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205 passengers and 35 crew members.

Zamboanga City District 1

Rep. Khymer Adan Olaso said in a phone interview that Aleson Shipping Lines management is “willing to shoulder expenses si entra na hospital y talla [de ila nombre] na passengers list, ayuda kanila el management (if they are hospitalized and [their names] are in the passengers’ list, management will help them).”

The boat crew’s families have nothing to worry about as well where assistance is concerned, Olaso added.

The lawmaker just arrived from Manila and is yet set to meet with the local district of the PCG.

With search and rescue operations still ongoing, the boat temporarily docked at Pilas Island, which is nearest to Hadji Muhtamad town.

Salliman said the provincial government provided assistance to the passengers who were rescued.

Fire Inspector Jason Ahijon of the Bureau of Fire Protection said they are yet to investigate the cause of the fire. (Frencie Carreon/MindaNews)

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of local currency depreciation against the US dollar, which amounted to P50.51 billion. Compared to the end of December 2022, the country’s external debt has increased by P100.12 billion or 2.4%,” it said.

Ricafort said that the faster growth in the economy, together with tax and other fiscal reform measures to help further increase structurally tax revenue and other revenue collections of the government, combined with more disciplined government spending, would help further reduce or improve the debt-to-GDP ratio to below the 60% international threshold to help sustain the country’s favorable credit ratings at 1-3 notches above the minimum investment grade.

As of end-2022, the debtto-GDP ratio, or the government’s debt stock relative to the size of the economy, eased to 60.9% from 63.7% as of the third quarter of 2022, which was the highest since 2005.

The government aims to bring down the debt-to-GDP ratio to less than 60% by 2025 and further shrink it to 51.1% by 2028, as well as reduce the deficit-to-GDP ratio to 3% by 2028 and maintain infrastructure spending at 5% to 6% of GDP annually.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippines’ debtto-GDP ratio reached a record low of 39.6% in 2019.

WESM and when prices are high versus our existing contract we buy from our existing contracts. Something to that effect on how we dispatch,” Velasco said.

DLPC started buying from WESM in January this year and Velasco said DLPC buys 30 percent from WESM.

Velasco said during dispatch time, DLPC buys at WESM at an average price of P6.50 per kilowatt hour versus some of its imported suppliers which is P7 to P7.50 per kilowatt hour.

“We buy every five minutes and we are buying 30 percent from WESM because of the price. It created a behavior na kung barato siya, mupalit. we have software that will help us whether to buy or not to buy. In terms of megawatts I would say as high as 100 MW, which is 1/4 of our demand or less than 20 percent of our demand,” Velasco said.

Velasco also said that Mindanao has an oversupply of 1,000 MW from the total power supply of 3,000 MW while the current demand in Mindanao is 2,000 MW.

“This also dictates the price of WESM. WESM prices are lower than some of our suppliers. So we optimize the dispatch of our supply contract plus using WESM as one of our sources. I think our mix now is about 30 percent WESM because of the lower prices of WESM,” he said.

Apart from buying from WESM, the reduction of rates was also due to the lowering of prices of coal and crude oil and the optimization of DLPC dispatch.

“Means this cause our dispatch, which is the outcome of our generation, the big chunk of our suppliers will contribute to the lowering of the rates. So, we optimize the dispatch of our supply contract plus using WESM as one of our sources. Hopefully, the supply of fuel will still be low maybe lower or flatten at least ma-maintain nato ni nga supply,” Velasco said.