Silted river. Appearing almost dot-like, a man awkwardly finds a cellular signal on a silted portion of the Magat River bed in San Mateo, Isabela. The San Mateo local government is leading the campaign to rehabilitate the Magat watershed. --LEONARDO PERANTE II

Trade deficit surges to $3.9B

HIGHER imports reeled in a bigger trade deficit in the first six months of the year at $3.934 billion, according to the external trade performance report released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Tuesday.

The NSO said the total external trade in goods from January to June 2008 was at $55.130 billion, which saw a 10-percent increase from the $50.106 billion in the same period in 2007.

VAT proceeds to interconnect LRT 1 to MRT 3

THE government will use proceeds from the value-added tax (VAT) to fund the long-delayed Light Rail Transit North (LRT) extension project targeted for completion before she steps down in 2010.

The President told reporters in an informal interaction in Clark Free Port that the LRT North extension project, linking the LRT Line 1 end station in Monumento, Caloocan City, to the MRT Line 3 station in North Avenue, will commence civil works next month.        

House panel requires Big 3 to produce data

AFTER their soft approach failed anew, legislators have now required Shell, Chevron and Petron to present information and data on their pricing mechanisms, procurement costs, sources of their supplies and other pertinent particulars.

The House Committee on Energy, at a hearing on Tuesday, immediately approved the motion for the so-called oil Big Three to obey the committee after the House body once again failed to squeeze out from the oil firms’ representatives information on their pricing mechanisms and other data.

Palace set to submit P1.4-T budget of 2009 to Congress

MALACAÑANG will submit to Congress on Wednesday its P1.4-trillion budget proposal, described as one meant to protect the country from the global economic slowdown and the fuel crisis, and with emphasis on the economy, environment and education.

DFA to Senate: Ratify Asean charter

FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo has asked the Philippine Senate to ratify the charter of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations  (Asean), noting that the binding constitution would be crucial in improving the human-rights situation in the region.

Road show for Cha-cha ‘railroad’

AMID threats they will once again be the center of massive protests if they railroad the proposal to amend the Constitution, legislators succumbed to pressure and agreed to launch massive consultations in different parts of the country before voting on Charter change (Cha-cha).

Meralco meter-deposit refund to start in November

THE Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said Tuesday it can accelerate and start the refund process of meter deposits to its customers by November this year.

Similar to previous refunds, Meralco customers have three options for getting their refund—either through cash, check or debit to future bills or as an offset to other due and demandable claims against the customer.

PCGG’s Sabio tags FG’s lawyer as caller

CHAIRMAN Camilo Sabio of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) on Tuesday told the Supreme Court three-man investigating panel that a lawyer of the President’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, called him to ask for help in connection with the suit filed by the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) against the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) before the Court of Appeals.

HIV/AIDS cases still low but rising

THE Philippines still has low HIV/AIDS prevalence, but the country should not be complacent because the number is rising, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said.

“Although the Philippines remains to be a low-prevalence country [in HIV/AIDS], it should not be a reason to be complacent as statistics and trends show that the number of those infected are on the rise,” Duque said at the opening on Tuesday of the three-day Second Regional Consultative Meeting on Universal Access to Prevention, Treatment, Care and Support in Low-Prevalence Countries on HIV/AIDS, to which the country belongs.

Deployment to risky African zones eyed

WITH the mounting kidnapping of merchant mariners in the pirate-infested waters of Somalia and Nigeria, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) plans to ban the deployment of Filipino seamen with shipping companies that ply those waters.

Secretary Alberto Romulo announced the plan on Tuesday after 54 Filipino seamen were seized in four separate kidnapping incidents in the waters of Somalia last week. One of them has reportedly died but the DFA has yet to confirm the report.

MEMBERS of Migrante International troop to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to protest plans to require psychiatric tests of foreign-bound workers, which they vowed to fight in court. The protest comes as the buildup for the Philippines’ hosting of the October Global Forum on Migration and Development has started. --ROY DOMINGO