Food poisoning hits Philippines BACOLOD, Philippines (AP): Fifteen people have been hospitalized in the drought-stricken central Philippines after eating insecticide-laden shellfish and poisonous wild tubers, officials said yesterday. Gov. Rafael Coscolluela of Negros Occidental province said the drought had caused about 100 million pesos ($2.6 million) in crop losses in the province, a major sugar-producing region.

Cooking oil producers off CPO supply list JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Forestry and Plantations Sumahadi has appointed 14 refineries in Jakarta, Surabaya in East Java and Medan in North Sumatra to process crude palm oil (CPO) produced by state plantation companies PT Perkebunan Nusantara I through XIV. The 14 refineries, however, did not include the three cooking oil producers which usually receive a monthly supply of about 39,200 tons of CPO from the state plantation companies.

'Unjuk akal' not 'unjuk rasa' From now on let's use the term unjuk akal (show of intelligence) instead of unjuk rasa (show of emotion), because the action (mass demonstrations) has been considered with deep thinking (using intellectual/rational intelligence) or akal, not just a mere burst of emotion or perasaan (of the moment alone) by those who proposed the idea or those who lead the action (usually involving university students or graduates or other intellectual people). DONALDY B.

PT Jamsostek denies it occupies land illegally JAKARTA (JP): State-owned social security insurance company PT Jamsostek has denied allegations that it is illegally occupying land on Jl. Gatot Subroto, South Jakarta, where its two-tower project is being built.

Labor supplier in trouble TANGERANG (JP): A labor recruiting company is in trouble for allegedly misusing a vocational training center in the posh Modernland housing complex to board 250 women seeking employment overseas. The regency has threatened to close down PT Rajasa Intama if the company is found guilty of misusing its permit for the building and failing to provide training for the job seekers.

ICBC opens Jakarta office TAIPEI (Dow Jones): International Commercial Bank of China, one of Taiwan's largest state-controlled banks, will establish a representative office in Jakarta to help promote bilateral trade between the two countries. The representative office could eventually become a full- fledged branch, ICBC said. The bank has already received approval for an operating license from the Indonesian Ministry of Finance.

BNI's net profit slumps by 5.9% JAKARTA (JP): State Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) announced a fall in net profits to Rp 315.23 billion (US$39.39 million) yesterday, a 5.9 percent decline on profits of Rp 335.13 billion made the previous year. The bank said in a statement that the decline was attributable to the sharp depreciation in the value of the rupiah against the U.S. dollar. "Our 1997 performance was significantly affected by the depreciation in the rupiah.

Discussion on good and bad JAKARTA (JP): Sisters, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing a greater understanding of Islam for the capital's English-speaking community, will hold a discussion titled 'Good and Bad, What does Islam Say?' tomorrow. Angela Alhamid, an organization spokesperson, said yesterday that the discussion, which will be held at the Pusdiklat Depkes building on Jl. Hang Jebat Raya, in South Jakarta, would be led by respected scholar Nurcholish Madjid.

Parched Sabah gets no relief KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia (Reuters): Heavy rains and cloud seeding over parts of Borneo island have failed to halt a drop in dam levels in Malaysia's drought-stricken Sabah state, newspapers reported yesterday. "Only 14 of the 48 (seeding) operations carried out have been successful," the Daily Express newspaper quoted the state's environment minister, Bernard Dompok, as saying.

Time to end the colonial plantation legacy The government plans to privatize a number of state enterprises and has named a government plantation group among them. Dr. H.S. Dillon, executive director of the Center for Agricultural Policy Studies and the head of a team which consolidated 26 plantation companies into nine groups in 1994, addresses the issue. Question: What do you think of the government's plans to privatize state enterprises?