Majority of the members of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association agreed to hold a strike to push for the stalled collective bargaining agreement negotiations.

PALEA vice president Alnem Pretencio, in an interview, said that preliminary results from the strike vote conducted Wednesday show that 96.44 percent of Manila-based PAL employees voted “yes” to a strike.

He said the NCR results show a significant figure in determining the pulse of PALEA members since at least 75 percent of employees are Manila-based.

NFA assures:
No hike in rice prices

The Negros Occidental National Food Authority assured that there will be no increase in the prices of premium and regular milled rice in the province despite the rise of milling fees due to the fluctuation of oil rates.

NFA acting senior enforcement and investigation officer, Rodrigo Macaya, said yesterday that premium rice is still sold at P38 to P40 and regular milled rice is at P35. Even if there is an increase in the rice mill price due to oil price hike, this is not enough for retailers to raise its prices.

NFA senior grains operation officer Cynthia Luz Chua said there is enough supply of rice both from the government and commercial sector and NFA is ready to stabilize the supply and price of rice during price changes.

BSP hikes rates to
offset inflation

The Philippine central bank yesterday raised interest rates for the first time in almost two years as it battles to keep inflation in check.

Overnight rates, which have been kept at record-lows since July 2009, were raised 25 basis points to 4.25 percent for borrowing and 6.25 percent for lending.

The bank's policy-making Monetary Board decided at yesterday’s meeting that the hikes were needed to keep within this year's inflation target of 3.0-5.0 percent, governor Amando Tetangco told reporters, according to Dow Jones Newswires.