The Philippines’ three mobile phone service providers are bracing for a surge in short messaging services following the announcement by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of a 50 percent cut in text messaging fees for 90 days.

Arroyo made the announcement at the state of the nation address Monday.

The Philippines is known as the text messaging capital of the world. Prior to Arroyo’s announcement, a text message cost $0.02 (one pesos), now down to $0.01 (50 centavos).

The mobile phone operators insisted they the Office of the President did not pressure them to reduce their rates to serve as icing on Arroyo’s SONA.

The lower rates are considered a promo, said National Telecommunications Commission director Edgardo Cabarios. Hence it will run only from July 28 until October 28.

However, Cabarios said the three mobile phone providers – Smart Communications, Globe Telecommunications and Sun Cellular – may be allowed to extend the promo period.

An official says the Philippine government and the private sector are offering $220,000 to any athlete who brings home the country’s first-ever Olympic gold medal.

The Philippines has not won an Olympic gold since its first games, at Paris in 1924. The most recent medal of any color was silver in boxing in Atlanta in 1996.

“This is an incentive. The first gold winner will get the money,” said Philippine Olympic Committee spokesman Joey Romasanta on Friday.

The government pledged $116,000 and the rest came from donations from the private sector, Romasanta said.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported other donors included tycoon Lucio Tan, Microsoft Philippines Inc. and boxer Manny Pacquiao, who in June won the WBC lightweight title.

More than half the birds, amphibians and mammals endemic to the Philippines are threatened with extinction, according to a statement released by the country’s environment and natural resources department and reported by AFP.

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Joselito Atienza said that 592 of the 1,137 species of amphibians, birds and mammals found only in the Philippines are considered “threatened or endangered.” 227 endemic species of plants are “critically endangered.”

Large-scale deforestation is the primary driver of wildlife decline in the archipelago. High population growth and demand for timber and agricultural land contribute to forest loss.

A mothballed terminal at Manila’s crowded international airport opened for business on Tuesday after a six-year delay and plenty of bad publicity for the Philippines.

“This has been a long time coming,” Leandro Mendoza, the country’s transport chief, told reporters.

Government officials and employees outnumbered passengers in the 240,000-square metre facility, which was meant to be in service in late 2002, because only a handful of domestic flights have so far transferred to the terminal.

A bitter dispute between the government and the consortium of builders, headed by German airport operator Fraport (FRAG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research), kept Terminal 3 shuttered and underlined the graft and legal uncertainties that can beset companies doing business in the Philippines.

The contract to build the new terminal was first awarded in 1997 when annual passenger traffic was 7.7 million. Today, around 23 million passengers use Manila airport annually, although capacity at the older terminals is just 18 million.

“This is like heaven when we just came from hell,” said Lance Gokongwei, president of Cebu Pacific, the Philippines’ top budget airline.

“It’s going to be the same for our passenger experience.”

Officials said the terminal, which has a capacity of 13 million passengers, would be fully operational for international flights within six months.

The Philippine government seized Terminal 3 in 2004 after a contract dispute with the Fraport-led consortium. Fraport and the joint venture company for the project are pursuing compensation claims for over $400 million.

Plans to open the facility in 2006 were delayed after part of a ceiling collapsed. Repairs and structural improvements have taken more than two years.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is the most unpopular leader in the country since democracy was restored in 1986, the country’s leading pollster said on Friday. The Social Weather Stations (SWS) agency said in a statement that Arroyo registered a net satisfaction rating of minus 38 in a poll in the last week of June.

It said only 22 percent of the 1,200 respondents were satisfied with Arroyo’s performance while 60 percent said they were dissatisfied.

Serge Remonde, a palace spokesman, said the low rating of the president was expected due to high prices of rice and oil which the people blamed on her and the administration.

“We consider it as a continuing challenge,” he said.

BusinessWorld newspaper quoted another palace spokesman, Anthony Golez, as saying: “A lot of people are mistaken in blaming the government for it when it is something no Filipino can stop, not even the president.”

Annual inflation in June was at a 14-year high of 11.4 percent, pushed higher by oil and food prices. The Philippines imports most of its fuel needs and is the world’s biggest importer of rice this year.

Arroyo is the only president since strongman Ferdinand Marcos was deposed in 1986 whose satisfaction rating has slipped into negative territory, SWS data showed. Her previous worst was a minus 33 rating in May 2005.

Despite a persistently poor showing in opinion polls, Arroyo is not seen in any danger of losing office. She was voted to power in 2004 for a six-year term.

She is supported by the military and her allies dominate the lower House of Representatives.

Although the Senate is controlled by the opposition, the powerful Catholic church is also by and large in Arroyo’s favor.

Domestic flights of Philippine Airlines (PAL), Cebu Pacific Air and Air Philippines will soon be departing from the Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) before July ends, airport officials said.

Only two percent of the airport remains to be completed, but airport officials said the terminal, built in 2002 and was mothballed for years due to legal obstacles, will be opened by the fourth week of July.

The airport will first be opened to domestic operations, while international flights will be accommodated in two to three months.

During the dry run conducted Tuesday the terminal’s security systems, called the four-level security screening, were put to a test.

The airport, according to officials, will be utilizing high-tech security systems that are the first ones to be installed in the country.
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Four months after announcing that it has appointed a local leadership team to look after its business in the Philippines, Internet firm Yahoo has formally opened a full-fledged local subsidiary to further strengthen the brand – at least in the country – amidst the global onslaught of rival Google.

The establishment of the local office is perhaps the first among pure Internet companies since the dotcom boom in the late ’90s and the subsequent bust in the early part of the current decade.

Aside from growing its Philippine operation, the local unit is also tasked to provide services to Yahoo’s regional office in Singapore, the company said in a statement.

The Yahoo Philippines office, which is located in Fort Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, is led by veteran IT executive Jojo Anonuevo, who was appointed to his new role as general manager in February 2008. He is supported by Cris Concepcion, a physician and US–trained executive, who is serving as strategic consultant.
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Relief efforts for the victims of Typhoon “Frank” received a big boost Tuesday with a $500,000 grant from Microsoft chairman and philanthropist William Henry “Bill” Gates III.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Philippines received the grant from the Gates Foundation for the typhoon victims.

“We already received word about it and we have already coordinated with the CBCP-NASSA to immediately respond to the people’s needs,” Michael Frank, CRS country representative, said in a statement posted Tuesday night on the CBCP website.

CRS Philippines holds office at the CBCP in Manila. It is the social action arm of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Frank said the amount will be allocated to more than 4,000 families in terms of relief and rehabilitation assistance. No other details were given.

• The white triangle with equal sides of the flag is symbolic of equality
  among men.

• The sun represents the gigantic strides that have been made by the Sons of
  this land on the road to progress and civilization.

• The eight rays of the sun in the triangle represent the first eight united
  provinces that revolted for our independence.

• The three stars in the triangle stand for the three major geographical
  divisions of the country – Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

• The red field symbolizes the willingness of the Filipino people to shed
  blood in defense of their country.

• The blue field stands for common unity and the noble aspirations of the
  Filipino people.

• The white field stands for purity.