IN this photo released by China’s Xinhua news agency, rescuers try to help a stranded student out of the debris at Wudu Primary School at Hanwang town in Mianzhu City, southwest China’s Sichuan province, on Tuesday. China state media says that 10,000 people “remain buried” in rubble in Mianzhu near the epicenter of Monday’s 7.9-magnitude earthquake that struck the country. --AP

ASSERTING that the congressional oversight panel on power has heard allegations of malpractices by both the key contending stakeholders in the sector, a senior member of the committee said Tuesday the ongoing inquiry on high power rates would most likely yield a recommendation to overhaul the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) as part of the solution.

“So, the problem, really, is the ERC. Which means that [with] any wrongdoing, the one who is being accused will say it was okayed by the ERC. So, it seems to validate the act. ERC is the policeman of the power sector, they’re the traffic manager there, they’re everything. So if you have a corrupt ERC, nothing will happen,” said Sen. Joker Arroyo.

NOW you know times are really hard. The iconic fast food that offers “distinctly Filipino” spaghetti and fried chicken has been bitten by the inflation bug.

ALASKA Milk Corp. (AMC), one of the country’s leading manufacturers of milk products, is bent on keeping its prices at current levels despite rising inflation.

At the sidelines of its annual stockholders’ meeting Tuesday, president and chief executive Wilfred Steven Uytengsu Jr. said his company would be able to do such move by hedging on the commodity and implementing reformulation strategies, including downsizing the packaging and reducing the content of the product, without compromising the quality.

AS other businesses grapple with the soaring cost of food and fuel, the Philippines’ bet for the World Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in Monte Carlo says it is fortuitous they are in the dairy business.

Alaska Milk Corp. president and chief executive Wilfred Steven Uytengsu Jr. spoke to the BusinessMirror after a cocktail reception held before he goes to Monte Carlo to represent the Philippines in accounting firm Ernst & Young’s World Entrepreneur of the Year Awards on May 31. He vies against representatives of 44 countries.

PRODUCTION in the country’s farm sector grew by 4 percent from January to March, faster than the 3.3-percent growth posted in the same period last year, on the back of higher crop production, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

DESPITE a better-than-expected growth in the first quarter, agriculture is not seen as the country’s main driver of growth even in the first quarter of this year.

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ALASKA Milk Corp. president and CEO Wilfred Steven Uytengsu Jr. greets a journalist at a reception tendered in his honor Monday before he flew as the country’s representative to the World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2008 in Monte Carlo, Monaco. --LEON MEDADO