Home without the bacon. Esperon, flanked by Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman, left, and Garcia, on arrival from Kuala Lumpur.
***
'Fend for
yourselves
if attacked by MILF' C'bato exec bares threat by
Esperon
BY VICTOR REYES
NORTH Cotabato Vice Gov. Emmanuel Piñol has
accused Hermogenes Esperon, presidential adviser on the peace
process, of threatening to leave the people of his province to
fend for themselves in case of an attack by the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front.
Piñol made the statements Tuesday night in an
interview over ANC's Strictly Politics program.
Esperon, in a radio interview, denied telling
Piñol that the military will not respond if the MILF attacks
North Cotabato.
2 of 3 households eating,
spending less, says Pulse Asia
BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR
TWO in every three households or about 66
percent of Filipino households are now consuming less food or
spending less to cope with rising prices, a Pulse Asia survey
from July 1 to 14 showed.
The results of the survey, which covered
1,200 respondents nationwide, show an increase of 22 percentage
points over the March 2008 figure of 44 percent.
Reduced food consumption and spending was
more pronounced in the Visayas (75 percent), Luzon (70 percent),
and Mindanao (61 percent) than in Metro Manila (47 percent).
ALBAY Gov. Joel Salceda, former economic
adviser of President Arroyo, yesterday said the country has not
yet seen the worst of inflation, saying it could reach 12.9
percent in October, from July's 17-year-high of 12.2 percent
"No matter where I look, the inflation rate
will continue to rise and might even reach 12.9 percent by
October. It will definitely peak by October," Salceda said in an
interview on the sidelines of the launching of the UN Millennium
Development Goals-Fund Joint Program on Climate Change at Edsa
Shangri-La Hotel Mandaluyong.
Salceda said that the inflation rate could
even go as high as 14 percent but for the government's rice
subsidy program for poor families funded by windfall revenues
from the expanded value added tax.
