With the rising prices of fuel, it won’t be a surprise if the gas price will hit the Php60.00 mark by next month. It could even be earlier. Almost every week, all the major oil companies are adding at least php1.00 per liter.

Inside sources tell us that Sea Oil will be challenging this rising gas prices by introducing a flat rate scheme via a prepaid card. Price tag will be Php53.50 per liter with each card tanking 20 liters.

Price Lock Prepaid Fuel Card can be used to buy 20 liters of gasoline (G5 X-treme and Unleaded) from any SEAOIL participating stations. The selling period is from June 10-16, 2008. Each card costs P1,070 and is valid for 10 weeks (June 10 up to August 16, 2008).

These prepaid cards can only be bought in a 1 week window — from June 10 to 16, 2008. The cards can be bought from Sea Oil stations or special booths — Metrowalk and Tiendesitas in Pasig City, Greenhills Shopping Center in San Juan and Shopwise in Cubao, Quezon City.

This assures car owners that whether gas prices will go up, they will still get the flat rate of Php53.50. Sea Oil will also be honoring a money-back guarantee if ever the gas prices go down (which is close to impossible).

NTC has proposed to lower interconnection charges imposed by networks to connect to another network–for SMS from P0.35 to P0.15. NTC Deputy Commissioner Jorge Sarmiento said that the new directives were in response to an earlier order of the Department of Transportation and Communications to lower the cost of communications in the country. Currently, mobile networks charge P0.35 to interconnect with other mobile networks. Another NTC directive will also drop the interconnection charges for voice calls from P4 to P1.50. “This cut will also cut the existing cost of voice calls per minute, which is in the range of P6.50 to P8 and this lowering of interconnection charges will effectively lower the total cost of an SMS message to less than P1,” Sarmiento said. NTC pointed that in Thailand and Malaysia, the interconnection charges or “termination rates” to mobile service operators range from P1.36 to P1.70 per minute and P1.24 to P1.30 per minute respectively.

ABS-CBN said that it is not worried by the legal threat issued by the United Shelter Health Products, makers of whitening product Lucida-DS Glutathione and Vaniderm, against Korina Sanchez. Korina had reported in the news programs The World Tonight, ANC (ABS-CBN News Channel), Bandila, and TV Patrol that the glutathione content of Lucida-DS was only 4.4 mg and not 500 mg as claimed. On the other hand, Vaniderm reportedly contained only 5.4 mg of glutathione. As it consider the report damaging, United Shelter Health Products made threats to sue Korina for libel in all parts of the country and even outside the Philippines. The company has investors in Polomolok, Davao, Iloilo, General Santos City, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Iligan, Koronadal, Zamboanga. It also plans to bring the court complaint in Malaysia, Dubai, and the United States of America where the company has business partners.

HP is joining the UMPC wars by recently introducing their version of the ultraportables in Philippine market.

During the HP launching in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, HP released 3 versions of their Mini-Note: the basic package, which uses Linux, is priced at P24,950, while the Windows Vista models are priced from P29,950 to P34,950.

The HP 2133 Mini-Notebook is an 8.9″ laptop that runs on a Via C7-M 1.2GHz to 1.6GHz processor with standard 1GB or 2GB of RAM and 120GB/160GB of HDD.

Sun Cellular, the mobile division of Digitel, just annoucned it will provide 3G and 3.5G network services in the Philippines.

Sun Cellular have been applying for the 3G license as far back as 2005 and have only been able to roll this out lately.

There are no specific details about about pricing and subscriptions but expect ads to hit mainstream soon.

Six year olds can now be accepted as grade one students. According to the Department of Education, a birth certificate must be presented, or a joint affidavit reflecting the child’s age.

Even children younger than six can be accepted in grade one, provided they pass the assessment tests to be sure that they are, indeed, ready for gradeschool.

National Epidemiology Center Director Eric Tayag of the Department of Health confirmed that the Philippines has about 3,000 persons infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Acquired Immune Deficiency (HIV-AIDS) and more than 700 have already died. Studies recently done reveal that 1,838 cases resulted from heterosexual sexual contacts while 620 got infected through homosexual acts and about 230 were inflicted by bisexual activities or through blood transfusions and prenatal transmission by mothers to infants.

Rob Knox, a new actor in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blodd Prince was stabbed and killed in a recent bar brawl in London.

Playing the role of Marcus Belby, a Ravenclaw student at Hogwarts school, alongside Hollywood star Daniel Radcliffe.

Rob Knox was 18.

Calling everybody to vote for the Philippine’s Chocolate Hills, Mayon Volcano, Tubbataha Reef, and Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park at the New 7 Wonders of Nature Search.

“So many breathtakingly beautiful, natural places are still quite unknown to many. From waterfalls to fjords, rainforests to mountain peaks, freshwater lakes to salt flats, we are discovering together the incredible beauty and variety of our planet.”
- Mr. Bernard Weber, New7Wonders Founder and President

Voting for nominees will continue through December 31, 2008. A list of 21 finalists will then emerge, subject to popular vote.

To vote, here are the very easy steps:

1. Go to: http://www.new7wonders.com/nature/en/vote_on_nominees/
2. Register, and then select the Philippine entries as among your 7 nominees (Choose Asia, then look for the Philippines entries).
3. Check your email and confirm through the link sent to you by “Webmaster New7Wonders”.

Rocker David Cook wins the 7th Season of American Idol by 12 million votes! He won over another David - young balladeer David Archuleta. He closed the show with the “Time of My life”.