Reporter

HONG KONG (via PLDT)—The Philippine government will ask Hong Kong labor officials to consider the possible reversion of the minimum wage for Filipino domestic helpers there to prerecession levels, President Arroyo said on Tuesday.

The President said in a pooled media interview in her suite at the Grand Hyatt Hotel that she gave the directive to Labor Secretary Marianito Roque, who joined her three-day working visit to Hong Kong.

“I asked Nitoy Roque to confer with the labor officials of Hong Kong [so] they will review the minimum wage now that Hong Kong is no longer in recession. Because when Hong Kong went into recession, they lowered the minimum wage,” she explained.

The minimum allowable wage for Filipino domestic helpers used to be HK$3,670, but this was reduced to HK$3,270 in 2003, when Hong Kong reeled from an economic downturn and the effects of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), on top of a HK$400 levy imposed on all employers of foreign domestic help.

“Hong Kong gradually gave them an increase of HK$50 and HK$80. Out of HK$400, only HK$180 was restored. And that’s why we’re working for negotiations with the Hong Kong government so that the former wage level would at least be restored,” Roque said.

The President also acted on the request of Filipino workers to establish special OFW wards for OFWs and the beneficiaries in government hospitals, beginning with the Philippine General Hospital, and later other hospitals in Davao, Albay, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Iloilo and Baguio.

Local government units will also put up OFW one-stop shops in their areas subject to coordination with labor officials, while the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration will work on sending medical missions to areas with high OFW concentration.

NFA men escort rice trucks to outlets

SPECULATIONS rose and grim images flashed, across Central Luzon, a major producer of the Philippine main staple, as government men escorted traders ferrying truckloads of National Food Authority (NFA) rice to their outlets. Rolling stores, described as a “quick response” solution to the rice shortage, were also readied.

THE Philippines’ approach to inflation “is quite impressive.” This accolade is from the World Bank (WB), which said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has done a good job at managing the economy, deftly avoiding cost-push inflation no matter an externally driven peso liquidity surge.

THE National Democratic Front (NDF) said on Tuesday that it is willing to resume the stalled peace talks with the government and is not backing off, as claimed by a spokesman for the administration.

HONG KONG (via PLDT)—The Philippine government will ask Hong Kong labor officials to consider the possible reversion of the minimum wage for Filipino domestic helpers there to prerecession levels, President Arroyo said on Tuesday.

NOT contented with his plan to file before the Vatican a formal complaint against Archbishop Oscar Cruz of Lingayen-Dagupan for conduct unbecoming, a legislator wants the bishop criminally prosecuted and asked the people he “demonized” to seek redress before the courts.

THE left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Tuesday accused Japan of bribing the government through the P7.8-billion supplemental loan to finance the completion of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) in exchange of the ratification of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa).

CLARK FREE PORT—Officials of the Clark International Airport Corp. (Ciac) said emergency preparedness at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (Dmia) will contribute to the growth and development of the airport here.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—A bus driver thwarted a grenade attack on his bus on Monday, the local police reported.