National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon (File photo) MANILA - Investors' demand for higher yields again resulted in the rejection of bids for the initial issuance of a seven-year Treasury bond (T-bond) which the Bureau of the Treasury's (BTr) auctioned on Tuesday. Had the auction committee accepted the bids, coupon rate of the debt paper would be at 6.5 percent, which the BTr in a statement said is "trending higher than the comparable secondary market benchmark." The BTr offered the debt paper for PHP35 billion, and tenders reached PHP36.3 billion. "Markets still roiled by rising inflation fears from surge in oil and commodity prices," National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon told journalists in a Viber message. De Leon said investors are also on a wait-and-see stance regarding the looming hikes in the Federal Reserve's key rates, which is widely expected to start this month. Amidst the rejections during the debt paper auctions since last week, de Leon is confident
MANILA - The chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts on Monday expressed support for the Senate blue ribbon committee's report on the Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. investigation. In a statement, Probinsyano Ako Party-list Rep. Jose Singson Jr. said his panel would have submitted recommendations that are nearly identical to those presented by the Senate blue ribbon panel in its probe on the alleged irregularities in the procurement of Covid-19 supplies at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2022. The Senate report recommended the filing of charges against several Pharmally executives, former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang, and former procurement head Christopher Lloyd Lao. Singson said the public accounts panel was able to hold three hearings before it decided to suspend the proceedings. "Based on what we were able to gather during the three hearings we held, I believe we would have presented similar findings as what the Gordon panel released. Our ini
MANILA - The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is set to resume next week the payout of financial assistance to 50,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) chief Hans Leo Cacdac on Friday said Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello has ordered to release an initial PHP500 million to pay the applicants of the Abot-Kamay ang Pagtulong (AKAP), a one-off financial assistance given to OFWs worth PHP 10,000. "We're working on it now. We're working on the download. Very soon. My estimate is it will be downloaded next week. We will be able to start the payout," Cacdac said in a virtual forum. However, Cacdac said those who will benefit are the workers with pending applications or those who have not received the assistance. "This is pending is not current (applicants). That was delayed after Bayanihan 2 funds ran out around August last year," he added. Meanwhile,
AID TO AFFECTED FARMERS. Department of Agriculture - Caraga (DA-13) Regional Executive Director Ricardo Onate Jr. (center), in a press conference Friday (Jan. 28, 2022), says a total of PHP153,834,840 worth of assistance have so far been provided to the agriculture sector in Caraga which was hit by Typhoon Odette. Data from the DA-13 said the agriculture sector in the region incurred losses amounting PHP2,225,209,990, affecting 20,252 farmers. (PNA photo by Alexander Lopez) BUTUAN CITY - The Department of Agriculture - Caraga (DA-13) has so far provided PHP153,834,840 worth of assistance to farmers in the region who were badly hit by Typhoon Odette in December last year. In a press conference Friday, DA-13 Executive Director Ricardo Onate Jr. said of the total funds released for immediate responses, PHP12,762,430 was sourced from the available resources of DA-13 and assistance from the other DA offices in Mindanao. A total of PHP141,072,410 was taken from the Quick Response Fund for Ty
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY - The Police Regional Office - Northern Mindanao (PRO-10) Drug Enforcement Unit seized illegal drugs worth an estimated PHP680,000 in separate operations over the weekend. In a statement Sunday, Brig. Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr., PRO-10 director, said they will not stop looking for people who do nothing but destroy the nation. "Let them know that the long arm of the law will always be after them, kahit ano pa man ang estado nila sa buhay (whatever their social status may be)," he said. On Friday at about 10:30 p.m. in Barangay Gusa here, 45-year-old Joseph Galiza Santillan, a motorcycle rider, was initially caught with suspected shabu worth PHP1,000 while further search yielded another four heat-sealed transparent plastic sachets of the illegal substance estimated to cost PHP510,000. The following day, another buy-bust operation was conducted in Barangay Bugo at about 7 p.m., resulting in the arrest of Mauricio Pacudan Aparilla, 45, and a carpenter residing i