Love this city Participants at Makati City’s opening parade on Friday to mark its 338th founding anniversary lend color to the otherwise monochromatic landscape of gray and silver formed by the premier business district’s row of gleaming steel-and-concrete buildings. Mayor Jejomar Binay led city officials, private-sector leaders and community groups in hailing the city’s birth anniversary. --ROY DOMINGO

THE stage is set for what a senator described as a “battle of titans” when Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) president Winston Garcia faces off with top officials of the Lopez family-controlled Manila Electric Co.  at today’s Joint Congressional Power Commission (JCPC) hearing on high power rates, amid speculations of a Garcia-led scheme for a government takeover of Meralco.

“I expect it to be a battle of titans,” Sen. Miriam Santiago said over the weekend. “I will ask Garcia of the GSIS to enumerate as briefly as possible the ways in which he thinks Meralco has been mismanaged, such as to result in very high electricity rates.”

CRUDE oil rose above $126 a barrel in New York to a record as the dollar weakened against the euro, prompting investors to buy commodities as a hedge against the currency’s decline.

For a fifth day oil climbed to all-time highs as the euro strengthened on signs the European Central Bank will keep rates at a six-year high to cut inflation. Nigerian output fell to the lowest this decade in April because of a strike and attacks on oil installations.

WITH prices of basic commodities and utilities skyrocketing, the consumer-and-debt watchdog Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) has laid the blame on a range of factors, saying bad governance to corruption to mismanagement to rent-seeking to framework concerns have caused power rates in the country to remain high.

The FDC thus stressed these problems cannot be resolved fully without transforming the electricity industry into one “that is more responsive and accountable to the people, and more environmentally sustainable.”

THE Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) has opposed the P20.5-billion joint settlement agreement between the National Power Corp. (Napocor) and the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) to resolve their dispute over the 10-year contract requiring Meralco to purchase electricity from Napocor, saying it placed “at great risk” the finances of the government.

CASH-RICH power firm National Power Corp. (Napocor) continues to pare down its foreign debts totaling some $7 billion, and revealed  Friday another prepayment that cuts its indebtedness by another $260.2 million or some P11 billion.

THE National Power Corp. (Napocor) has promised to heed the call of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to explain why it has not filed for the Generation Rate Adjustment Mechanism (GRAM) and Incremental Currency Exchange Rate Adjustment (Icera) for the period July 2006 to March 2008, and denies there are any overrecoveries made during the period.

AMONG 55 less-developed countries, the Philippines was ranked below Mongolia but above Qatar as the best place for mothers, a report by Save the Children Inc. revealed.

The report released last week by the United States branch of the nonprofit group revealed that among Southeast Asian nations, the Philippines (ranked 38th) trailed Malaysia (35), Vietnam (24), Thailand (13)  and Korea (8) as the “countries that are doing the best” at reaching the children of mothers with basic health measures.

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Still bullish, Perhaps there was just a pause in the influx of buyers, or the man is bored. Or, consumers grappling with high prices of everything are holding off on buying appliances. Still, this didn’t stop SM Megamall Appliance Center and Citibank from offering zero-interest price tags to on-installment buyers at the Appliance Installment Fiesta 2008 at the Megamall Trade Hall in Mandaluyong City. --RHOY COBILLA