The local chapter of the Manggagawa sa Komunikasyon-Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company Union yesterday denounced the termination of the 575 employees of the telecommunications giant, including six radio technicians in Negros Occidental, effective September 15.

We are calling on the management to stop the retrenchment, Ronnie Gedoria, Negros and Iloilo union council representative, said.

The PLDT management served the notice of termination to the affected employees on August 16, after it decided to abolish four of its departments - Fleet Management, Operator Services, Directories Assistance and Vis/Min Core Networks.

IN 2008
US to buy 142,160
MTs of sugar from RP

The United States has announced that it will be importing 1,117,195 metric tons of sugar in 2008 under its Tariff Rate Quota Allocations, and will purchase 142,160 MT from the Philippines, Enrique Rojas, National Federation of Sugarcane Planters president, said yesterday.

Rojas said the Philippine share of the US sugar quota is similar to what it was allocated last crop year.

RP sugar sold to the US Market fetch a higher prices than that sold to the world market and help decongest the domestic supply, he said. However, the US prices are not as good as they were before because of the drop in the value of the dollar to the peso and the high shopping cost. Of the 40 countries included in the US quota the Philippines was allocated the third largest share next to the Dominican Republic with 185,335 metric tons and Brazil with 152,691 metric tons.

Aboitiz Transport sells
SF 15 for P789 million

Aboitiz Transport System Corp. said yesterday it has sold and delivered its SuperFerry 15 vessel to South Korea's Heung-A Shipping Co., Ltd. for P789 million.

ATS stands to gain about P243 million on the sale, it said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

The shipping firm said it sold two vessels early this year and liquidated P1.7 billion in debt and reduced interest costs by 59 percent from last year.

ATS, which marks its 100th year in the transport business, said it continues to focus on enhancing shareholder value by strengthening its financial position. It added that ATS has been converting unused passage capacity to roll-on, roll-off capacity and has already converted three SuperFerries for the purpose to generate additional 192 teus to its freight capacity.

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