P-NOY URGES MEDIA:
Practice professionalism;
help move nation forward
BY CARLA GOMEZ

MANILA - President Benigno Aquino III yesterday rallied journalists from around the country to practice professionalism, integrity and credibility in their reporting to help move the country forward, instead of pulling it down with negative and false news.

Speaking in Pilipino at the 16th National Press Forum of the Philippine Press Institute with the theme " Media Accountability and Public Engagement" at the Traders Hotel here, the president said if media continues to focus on what is negative poverty will prevail, but if it focuses on hope it will result in a more bountiful harvest for the country.

The president recalled a story of the Filipino crab. An American was drinking in a bar when a Filipino fisherman came in with a basket of crabs. He put down his basket and the American said “Buddy, your crabs are about to escape”, to which the fisherman replied "Brother, they’re Filipino crabs. Before they get out they’ll be pulled in,” the president said.

MANILA - The Office of the United States Trade Representative has officially announced the US Revised Fiscal Year 2012 Tariff-Rate Quota Allocations for raw cane sugar, with the Philippines getting the second biggest share at 75,540 metric tons raw value next to Brazil, Sugar Regulatory Administrator Ma. Regina Martin Bautista said yesterday.

This translates into an additional 73,373.653 mt commercial (shippable) value for the Philippines, Martin said.

This is on top of the 138,000 MT US quota share allocated to the Philippines for this crop year, which has already been shipped out, she added.

Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia distributed four patrol vehicles worth P3.5 million to the police at the Bacolod Police headquarters yesterday and at the same time challenged the members to continue performing well.

Leonardia said that crime incidents in Bacolod are inevitable since the city keeps progressing but pointed out that businessmen continue to in it because peace and order is, comparatively, better than in other areas.

Leonardia, Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson, Councilors Al Victor Espino, El Cid Famillaran, Caesar Distrito and Roberto Rojas turned over the patrol vehicles to the police in Stations 1,2, 4 and 6.