GMA Network onboard GMA Network, which operates Channel 7 and Q TV, is listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange as a publicly traded company. Photo shows, (left to right) PSE chairman Justice Jose Vitug, Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Fe Barin, GMA Network chairman and chief executive Felipe Gozon and PSE president Francis Ed Lim mingling during the traditional ringing of the bell for a newly listed company at the PSE’s Ayala Tower One in Makati City.  --NONIE REYES

PRESIDENT Arroyo on Monday indicated that the more complex questions have been resolved in the final draft of the free-trade agreement (FTA) between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and Japan, as she urged the negotiators to “find the resolve to agree on the finer points” of the draft.

FOREIGN ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) have reached a consensus on the final draft of the proposed charter that establishes the creation of a human-rights body, a contentious provision that has been opposed by Burma.

FOREIGN ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) for the first time urged the withdrawal of US-led military forces in Iraq, and reiterated their calls for the revival of the Doha negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO).

THE World Bank has blamed the country’s nonreadiness to implement projects, the complexity of project designs and the slow progress in policy reforms for the low level of loan disbursements.

NINE projects endorsed under the 26th, 27th and 28th yen loan packages hang in the balance as Tokyo waits for Manila to reimburse Japanese companies charged with the value-added tax (VAT).

A GROUP of local pharmaceutical companies have banded together to form InnoGen Pharma Group Inc., and launched in the local market an innovative generic medicine most prescribed for hypertension, selling it 80-percent lower than the drug originator’s cost.

ALTHOUGH key banking personalities have loudly protested against industry members being called “lazy,” data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) show there is some basis for that because they continue to make money not from lending to people or businesses, but from lending to the central bank.

THE Kapuso Network, officially the broadcasting giant GMA Network Inc., displayed a strong showing on its first trading day as a listed company in the stock market Monday, going up to P8.70 from an opening offered price of P8.50, to a closing price of P10.50 per share.

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Makati Medical Center signs three-year CBA Makati Medical Center Inc. management panel and the 1,100-member Makati Medical Center Employees’ Association (Mamecea-AFW) signed on Thursday evening a three-year retroactive collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that takes effect on March 1, 2007, until February 28, 2010. The main features of the CBA, signed by Makati Med’s president and chief executive officer Atty. Richard N. Ferrer and Mamecea-AFW president Willy Pulia, include a yearly salary increase, an emergency cost of living allowance of P760 for seven months, birthday leave and loyalty award for employees, as well as a signing bonus, a first since the establishment of the union. Shown in photo are (seated, from left) Makati Med director of finance and chairman of the management panel Carlito B. Soliman; management panel members Dr. John Vincent G. Pastores and Dr. Alipio S. Abad Jr.; Ferrer; Pulia; national president of Alliance of Filipino Workers (AFW) Angelito Calderon; and AFW general legal counsel Atty. Edgar Martir. Standing behind are the officers and members of both panels.