Senator Manuel Villar’s statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) reflects his assets to reach P725,221,964 while maintaining no liabilities. Compared to his filed SALN for the previous year, Villar’s asset were reduced from close to P1 billion to about P725 million in the election year of 2010. Despite the decrease in asset size, [...]

A new 200-room hotel in Davao City will be build by SM Investment Corp. It will be in Lanang district, adjacent to the SM shopping mall.
SM, in its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, said its wholly owned subsidiary SM Hotels and Convention Corp. signed a contract with Carlson, a privately held global hospitality and [...]

Private employees from Metro Manila will receive and additional P22 in their cost-of-living allowance (COLA) per day, in lieu of a wage increase. The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-National Capital Region (RTWPB-NCR) approved Wage Order No. 16 increasing the COLA of employees. This will take effect 15 days after its publication on the daily [...]

A new payment system that will replace the present “fee for service” scheme in reimbursing hospitals will be adopted by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth) and hopes to implement it next month.
The Philhealth plans to adopt a new system called the “case payment” system which will have fixed rates for medical services and surgical [...]

JG Summit Holdings Inc. is earmarking $700 million for the planned expansion this year. Most of these funds are allocated for its petrochemical and airline businesses.
JG Summit president Lance Gokongwei said the petrochemical business will be the company’s priority in the next three years. JG Summit also has stake in a property developer and may [...]

Eight companies are vying for the operations of major Metro Manila train lines. Conglomerate Ayala Corp., San Miguel Corp., and Pangilinan-led infrastructure giant Metro Pacific Investments Corps. are the local groups planning to bid for the P15-billion contract, while five foreign companies have also acquired bid documents worth P500,000 each for the project, according to [...]

President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III is not keen on new taxes just to increase the income of the government, instead he said that existing tax exemptions or incentives should be reviewed. Aquino said that rationalization plan for fiscal incentives is being discussed and stressed that the government would continue on its efforts to increase revenues [...]

The Chinatrust Commercial Bank Corp. is seeking to upgrade its current status and authority from a commercial bank to a universal bank. Chinatrust made a request to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), asking it to convert its banking license to “unibank” at the end of last year to allow it to implement globalization plans.
With [...]

A mix of wage and non-wage benefits for the country’s workforce was announced by President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III on Labor Day.
The president said over a million government workers can receive another salary increase in June, or a month earlier than schedule, due to the government’s prudent fiscal management. For the private sector, he gave [...]

Local transport firm Green Frog Zero Emission Transport Corp. dared to take the huge risk in the electric vehicle industry and expressed interest to buy some 3,000 electric buses in the next seven years, with the initial 38 units coming in from China within the year.
Green Frog director Philip Apostol said the 36-passenger buses will [...]

The Aboitiz Power Corporation offered to invest P25 billion to jumpstart construction of its proposed 300-megawatt coal-fired power facility in Davao, with the said investment coming from its internally-generated cash. “To save time, Aboitiz Power is ready to invest its own fund, amounting to P25 billion instead of seeking financing from other institutions to [...]

The Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp.’s plan to raise fresh fund for power generation via stock rights offer was approved by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).
The Phinma-led company got the nod from PSE when the latter posted a memorandum on Friday saying that its board has approved the listing of 1.16billion additional common shares [...]

The Philippine government believes that the country deserves a better credit rating, that is why it is wooing the three major credit rating agencies for an upgrade in its credit scores, amid the improving fiscal situation and external liquidity.
The three credit rating agencies – Moody’s Investors Service, Fitch Ratings, and Standard & Poor’s (S&P), were [...]

The much anticipated announcement on Labor Day will not be heard this coming May 1. Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) clarified that there will be no announcement of wage increase on May, despite Malacañang’s pronouncement before that it is coming out with a Labor Day gift to help workers [...]

Philippine company Alliance Select Food International Inc. sealed a deal to acquire 100 percent of US company Spence & Co. Ltd., a Massachusetts-based salmon smoking and curing company who specializes in the production of smoked salmon and seafood, prepared in the Scottish tradition of its founder Alan Spence. The company caters to the high-end market [...]

Mobile service provider Globe Telecom is investing $500 million to improve the quality and capacity of its mobile network infrastructure throughout the country. Company officials said the network quality will be top priority of Globe this year.
As part of the company’s network transformation program, Globe is making one of its biggest network investments in quality [...]

The Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corporation (PNOC-EC) earmarked P900 million for the expansion of its coal mining ventures in Zamboanga Sibugay in Western Mindanao. The state-run oil exploration company said that its board of directors has already approved the special budget “to fund the development of existing coal mine” that will enable it to double [...]

The Social Security System (SSS) reported that its benefit payments for 2010 has increased by 7% to P77.17 billion, with the bulk of the payment going to retirement claims and death benefits. SSS president and chief executive officer (CEO) Emilio de Quiros Jr. said in a statement that the state-run agency paid P38.23 million to [...]

Another venture that the Ayala group is breaking into is the hydroelectric power generation partnership. The conglomerate, through its wholly owned subsidiary Michigan Power Inc. (MPI) has entered into a joint venture agreement with Sta. Clara Power Corp., an independent power producer specializing in run-of-the-river power plants. Ayala Corp managing director John Eric Francia confirms [...]

President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III yesterday said he wants oil companies to open their books to public scrutiny to prove that they were not taking advantage of the public in their series of oil price increases.
“That was my position ever since I have been in public service, isn’t it? If reasonable, why can’t they show [...]