A VENDOR from a local store in San Andres market in Manila arranges canned goods in her store. The Department of Trade and Industry is keeping close watch on retail outlets amid fears that prices of food staples will rise further as steadily increasing fuel prices keep pulling up the cost of business. As it is, the prices of rice alone have risen more than 40 percent in the past year, and there are warnings of more spikes, especially for a country like the Philippines that relies heavily on imported rice. --NONIE REYES

THE Philippine government can well afford the burden of subsidizing the rice staple in these times of perceived short rice supply as the estimated cost should not top $1.3 billion or around P54.2 billion this year, according to the financial services giant Credit Suisse.

AT 50-percent tariff, imported rice will likely be sold in local stores at P50 per kilo—that is, if it can still be found abroad after rice-exporting countries curbed foreign sales to put a lid on inflation and the political turbulence that high food prices could cause, according to estimates of Sen. Francis Escudero.

His computation was based on a $795-per-metric-ton price of rice which, he recalled, was how much the widely traded Thai grade B rice fetched last week, and Tuesday’s P41.75: $1 close of the peso-dollar exchange.

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) will study the possibility of increasing the retail price of cheap rice sold by its attached agency, the National Food Authority (NFA), at P18.25 per kilogram.

NFA administrator Jessup Navarro said the agency is now undertaking a review of the price structure for cheap rice sold by the government.

RICE importers are apparently playing a waiting game—making sure the presidential order removing the tariff on rice imports has been issued and becomes effective before moving to import the staple although a rice shortage has begun to emerge, the very situation the tariff removal wanted to avoid.

The wait could also disadvantage the Philippines since exporting countries are beginning to impose quotas for exports in order to protect their own domestic needs, making the volume of rice available for export much smaller all around—and leading to soaring prices worldwide.

SOUTH Korean investors in the Philippines have warned that unfair “trial by publicity” against Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Ltd. could dampen foreign investors’ interest in the Philippines, as the group maintained that the company did not violate any local laws.

The Korean Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (KCCP), with 500 investor-members, said the publicity attack against Hanjin over its construction of two condominium buildings—apartments for its officers and employees—inside the Subic Bay Freeport in Zambales is sending negative signals to South Korean investors.

COPPER-CONCENTRATE output from the Philippines, where Xstrata Plc. is developing a $2-billion copper-gold mine, may jump 34 percent this year and more than double by 2009, according to a government forecast.

Output may rise to 30,739 metric tons in 2008 from 22,862 a year earlier, according to a copy of a government forecast provided to Bloomberg Wednesday by Environment Secretary Lito Atienza.

PILIPINAS Shell won its 17-year-old case not to pay P18.5 million to the government as surcharge for underpayment of its contributions to the Oil Price Stabilization Fund (OPSF), which was used to mitigate foreign-exchange cost increases in oil imports.

On Wednesday the Supreme Court released its decision affirming the Court of Appeals (CA) ruling declaring as void a circular issued by the then-Ministry of Finance mandating oil companies to pay a 15-percent surcharge for late payment of OPSF contributions.

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First of its kind. President Arroyo shakes hands with Petron chairman and chief executive officer Nicasio Alcantara after leading the unveiling of the inaugural marker to mark the official inauguration of the Petrofluidized Catalytic Cracking (PFCC) facilities and Propelyn Refinery Unit (PRU) plant of the Petron Bataan Refinery Wednesday in barangay Alangan, Limay, Bataan. The PFCC unit at Petron is the first full-blown Petro FCC in the world. Also in photo are (from left) Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador Mohhamed Ameen Wali, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes and other Petron officials. --OPS-NIB