Wage hike bid hearings
set for Western Visayas
BY NANETTE GUADALQUIVER

The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board 6 has scheduled a series of consultations on the petition for a P50 wage increase filed by the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines.

The wage board, chaired by Labor Regional Director Aida Estabillo, convened Monday in Iloilo City to discuss the petition.

The consultations will be held on April 28 in San Jose, Antique; April 29, Roxas City, Capiz; April 30, Kalibo, Aklan; May 6, Iloilo City; and May 7, Bacolod City.

National Food Authority provincial manager Marianito Bejemino yesterday said the wholesale price of commercial rice has dropped and that this will be felt in the retail market soon.

But members of the clergy, at a Church-provincial government committee meeting to address the rice price crisis at the Capitol yesterday, said that, so far, this is not the reality on the ground.

Fr. Ireneo Gordoncillo said that, as far as they know, the retail prices of commercial rice were still going up.

The president of the Land Bank of the Philippines and three mayors of Negros Occidental  signed memorandums of agreement for a total of P319.40 million in loans  at the provincial Capitol in Bacolod City yesterday.

“We look at local government units as our very reliable partners in countryside development,” LBP president and chief operating officer Gilda Pico said.

As of February 2008, LBP’s total outstanding loans to LGUs amounted to P28.4 billion in 647 provinces, cities and towns for projects ranging from farm to market roads, bridges, water systems, slaughterhouses, bus terminals,  she said..