News Briefs: Sept.18, 2018
Prices of diesel, gasoline rise for 6th straight week
Pump prices of fuel increased for the sixth week in a row as crude prices approached the $80-per-barrel threshold amid uncertainties in exports from Iran, Venezuela and Libya.
Local oil companies raised the price of diesel by 15 centavos per liter and that of gasoline by 50 centavos per liter starting 6 a.m. on Tuesday.
Companies that have announced price increases include Shell, Total, PTT, Seaoil, Eastern, Flying V and Chevron (Caltex). Shell, Seaoil and Caltex also raised the price of kerosene by 20 centavos per liter.
According to the Department of Energy, the latest price changes brought the price of diesel in Metro Manila to within the range of P44.10 to P48.84 a liter. A liter of gasoline with an octane rating of 95 now sells at P51.65 to P61.82, while a liter kerosene costs P48.57 to P58.20. —RONNEL W. DOMINGO
Duterte hits Aquino admin’s PNP jeep procurement
President Rodrigo Duterte criticized the Aquino administration’s purchase of Mahindra patrol jeeps for the Philippine National Police.
The President called the Indian vehicle “weak” and inferior to “suitable” Japanese vehicle brands, like Toyota and Isuzu.
“Don’t include the inferior ones, don’t include the Mahindra in the jeeps. Mahindra is weak,” the President said during a situation briefing on Typhoon “Ompong” in Laoag City on Sunday night. “[Government procuments] should be limited to quality products. Like for the police, nobody can debate with me that [the] suitable brands for the police are Isuzu, Toyota.”
The President expressed his opposition anew to the practice of choosing the lowest bidder in government procurements, which he claimed leads to poor quality of products and services. —JULIE M. AURELIO
Cavite province divided into 8 legislative districts
President Rodrigo Duterte has signed a law reapportioning Cavite province into eight legislative districts ahead of next year’s elections.
Republic Act No. 11069, which the President signed on Sept. 14, amended RA 9727, which divided Cavite into seven legislative districts in July 2009.
The first district covers Cavite City, Kawit, Noveleta and Rosario.
The other legislative districts are: Second—Bacoor City; Third—Imus City; Fourth—Dasmariñas City; Fifth—Carmona, General Mariano Alvarez and Silang; Sixth—General Trias City; Seventh—Trece Martires City, Indang, Tanza and Amadeo; Eighth—Tagaytay City, Alfonso, General Agui-naldo, Magallanes, Maragondon, Mendez, Naic and Ternate. The new law created General Trias City as a separate district. —JULIE M. AURELIO
PH seeks China help to find missing fisherman in WPS
The Philippines has asked for China’s assistance to find a Filipino fisherman who went missing on Sept. 13 near Rizal (Commodore) Reef, one of the Philippine-controlled features in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), the waters in the South China Sea within the country’s exclusive economic zone.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said Philippine authorities relayed the information that on the afternoon of Sept. 13, a Filipino fisherman “fell into the waters and went missing south of the Commodore Reef in the Nansha islands.”
Nansha is the Chinese name for the Spratly islands.
“At the request of the Philippine side, China immediately dispatched vessels to that area. The search and rescue efforts are still under way,” he said. —DONA Z. PAZZIBUGAN
