Philippines Morning News For April 3

Holy Week attacks stall P1.3-B road projects in Davao City
Operations of a P1.3-billion bypass road project here were hampered after alleged New People’s Army (NPA) fighters burned 10 heavy equipment vehicles during the Holy Week, authorities said Monday, April 2.
— Rappler

PH Digest: AboitizPower in roof top solar venture; BPI prices $960m rights offer
Philippine power producer AboitizPower Corporation is venturing into the roof top solar sector with the launch of a new company while listed-bank Bank of the Philippine Islands has set the price and date of its $960-million stock rights offer.
— Deal Street Asia

Philippine government maintains total ban of Filipino workers to Kuwait – Bello mulls partial lifting
The Philippine government’s total ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Kuwait would stay despite a Kuwaiti court’s handing of death sentence against the couple accused of killing Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) Joanna Demafelis, newsinfo. inquirer.net said quoting the Philippine Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra.
— MENAFN

Maynilad earmarks P1.7 billion to boost sewerage coverage
MAYNILAD Water Services Inc. (Maynilad) has earmarked P1.7 billion this year to boost the company’s sewerage coverage within its concession area and lessen soil and water pollution brought about the direct discharge of untreated wastewater from Metro Manila households.
— Business Mirror

Philippines: Metro Pacific acquires 49% stake in Vietnam’s Tuan Loc Water
Philippine-listed infrastructure holding firm Metro Pacific Investments Corp is acquiring 49 per cent stake in Vietnamese water firm Tuan Loc Water Resources (TLW) for P1.988 billion ($38 million).
— Deal Street Asia

Melco says City of Dreams Manila generates $649-M revenues in 2017
REVENUES generated by the City of Dreams Manila grew by a third in 2017, following an improvement across all gaming and non-gaming segments within the integrated resort and casino for the year.
— BusinessWorld Online

Philippines, Malaysia put Grab-Uber deal under scrutiny
The Philippines and Malaysia said yesterday that they will look into whether Uber Technologies’ move to sell its South-east Asian business to ride-hailing rival Grab hinders competition, days after Singapore began a probe into the deal on similar concerns.
— The Newpaper

Philippine economy likely to grow above 7% in Q1 2018 – First Metro, UA&P
The Philippine economy is expected to grow more than 7% in the first 3 months of 2018, fueled by higher foreign investments, employment, and manufacturing output, among others.
— Rappler

BPI prices SRO at P89.50/share
Bank of the Philippine Islands has set the price of its P50-billion stock rights offering at R89.50 per share at the rate of one rights share for every 7.0594 share held.
— Manila Bulletin

Global-Estate Resorts net income up 45% to P1.6 billion in 2017
Listed Global-Estate Resorts Incorporated (GERI), Megaworld Corporation’s integrated tourism and leisure brand, saw its bottom line rise in 2017 on strong real estate sales.
— Rappler

Factory activity picks up despite inflation
FACTORY ACTIVITY in the Philippines improved last month despite higher input costs due to the tax reform law that took effect in January, according to a monthly survey IHS Markit conducted for Nikkei, Inc.
— BusinessWorld Online

Farm-gate price of unmilled rice rises 11-week high at P20.40/kg
The average farm-gate price of unmilled rice has inched closer to P21 per kilogram price level as the commodity rose to an 11-week high of P20.40 per kg quotation, latest preliminary data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
— Business Mirror

Peso climbs on continued inflows
THE PESO strengthened against the dollar on Monday as inflows continued to support the currency.
— BusinessWorld Online

6 free maps of the Philippines
Some maps of the Philippines can be useful to illustrate ideas or projects in your website or blogs, or to create your own maps.
— Asean Up

Palace: Bear with ‘endo’ for now
Malacañang on Monday admitted that a total ban on contractualization in the country is not possible with President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Order (EO) as effecting the prohibition needs legislation.
— The Manila Times

Treasury-bill rates rise on partial award
The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) yesterday partially awarded 91-day Treasury-bills, but rejected bids for 182- and 364-day securities as the market asked for higher rates amid expectations of a higher inflation footprint last March.
— Philippine Star

NFA rice reserve already wiped out
The rice reserve of the National Food Authority (NFA) is now completely gone, a few weeks after the agency announced that its stocks could only fill up the country’s requirement for two days.
— Inquirer.net

China, PH consortium chosen to rebuild war-torn Marawi
A consortium of Chinese and Filipino companies was selected to rebuild ground zero or the most affected areas of war-torn Marawi City, Housing Secretary Eduardo del Rosario confirmed on Monday.
— ABS-CBN

Soybean meal importsseen rising 5.45% in 2018
Philippine soybean meal (SBM) imports are expected to increase by 5.45 percent to 2.9 million metric tons (MMT) this year, fueled by the livestock and poultry idustries’ strong demand for feeds, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said.
— The Manila Times

BAP, Bloomberg partner for forex platform
The Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) has partnered with Bloomberg to pursue several initiatives to further the growth of the foreign exchange (forex) market in the Philippines.
— Philippine Star

PH eyes 5.7 TCF gas discovery; 6 basins cover DOE’s petroleum blocks tender
Keeping an eye on several major gas blocks for prospective commercial discoveries, the Philippines is now starting its long-term journey on targeted gas discovery of 5.7 trillion cubic feet (TCF), more than double the scale of reserves extracted from the US$4.5-billion Malampaya deep water gas-to-power project.
— Manila Bulletin

PH shares close above 8,000 on first trading day of Q2
Local shares traded sideways for most of the first trading day of the second quarter as investors positioned ahead of key economic and earnings data.
— ABS-CBN (video)

Security Bank offers anti-loan-sharks product: SALAD
Consumers who don’t qualify for regular loan products can now avail of short-term loans using Security Bank’s new mobile platform facility which aims to reduce borrowing from informal lenders, the bank said on Monday.
— ABS-CBN

March for Our Lives, ‘78 Laban Noise Barrage, and the fight vs. Duterte
The March for Our Lives protest, which drew more than a million young Americans and their supporters, is an important reminder for Filipinos in the Duterte era: fighting for justice means mobilizing huge numbers of people in the streets.
— Inquirer.net

PH recounts contested vice presidential votes
The Philippines yesterday began a manual recount of votes in a vice presidential election after the son and namesake of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos contested the outcome, while the incumbent assured supporters her win was not in doubt.
— Khmer Times

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Find our previous morning news feature photos in the AEC News Today Morning News Feature Photos gallery where you will find a pictorial display of daily life throughout the Asean Economic Community (AEC).

Philippines morning news by AEC News Today is your one stop source for Philippines news on matters of governance and policies affecting Asean business communities. It is published M-F by AEC News Today: Governance, not government; policies not politics.

Philippines Morning News For April 3 added by Stella-maris Ewudolu on April 3, 2018
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Stella-maris Ewudolu

Journalist at AEC News Today

Stella-maris graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, Education from Ebonyi State University, Nigeria in 2005.

Between November 2010 and February 2012 she was a staff writer at Daylight Online, Nigeria writing on health, fashion, and relationships. From 2010 – 2017 she worked as a freelance screen writer for ‘Nollywood’, Nigeria.

She joined AEC News Today in December 2016.