Labor coalition Nagkaisa! yesterday said workers are expecting something good from the Labor Day breakfast meeting between President Aquino and leaders of various labor groups today, a press release from the group said.

Democrito Mendoza, president of Trade Union Congress of the Philippines and one of the convenors of the new labor coalition Nagkaisal, said “We are hoping that President Aquino will announce something significant, something hopeful which will uplift the morale of the workers who are sinking deeply into abject poverty due to increasing prices of commodities and skyrocketing cost of services.”

Partido Manggagawa's Rene Magtubo, another convenor of the coalition, said, the coalition will submit to Aquino issues and concerns that address the worsening labor problems in the country today. These problems are not intractable. If Aquino doesn't act on these issues now, he faces the wrath of the workers, it said.

Marañon pushes
for sin taxes hike

Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. yesterday said he is pushing for the approval of a bill that will raise “sin taxes” on alcohol and cigarets, which would benefit provincial, town and city governments.

Increasing the tax of alcohol and cigarets would boost the tax share of local governments, he said.

He said the passage of the sin tax bill has been the subject of a huge opposition lobby from cigaret and alcohol firms.

The Philippines currently has the cheapest alcohol and cigarets in Asia because of much lower taxes on such items, he added.

Cooking gas rates
slashed by P5/kilo

MANILA – Dealers of cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas rolled back pump prices by as much as P5.25 per kilo to reflect the lower contract price in the world market.

Petron Corp. cuts LPG by P5.25 per kilo effective 12:01 a.m. today.

"This is equivalent to about P65 decrease for an 11-kg household cylinder...This is to reflect the drop in international contract prices per month," Petron said.

Petron, at the same time, announced that it will rollback auto LPG by P3.29 per liter.

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