You ask, you pay

Starting today, Oct. 1, PLDT will no longer be using 114 as its directory assistance number. Instead, its enhanced directory assistance service which will include new value-added features will be utilizing a new number, 187. While "Call 187," as the new service is dubbed, will be some sort of a one-stop shop for different types of information, callers will be charged P3 per inquiry as basic charge because of the huge cost of the project. And according to PLDT officials, the Philippines is one of the few remaining countries that does not charge directory assistance services. Thru 187, one can also inquire about PBX lines, hotlines, email addresses, website, office hours, the location of restaurants or hospitals in specific places, area codes, country codes, time differences, etc. Do I hear complaints?

Well, you’ll still get your free telephone directories if that’s any consolation.

David Meets Goliath

The Philippine sugar industry, through Sugar Alliance spokesperson Jose Maria Zabaleta, wants to congratulate Trade and Industry Secretary Mar Roxas and Agriculture Secretary Cito Lorenzo for a job well done at the "recently failed‚" WTO ministerial talks in Cancun, Mexico. The position of the Philippine team was clear and unequivocal.

According to Zabaleta, Roxas presented the Philippine WTO positions well and had the fortitude to stand his ground while Lorenzo held by the agriculture position to defend certain sensitive agricultural products like rice and sugar needed for food security as special products (SP). Being included in the SP list, these products would be exempt from the requirement to accelerate tariff reduction.

A developing country like the Philippines can also avail of special safeguard measures against dumping of these agricultural products. During the Cancun talks, the Philippines joined an alliance of 23 WTO member-countries composed mainly of developing nations in protesting the refusal of developed countries like the US, European Union, Japan, and Canada to remove subsidies to their agriculture sectors.

Aside from refusing to take away these subsidies, the four, known as the QUAD, even tried to force discussions into further tariff reductions. They were also demanding that the body consider and tackle competition, government procurement and trade facilitation, otherwise known as the "Singapore issues," and a proposed new multilateral investment agreement.

The proposed agreements on investment and investment-related issues would have transformed the WTO into a mega global economic agency and would sharply curtail the sovereign power of states to determine the pace, timing, and directions of investment and growth.

But the Group of 23 countries spearheaded by the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia together with other countries which all in all represent more than half of the world’s population took a strong position not to discuss tariff reduction until the developed nations agreed to remove subsidies, especially to agriculture.

The Ratings Game

ABS-CBN and GMA 7 would not miss it for the world. It was another chance to prove who has control of the ratings game.

When colorful Kris Aquino, together with her lawyer and brother, first went to Camp Crame to report the now world-famous gun-poking incident with Mayor Joey Marquez, Filipinos young and old alike, rich and poor, were glued to their sits as they stared at their TV sets watching the whole thing unfold.

Well, what do you know! TV Patrol, ABS-CBN’s news program, registered a 48-percent share of the audience while GMA’s Front Page got only 17 percent. That particular segment featuring Kris got a commanding share of 53 percent.

New Erc Chief

The Energy Regulatory Commission has a new head in the person of former National Power Corp. president Jesus Alcordo. His appointment was welcomed by ERC chairman Manuel Sanchez who commended President Arroyo for bringing into the agency someone of Alcordo’s background and experience.

If you will recall, Alcordo served as NPC president at the start of President Arroyo’s administration but opted to resign last year. Prior to his stint at NPC, Alcordo was CEO of East Asia Power Corp., one of the independent power producers.

Will Alcordo’s stint at the ERC be exciting as his stay at Napocor? That we have to see.

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