Department of Energy officials yesterday said that consumers have to brace for higher power rates, but more competition will eventually bring prices down.

Power rates throughout the country are going up with the implementation of the EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) that has led to the privatization of power firms, Rey Malleza of the Department of Energy Visayas Field Office said.

Malleza said that, before the privatization, power rates were lower because they were subsidized by government, but with EPIRA, consumers are now paying their true rates.

The Western Visayas Regional Development Council yesterday approved a collegial resolution calling on Coca-Cola and other similar industries to buy sugar produced domestically.

Herman Santos of the Confederation of Sugar Producers Association, and Hernane Braza of Sugar Watch sought the RDC’s support for the Philippine sugar industry at its meeting at the Capitol in Bacolod City.

They pointed out that the importation of sugar premixes and high fructose corn syrup is badly hurting the domestic sugar industry, which prompted their campaign to boycott Coca-Cola products.

A Bacolod resident was sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday for the sale of shabu to a police poseur buyerin a buy-bust operation in 2004.

Bacolod Regional Trial Court Judge Edgar Garvilles sentencedClint Pedrosa Agsam of Purok Avocado, Barangay 20, Bacolod City, to life imprisonment for the sale of 0.03 gram for P100 in marked money on Jan. 30, 2004 in Criminal Case No. 04-25936.

He was also ordered to pay a fine of P500,000.