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DEPED ORDERED TO HASTEN RETURN TO OLD SCHOOL CALENDAR BY 2025 By Charles Dantes and Macon Ramos-Araneta PRESIDENT Marcos ordered the Department of Education to craft a concrete plan for the proposed shift to the old June-to-March school calendar by next year. “I asked that from DepEd and I asked Inday Sara to give me a concrete plan already because it seems like we don’t need to wait anymore. And it looks like
it’s needed already and I don’t see any objections really from anyone,” Mr. Marcos said in an interview in Pasay City yesterday. “Hopefully by next year (2025). Yes. By next year it’s done,” he added. The President highlighted the need to revert to the old academic calendar following the continued disruption of face-to-face classes due to the impact of El Niño and the sweltering heat. Next page
VOL. XXXVIII • NO. 81 • 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P20 • TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2024
House, DA eye P30 rice price
Marcos backs amending rice tariffication law to bring down prices By Charles Dantes, Maricel Cruz and Macon Ramos-Araneta
T
HE government is eyeing to bring down rice prices to below P30 per kilogram starting July as President Marcos said he will certify as urgent proposed amendments to the rice tariffication law to address soaring prices of the staple grain.
the President explained. “The last thing we want is to escalate tensions in the West Philippine Sea. That’s the last thing. And that would do that, so we won’t do it,” he added.
“Yes, I think it justifies the urgent certification,” Mr. Marcos said in a media interview in Pasay City. “The problem is that rice prices are increasing because traders are competing. They are bidding higher prices for [rice], and we have no control over that,” he added. Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority released last week showed at the national level, a kilogram of regular milled rice had an average retail price of P51.41 during the second phase of April (15 to 17 April 2024). This was higher than its average retail price in the first phase of April (01 to 05 April 2024) at P51.38 per kilogram and from the second phase of March (15 to 17 March 2024) at P51.21 per kilogram. The rice tariffication law, which is set to expire next year, has to be renewed. It also created the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund with an annual appropriation of P10 billion. Speaker Martin Romualdez on Monday said the House of Representatives and the Department of
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THEY SHALL NOT PASS. Filipino and American soldiers fired howitzers yesterday at invading enemy forces attempting to land at the La Paz Sand Dunes in Laoag City as part of the
Balikatan 2024 military exercises. The exercise utilized several high-powered military assets such as the ATMOS 155 mm self-propelled howitzer, a 105mm howitzer from the Philippine Army Artillery Regiment (AAR), and two (2) Philippine Marine Corps 105mm howitzers.(PAOAFP)
PBBM to PCG: Turn the other cheek, as US-Ph forces repel ‘invasion’ By Charles Dantes PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos on Monday said he had no intention of ordering the placing of water cannons on Philippine-owned vessels in the West
Philippine Sea (WPS). In a media interview, President Marcos stressed the Philippines will not follow the footsteps of the Chinese Coast Guard and Chinese vessels in escalating the tension in the maritime region.
“No. We are just defending our rights and sovereignty in the WPS. We have no plans to attack anyone with water cannons or any other offensive weapons because they can cause damage. So, that’s not part of the plan,”
Oil firms roll back prices anew PRESENCE OF CHINESE VESSELS IN EASTERN SEABOARD HIT NEWS / A4
OIL firms rolled back domestic pump prices across all products amounting to P0.75 per liter for gasoline, P0.90 per liter for diesel and P1.05 per liter for kerosene effective 6am Tuesday to reflect the movement of prices in the world oil market. Seaoil Philippines, Jetti Petroleum, Cleanfuel, Chevron Philippines and PetroGazz issued separate advisories of the latest oil price rollback, the second consecutive weekly price rollback for diesel and kerosene. The actual rollback is higher than Friday’s estimate of P0.20 to P0.45 Next page
Lapid gunman gets 16-year jail term By Rey E. Requejo
BSP SEES ROBUST GDP GROWTH IN 2ND QUARTER BUSINESS / B1
A LAS Piñas Regional Trial Court (RTC) has sentenced the self-confessed gunman in the October 2022 killing of broadcaster Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa to as long as 16 years in prison. Roy Mabasa, the younger brother of the slain broadcaster, revealed that Next page
MEETING OF THE MINDS. Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez, accompanied by other House leaders, met with officials of the Department of Agriculture led by Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr. yesterday afternoon to discuss joint efforts aimed at bringing down the price of rice and other basic commodities.
Power supply dips anew as demand continues rising By Alena Mae S. Flores THE National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) yesterday placed the Luzon grid on yellow alert status from 3pm to 4pm due to insufficient reserves. The NGCP said available capacity was placed at 15,167 megawatts
(MW) compared to a peak demand of 13,714MW. “Four plants have been on forced outage since 2023, 3 between January and March 2024, and 9 since April 2024, while one other is running on derated capacity, for a total of 1406.8MW unavailable to the grid,” the NGCP said.
A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement. Meanwhile, energy think tank the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) in a report said Luzon’s Next page
House panel tells Alvarez to answer ethics charges By Maricel V. Cruz A COMMITTEE of the House of Representatives has given former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez 10 days to answer a complaint filed against him for alleged
disorderly conduct when he called the military to withdraw support for President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. “The allegations are very serious. The committee has given him 10 days from receipt of the order, for him to
answer the complaint filed by Tagum City Mayor Rey Uy,” Rep. Raul Angelo Bongalon, a member of the House committee on ethics and privileges headed by Rep. Felimon Espares, said Next page