MANILA - Norwegian miner Intex Resources is still keen on mining nickel in Mindoro island after facing a setback in securing its environmental compliance certificate or ECC.

"First of all, we're not yet mining the site. We're studying it. There might be a misconception that we are already mining," said Jake Foronda, project manager at Intex's Mindoro nickel project.

MANILA - The House of Representatives has passed on final reading a bill that would allow candidates to promote themselves in public even before the actual campaign period begins, with legislators saying they approved the measure to protect the Commission on Elections from being swamped with election cases.

The bill, principally sponsored by Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin, would amend the Omnibus Election Code that bars candidates from engaging in election campaign or partisan political activity outside the campaign period.