RP gets increase
in US sugar quota
We may export 60,000 MT more – SRA
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Sugar Regulatory Administrator Ma. Regina Bautista-Martin yesterday said the Philippines may export an additional 60,000 metric tons of sugar to the United States this year on top of the approved export quota of 136,201 MT given ample local supply.

She will meet with sugar industry stakeholders to discuss the additional export after theHoly Week, Martin told the DAILY STAR.

Martin, who just returned from Washington where she lobbied for the additional sugar quota, said the US Agriculture department on Monday said the Philippines will be among the countries able to export more to the United States to counter a shortage caused by a hard freeze that hit the cane crop inFlorida.

An Army soldier and nine suspected New People’s Army rebels were injured in armed clashes in Sitio Dogma, Brgy. Malatas, Calatrava, Negros Occidental yesterday, Lt. Col. Edgardo Gubat, 62nd Infantry Battalion commander, said.

Gubat citing testimonies of several civilians in the place, said the encounter, lasted for almost 10 minutes, and led to the injuries of PFC Rey Despaladero and nine of about 20 fleeing rebels.

Despaladero who was hit in the left shoulder is now in a stable condition, while pursuit operations against the fleeing rebels were still underway as of last night, Gubat said.

IN KABANKALAN
P50M budget cut won’t affect airport
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

The expected reduction by about P50 million of the annual Internal Revenue Allotment share of Kabankalan City as a result of the creation of 16 more cities in the country, will not deter it from pursuing its P200-million airport project that is now ongoing, Mayor Isidro Zayco said yesterday.

The 104-hectare airport being built in Brgy. Hilamonan, Kabankalan City, is targeted for completion in 2014 and projected to have a 2-kilometer runway. However, Zayco said bad weather in the past months caused the delay in the leveling of the airport runway.

Zayco also said they are now using the heavy equipment of the Army’s 542nd Engineering Construction Battalion in the leveling of the runway, at less expense. “We spend only for fuel and honorarium of operators of the equipment,” he added.

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