THE controversial Hanjin apartment complex is located in similar clearings for ammunition bunkers that were previously taken over by Polar Marine (upper left) and RCM Manufacturing (lower left). SBMA officials had noted this fact to stress that the construction of Hanjin’s complex did not result in the destruction of forests because this was an area that had long been cleared. Below, SBMA administrator Armand Arreza and Ecology Center manager Amethya de la Llana-Koval say the project complied with environmental requirements at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone. --HENRY EMPEÑO

THE National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Board has approved the long-awaited joint-venture (JV) guidelines drafted to encourage the private sector to undertake projects with the national government.

The Neda Board approved the guidelines during a joint Neda Cabinet Group/National Antipoverty Commission (NAPC) meeting in Malacañang Tuesday. The members of the Neda Cabinet Group are part of the Neda Board.

SINGAPORE—Rice climbed to a record for a fourth day as the Philippines, the biggest importer, announced plans to buy 1 million tons and some of the world’s largest exporters cut sales to ensure they can feed their own people.

Rice, the staple food for half the world, gained 2.4 percent to $21.50 per 100 pounds in Chicago, more than double the price a year ago. Philippine President Gloria Arroyo vowed Tuesday to crack down on hoarding and said she would jail anyone found guilty of “stealing rice from the people.”

CRITICS of the recent order of President Arroyo to lift rice-import quotas are agreed this cure is worse than the disease, since it would disadvantage local farmers by subsidizing foreign ones, and at the same time reinforce the near-stranglehold of the rice cartel on the rice trade.

National Rice Farmers Council chairman Jaime Tadeo said President Arroyo “has gone mad in lifting the quantitative restrictions. Instead of instituting measures to develop self-sufficiency in rice production, she has increased the country’s reliance on food imports.”

THE Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards (RTWPBs) are currently studying the possibility of increasing the salary of workers following the continued surge in oil prices and basic commodities.

Ciriaco Lagunzad III, executive director of the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC), said the country’s 17 wage boards are now assessing if there is a need to approve an increment, taking into consideration “regional socioeconomic indicators.”

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT ZONE —“Every single investment here in Subic, especially if it goes into a sensitive area, is meticulously evaluated.” Thus did SBMA administrator Armand Arreza declare Tuesday as he waded right into the controversy over the high-rise apartment complex built by Korean locator Hanjin Heavy Industries Inc. right in the middle of a forest in this free-port zone.

DOMESTIC liquidity or M3 continued to expand in February, although at a slower pace than the month before, driven lower by risk aversion as foreign-fund inflows were spooked and started digesting the impact of the US subprime woes.

This corresponded with the period when the special deposit account (SDA) facility of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), reworked later in March, was still in place and should have diminishing impact on M3 levels.

LEADING refining and marketing company Petron Corp. marks another first when it inaugurates the Philippines’ first petrochemical feedstock facilities on April 9 at its 180,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Limay, Bataan. The Petro Fluidized Catalytic Cracking (PetroFCC) unit and Propylene Recovery Unit (PRU) are part of the company’s Refinery Master Plan, which will enable it to further diversify into the petrochemical business and sustain its growth.

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Over troubled water. A girl paddles a makeshift floater carrying water containers through a murky river planked by shanties in suburban Manila. Millions of Asians could face poverty, disease and hunger as a result of rising temperatures and increased rainfall that are expected to hit hardest poor countries with overburdened health systems, the World Health Organization warned this week. --AP