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The order of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for the closure of 21 mainly nickel-producing mines that account for about half of output in the world’s top nickel ore supplies, has triggered a steep rise in the price of nickel in the world market. 

By Riza Lozada  Hinting of a possible high-level anomaly in the two-day factory fire that hit House Technology Inc. (HTI) at the Cavite Export Zone (CEZ), Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello said the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) will investigate a possible “wrongdoing” in the local governance level.

A few rounds of questioning were enough for Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez and Department of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol to pass confirmation by the Commission on Appointments (CA) last Feb. 1. 

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has more than sufficient forces to meet rebel groups in Eastern Mindanao and elsewhere as the unilateral ceasefires of both the government and the communist group ended, AFP chief-of-staff Gen. Eduardo Año said. 

Power transformers will support the upgrade of transmission infrastructure and improve grid reliability, according to power equipment supplier ABB after winning orders worth approximately $27 million from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP). 

By Riza Lozada  The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the country’s largest business organization, met with a delegation sent by the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation last week to discuss expanding of business relations in both countries. 

By Luis Leoncio The Philippines had the most robust economy in Asia for 2016 when it posted a 6.8-percent full-year growth as gross domestic product (GDP) expansion moderated in the fourth quarter to 6.6 percent.

By Riza Lozada Diversified Phinma Corp. has completed preparatory work to build new wind power plants to expand its wind-generation capacity by 40 megawatts (MW) in the Visayas grid, but a top official of the company said it needed guidelines from government on feed-in tariff to pursue such projects.

The Duterte administration has made headway into tapping China for its massive infrastruc­ture buildup plan. During a re­cent economic mission to Chi­na, a high-level delegation led by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III presented three large-scale infrastructure proj­ects to Beijing for possible loan financing, while nine others were submitted for feasibility study support.

The Philippines re­tained its score of 35 out of a perfect 100, indicating a corrup­tion-free public sec­tor, in the annual Corruption Percep­tions Index (CPI) of Transparency Inter­national (TI), even as the country slid in the annual ranking as it placed 101st out of 176 countries this year. compared to its 95th place out of 168 countries last year.