PH tells China sea issues remain ‘serious concerns’ for Filipinos

THE Department of Foreign Affairs on Friday acknowledged that maritime issues, especially in the West Philippine Sea, “continue to remain a serious concern for the Filipino people."

This was what Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Bilateral Relations and ASEAN Affairs Ma. Theresa Lazaro told Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong during the second round of the Philippines-China consultative meetings in Manila on Friday.

Lazaro raised this concern as Manila

By Alena Mae S. Flores

THE country's oil firms will likely cut pump prices by as much as P1.50 per liter effective Tuesday to reflect the movement of prices in the world oil market.

An industry source told the Standard that based on the first four daysof trading using the Mean of Platts Singapore, the benchmark used by oil refiners and the foreign exchange movement, diesel prices may go down by P1.30 to P1.50 per liter, and gasoline by P1.20 to P1.40 per liter.

112 pupils hospitalized in fire drills and Beijing are also "in agreement that maritime issues do not comprise the totality of bilateral relations between our two countries."

Nonetheless, the DFA official believes such issues "should be addressed through diplomacy and dialogue and never through coercion and intimidation," as agreed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and President Xi Jinping.

"The meeting today is an attempt to follow through on that decision.

By Joel E. Zurbano

THE government has asked local officials to join the Earth Hour celebration and encourage their constituents to switch off lights from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. tonight (Saturday) to send a strong and urgent message on the need for collective

By Maricel V. Cruz, Macon Ramos-Araneta, and Othel V. Campos

THE House of Representatives is abiding by its bills seeking a constituent convention (Con-con) to amend the Constitution, but Speaker Martin G. Romualdez said Friday lawmakers are open to discussing with the Senate their preferred mode of amending the 1987 Charter if that will break an impasse and lead to an agreement between the two chambers of Congress.

"We are open to considering any proposal of the Senate and will submit action to address climate change.

This developed as the Department of Energy assured the public on Friday there would be no "red alert" warnings on the country’s power supply for the entire year.

Energy Undersecretary Rowena Guevara said only “yellow alerts” are expected to be raised in different parts of the country.

This will be the third consecutive week of price rollbacks for diesel and kerosene, and the second straight week gasoline prices would be cut.

The Department of Energy confirmed the price rollback, although the computation may still change depending on the movement of prices on Friday.

"For the four-day trading, there will be an expected rollback for the prices of