News

RP House briefing on US financial crisis

Thursday, 02 October 2008 05:43 Lira Dalangin-Reyes/Inquirer.net

MANILA - The House of the Representatives will sit as a committee of the whole Thursday to get a briefing from the country's economic managers on the impact of the US financial crisis on the Philippine economy and to see if there will be a need to change figures in the proposed 2009 budget.

Albay Representative Edcel Lagman made the proposal in his sponsorship speech of the proposed budget, saying it was necessary to hear it straight from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's managers how the US financial market fiasco will affect the country, adding that there was no crisis yet when the managers made the macroeconomic assumptions for the 2009 appropriation.

Asia urges quick action on bailout

Tuesday, 30 September 2008 05:16 Yuri Kagayama/AP

TOKYO (AP) - Asia was shaken Tuesday by the collapse of the U.S. financial bailout effort, with the region's political leaders expressing hopes for a quick solution and Japan's central bank injecting more cash into money markets to promote liquidity and lending.

"This is a bad development," Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said of the U.S. House of Representatives' rejection Monday of a $700 billion plan to rescue ailing financial companies burdened with piles of bad mortgage-related debts.

China offers help on milk problem

Tuesday, 30 September 2008 04:41 Miko Santos

MANILA - The Chinese government is ready to help the Philippines in making sure melamine-contaminated milk or milk-based products from China do not get to the hands of consumers but it has appealed to media not to unnecessarily foment the fears of consumers.

Speaking in Mandarin with an interpreter by his side, Chinese Ambassador to Manila Song Tao acknowledged China’s responsibility to the world in terms of improving the food quality, and the safety and security of their food.

RP, Japan ink P10.2B ‘green’ loan

Tuesday, 30 September 2008 04:38 Veronica Uy/Inquirer.net

MANILA - The Philippines and Japan signed on Tuesday a 24.8-billion yen (about P10.2 billion) environmental loan to assist local government units and government-owned corporations and water utilities invest in environmental-friendly projects.

Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Makoto Katsura and Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Franklin Ebdalin signed and exchanged notes on a Japanese official development assistance loan called the “Environment Development Program."

Melamine scandal hits candy makers

Monday, 29 September 2008 07:09 AP

(2 votes, average: 1.00 out of 5)

HONG KONG, China (AP) -- British chocolate maker Cadbury on Monday became the latest foreign company to be hit by China's tainted milk scandal, ordering a recall of its Chinese-made products after saying tests "cast doubt" on their safety.

Two U.S. food makers were meanwhile investigating Indonesian claims that high traces of the industrial chemical melamine had been found in Chinese-made Oreos, M&Ms and Snickers, but stressed the same goods had tested negative in other Asian countries.