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By Luis Leoncio The pension of more than 2 million members of state pension fund Social Securi­ty System (SSS) will be raised by P1,000 a month starting next year after both chambers of Congress passed a resolu­tion last week calling for the immediate pension increase.

President Duterte said im­posing sanctions can work both ways as he threatened last Saturday to abrogate an agreement that allows Unit­ed States troops to visit the Philippines after the US gov­ernment-backed Millenni­um Challenge Corp. (MCC) deferred a decision on a new round of aid package citing concerns over the rule of law in the Philippines.

The Film Development Coun­cil of the Philippines (FDCP) last week recognized The Mar­ket Monitor and 16 other print, broadcast and online journal­ists and their organizations as “film advocates” who covered and supported the Philippine movie industry and, in partic­ular, the agency’s initiatives in 2016.

SM Foundation, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm of conglomerate SM Group, has been implementing pro­grams not only to improve the lives of Filipino minorities and the marginalized but to integrate them into society, as well.

President Duterte courted a group of business leaders in Singapore, telling them of the many developments and reforms in the Philippines especially in the key growth sectors: energy and infrastructure.

The American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Inc. (AmCham) has announced its new set of officers for next year.

By Riza Lozada Listed DoubleDragon Proper­ties Corp. reported successfully tapping the retail bond market with its maiden issuance of P5.3 billion worth of 10-year Fixed Rate Retail Bonds due 2026, which listed on the PDEX board on December 15, 2016.

A fully booked Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight to Cebu carrying mostly Filipinos ar­rived from Singapore early Saturday morning, signaling the start of a new scheduled passenger service between the two countries.

By Riza Lozada The Department of Energy (DOE) has found that some gas stations are using methanol or methyl alcohol, which is corrosive, instead of ethanol in the blended fuel they sell.

By Luis Leoncio The unsound policies of past administrations will affect unprogrammed govern­ment payments amounting to at least P25 billion for this year alone, according to the Department of Finance (DOF), slicing off huge amounts that should otherwise be spent for infrastructure, human cap­ital and social protection for the poor and other vulnerable sectors.