MANILA, Philippines - Internet use in the Philippines remains free, with most, if not all form of content, becoming available to all 24 million or so Internet users, about half of them below the age of 19.

State-run National Power Corp. seeks investments in renewable energy for its island and off-grid operations, in a bid to reduce costly government subsidies to its Small Power Utilities Group operations.

The Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) is looking at Iloilo City as a new investment hub for business process outsourcing and information technology, according to its top official.

The Board of Investments (BOI) has approved five housing, agriculture and training projects worth a combined P3.1 billion.

MANILA, Philippines - The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said it would support the creation of more credit surety funds to help boost businesses in the countryside.

SAN CARLOS CITY, Negros Occidental - Southeast Asia's first sugarcane-based ethanol and co-generation plant, which was inaugurated here Friday, will help wean the Philippines away from dependence on fossil fuels, officials said.

MANILA, Philippines - The local telecommunications industry is moving towards new revenue streams beyond SMS, with more Filipinos starting to use their handsets for more than just text messaging and voice calls.

MANILA, Philippines - Google's much-hyped Android operating system is making inroads in the local mobile applications development space.

MANILA, Philippines-The Commission on Elections (Comelec) and telecom industry stakeholders are working on plans to ensure electronic transmission of election results from 80,000 precincts nationwide in next year's polls.

MANILA, Philippines - With the global recession loosening its grip on the local economy, IT firms are seeing a break in the gloom and are now looking for recovery in all sectors.