with inflation averaging only 5.4 percent in February and only 4.99 percent in January.

HONG KONG (via PLDT)—President Arroyo Monday told some of the world’s biggest fund managers that Philippine government revenues grew by 17 percent so far this year over the previous year, and will continue to improve with more funds spent on plugging revenue loopholes.

Speaking at the 11th Asian Investment Conference of Credit Suisse at the main ballroom of the Conrad International Hotel, the President also asserted that corruption and inefficiency, contrary to the “political noise” that has dominated news reports at home, have been on the downtrend.

STAKEHOLDERS have sounded the alarm for a looming power shortage in the Visayas, which could result in regular brownouts as early as the third quarter of 2008.

“It looks bleak. Those of you who have generator sets at home or in the office, you may start cleaning them now because we might need them by the third quarter,” Crispin Lamayan, National Transmission Corp. assistant vice president for the Visayas, said.

“DISAPPEARED” cheap government rice may just surface again—or at least their whereabouts could be traced—after an investigation was begun on two National Food Authority (NFA) officials in Cagayan Valley region, who were asked to take leaves of absence pending completion of the inquiry.

The disappearance of the government rice in the market has caused a mild panic even among employees of the NFA, who earlier expressed suspicion the culprits who hid the rice were fellow employees.

EVEN as militant groups reject outright importing reduced tariff rice as a solution to higher prices, some leading economists believe the present situation calls for such government action, especially since the Philippines is a net rice-importing country.

University of the Philippines economist Solita Monsod noted that aside from the obvious benefit of making rice affordable, removing tariffs on rice will also benefit farmers themselves. “There should have been no tariffs on basic commodities in the first place. For one, most Filipino farmers are net consumers of rice and a lot of our farmers are subsistence farmers.”

PULSE Asia’s latest survey, Ulat ng Bayan, shows that across the nation, most Filipinos, comprising 66 percent, feel that the economy is in a worse state now than it was three years ago.

Pulse Asia (PA) released its survey Monday, saying that two of every three Filipinos believed that the state of the country’s economy has worsened since 2005.

THE country’s external debts lifted by nearly 3 percent in 2007 to $54.9 billion from $53.4 billion in just a year, pushed higher by Manila’s net borrowing activities during a period when its economic managers actually made debt prepayments.

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The Cube is back A logo of the mechanical puzzle Rubik’s Cube is displayed outside a Makati store, signaling the resurgence of its popularity since Erno Rubik introduced it in 1974. Filipino children short on cash and long on patience have added to the renaissance. At the ongoing Young Mathematicians In-House Intensive Training Program organized by the Mathematics Trainers Guild-Philippines, the cube is a favorite practice game of “mathletes.” --NONIE REYES