PRESS DIGEST - Philippine newspapers - April 15

MANILA, April 15 (Reuters) - These are the leading stories in Manila newspapers on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories.

- The country's top security officials have recommended to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo that a "conditional pardon" be granted to nine soldiers that were jailed last week for attempting to overthrow her in 2003. (PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER)

- A member of the House of Representatives filed a resolution urging his colleagues to grant Arroyo "emergency powers" to address the rice problem. (THE PHILIPPINE STAR)

- Arroyo said she wants the regional wage boards to convene and consider a possible increase in the daily minimum wage of workers to help them cope with rising commodity prices. (THE MANILA TIMES, PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER, MALAYA, BUSINESSWORLD)

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BUSINESS

- The government plans to offer as much as $1 billion worth of Islamic bonds to raise long-term funding for the Metro Railway Transit 3 project in early 2009, an investment banker familiar with the deal said. (PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER, MANILA STANDARD TODAY)

- The country's total rice stock inventory as of March 1, 2008 dwindled to 1.68 million metric tonnes, slipping by 8.5 percent from the previous month's level, government data showed. (PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER)

- U.K. based Stratospheric Airship Technologies (SAT) has signed an agreement with the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority to take over facilities of the Federal Express (FDX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which will be leaving the country in December.