Bonifacio gets into the spirit. Bonifacio Global City in Taguig marks the holidays with a Christmas light and music festival, a 10-minute light display synchronized with music, from 7 p.m. to midnight until December 30. Ten years after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the country’s real-estate industry is back on track and is expected to show a steady growth in the next few years, driven by the strong demand for business-office spaces from the business-process outsourcing sector and higher profit from rental and leasing operations from new developments like Bonifacio.

IT was bound to happen: the government has finally announced plans to recalibrate its macroeconomic goals for 2008, the original numbers having been rendered obsolete by the strong peso, weak exports and the rising price of world oil.

THE Department of Energy (DOE) is set to commission a reputable third-party financial auditing company to evaluate the books of local oil companies and ensure all of the pricing methods, particularly for petroleum products, are reasonable.

FOREIGN businessmen have asked President Arroyo to issue a policy directive categorically stating that income-tax holidays (ITH) will continue to be granted to select priority activities. Their request is based on apprehension that the conflicting statements of government agencies on the grant of tax incentives will deter the inflow of foreign direct investments (FDIs) here.

IS a major shakeup happening again in the PLDT Group?

BusinessMirror sources said over the weekend that four key officials have resigned from the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT). Another one who heads the retail group of the company is set to leave by the end of the year.

DISASTER-mitigation teams have doubled their preparedness as a pair of typhoons—with a third coming—that interacted through the so-called Fujiwhara effect is threatening central Philippines, weather specialists disclosed Sunday.

GUAM—The screaming signs of a busy investment traffic toward Guam are visible around this small Pacific island. More and more companies are opening up.

THE optimism of businessmen has rebounded with the approach of Christmas and now approximates its year-ago peak, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported Friday.

THE National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) has asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) for a legal opinion on the extent of the authority of the local government units to levy taxes on government infrastructure projects.

DAVAO CITY—Women leaders from most of Asia and Africa gathered here this week to seek ways to increase representation of women in peace and conflict-resolution bodies, relying on a UN Security Council resolution mandating member-states to ensure their representation as their leverage.

THE European Union Parliament urged leaders of the Association of  Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to take stronger action against Burma’s junta leaders as it warned that it would not sign a free-trade agreement with the 10-member bloc, which includes Burma, without democratic reforms in that dictator-ruled country.

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Ad Congress closing. Jones Campus of Globe Telecoms and of the Philippine Association of National Advertisers (PANA) displays the Philippine Advertising Congress (PAC) symbol, as PANA is announced as the host of the next—or the 21st—Philippine Advertising Congress at the weekend closing of the PAC at Subic Bay. At left is Yoly Ong, overall chairwoman of the 20th Congress. For more stories and photos on the biggest ad-industry event. --ROY COBILLA