MANILA -– Leaders of various organizations of hog and poultry raisers nationwide yesterday threatened to impose a five-day pork and chicken holiday anew if technical smuggling is not stopped.

The leaders are AGAP party-list Rep. Nicanor Briones; ABONO party-list chairman Rosendo So; Edwin G. Chen, president, Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines, Inc.; Daniel Javellana Jr., chairman, National Federation of Hog Farmers, Inc.; Gregorio San Diego Jr., president, United Broilers Raisers Association; and Ernesto Ordonez, chairman, Alyansa Agrikultura.

All of them concurred on stating that the biggest problem they encounter is smuggling, if not solved, would worsen poverty situation in the country.

NOCECO rate increase
slated this May

The power firms supplying electricity to the Visayan area, KEPCO SPC Power Corporation, Inc., Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.and government-run National Power Corporationalready have the green light from the Energy Regulatory Commission for the rate adjustments they are legally entitled to collect, a Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative press release said.

The KSPC can recover the difference in costs between the Provisional Rate it gave to NOCECO pending approval of the Commissioning Power Supply Contract from October 2010 to February 2011 up to the final approval of its Rate on February 6, 2012, the press release said.

PSALM and NPC, meanwhile, can recover their fuel and purchased power costs as well as the foreign exchanged costs from January 2007 to April 2010 under the Generation Rate-Adjustment Mechanism and the Incremental Currency Exchange Rate Adjustment Mechanism.

‘P12 wage hike
small but helpful’

While organized labor groups in Negros Occidental expressed their disappointment on the P12 wage hike approved by the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board in Western Visayas, some employees see it as a good decision and are even thankful for it.

Ma. Regina Salve Cababat, 31, a staff nurse at the Our Lady of Mercy Specialty Hospital in Bacolod City said that the additional P12 in her daily wage is a big help since she needs to provide for her 3-year old daughter.

Cababat said she and her husband receive the minimum wage and that the pay hike will help them pay their expenses.

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