Day's consumption. Buyers of subsidized rice on their way home from the NFA warehouse on Visayas avenue in Diliman, Quezon City.
***
Squeeze is on? GMA
orders NLEX rates cut 'Pro-poor' target is Lopez cash
cow
BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR
MINALIN, Pampanga - President Arroyo ordered
on Wednesday the reduction of toll fees in the North Luzon
Expressway, a cash-rich business that yields for the Lopez Group
close to P2 billion yearly, starting June 30.
The reduction was part of the regular review
of the NLEX toll rates, but Arroyo's directive to the
independent Toll Regulatory Board has raised eyebrows because it
comes at a time when the Lopezes are under attack from the
government for allegedly abusing their control of Manila
Electric Co. to favor Lopez-owned power generating plants and
suppliers.
Jose de Jesus, president of Manila North
Tollways Corp., said the reduction is likely minimal at 5
centavos per kilometer of the 83-kilometer tollway.
Bolante appeal on rejected US
asylum bid seen as doomed
THE United States has denied the petition for
asylum of former Agriculture Undersecretary for finance Jocelyn
"Joc Joc" Bolante, tagged by the Philippine Senate as the main
architect in the $728 million fertilizer fund scam in 2004.
According to UP Law Professor Harry Roque,
the Chicago Immigration Court, in a decision dated June 25, 2007
stated that Bolante did not present any evidence of past
mistreatment or harm, and evidence showed that there were
presently no charges pending against the respondent with regard
to the fertilizer scam.
The Court also said Bolante's "prosecution
was clearly not a pretext for persecution."
REP. Luzviminda C. Ilagan (Gabriela)
yesterday assailed the Department of Agriculture for shifting
the blame for the rice shortage in Mindanao to farmers who
reportedly are holding on to their stocks in anticipation of
higher prices.
Ilagan said agriculture officials should
instead own up to their incompetence.
"Why pin the blame on those who do their jobs
and not on those who create the policies that have stunted the
growth of our country's agriculture? Is it not enough that they
are not compensated enough for their labor, that they are not
given ownership of the land? The DA has to pass the blame on our
farmers, too?" Ilagan asked.
