Bacolod City's inflation rate increased by about 1.2 percent as of the third quarter of 2005, data of the National Statistics Office-Negros Occidental show.

By end-September 2005, inflation rate was 7.0 percent while in the same period in 2004, 5.8 percent, Eusebio Gale, statistician II, said yesterday.

The difference reflects the percentage of the increase in prices of prime commodities in the city from September 2004 to September 2005, Gale said. In terms of the purchasing power of peso, he said, this means that every peso spent by Bacoleños was only worth 86 centavos as of September 2004 while as of September 2005, only 80 centavos.

NFA exceeds '05
distribution target

The National Food Authority in Negros Occidental said in a statement yesterday its has surpassed its rice distribution target in 2005 by 103 percent, registering actual distribution of 503,005 bags through its 97 accredited rice outlets in the province.

Rice outlets include individual grains retailers and Bigasang Bayan outlets.

NFA Provincial Manager Gil Ibarra said the growth can be attributed to their competitiveness in terms of price and quality of rice. He said that the NFA still sells well-milled rice at P18 per kilo compared to the prevailing price of commercial rice of P24.50 per kilo for well-milled rice and P21 per kilo for regular-milled rice. Ibarra said that grains industry inventory as of Dec. 31, 2005 totaled 1,085,572 bags sufficient for 57 days, including NFA's stocks of 44,367 bags.

All TransCo O&M units
receive ISO certifications

The National Transmission Corp. has completed the ISO certifications for all its operation and maintenance units, TransCo said in a press release.

The latest to receive the ISO 9001:2000 certification for quality management is the South Luzon Operations and Maintenance Group.

The certification was awarded by Renato Navarrete, managing director of the Certification International Philippines, to the SLOM Group headed by TransCo AVP Armando Buencamino during simple rites held at Lucena City recently, the press release said.

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