Monthly Archives: December 2008

THE government has raised its programmed privatization revenues for next year after the sale of Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) was postponed, the Department of Finance said.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Banks floundered, grabbed government lifelines, and failed in 2008 as the global financial crisis shredded their own vaunted reputations for security.

Higher rate adjustments loom   THE Regulatory Office of state-run Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS-RO) has thumbed down proposals for the extension of the concession contracts for the East and West zones.

Expect endless arguing among passengers, drivers and bus conductors as a provisional reduction of fares takes effect today.

Tomorrow, Christmas will only be nine midnight or dawn masses away. But the usual festive mood permeating the air this time of the year is uncharacteristically elusive. In our village alone, most of the houses used to be fully-dressed in glittering Christmas lights and decorations.

How’s this for noche buena? Mother, father and sister carry packed food in plastic containers and then alternate between walking and taking public transportation, seemingly off to a special mission. Just outside a building, they prop up a table with a few chairs.

TWENTY-TWO of Qatar’s largest companies will be hiring Filipinos starting next month to fill up 37,000 positions in the energy, transport and construction sectors, Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said yesterday.

THE World Bank has commended the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for its efforts to put in place well-targeted social safety nets like the conditional cash transfer, or CCT.

President Arroyo vowed to secure more jobs for skilled Filipino workers in the Middle East during her three-day visit to Qatar that started yesterday.

Consumer confidence remains negative for the fourth quarter of the year and the first quarter of 2009, but some improvement was noted as global oil prices continued to decline.

Critics preparing next year’s impeachment complaint against Pres. Arroyo may want to consider this: the administration spent over P36 billion in 2007, well above the sum approved by Congress for that year. This amount excludes funds they were not able to release in agency budgets including those transferred to over-all savings.

MOST international aid assistance to the Philippines and other developing countries goes to big projects that have little to do with easing social inequities like poverty alleviation.

HONG KONG: Economic growth in developing Asia will slow to 5.8 percent in 2009, down from a likely 6.9 percent this year and 9 percent in 2007, as the impact of the global financial crisis spreads to emerging markets, says a new report from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

LABOR officials are on the alert for the adverse effects of the global financial meltdown on jobs—here and abroad.

As far as the call-center industry is concerned, the current global financial crisis is not something to worry about.

AMERICA’S cold is putting a damper on what the World Bank calls “the strongest pace of economic expansion in three decades” in the Philippines.

SPECIAL REPORT:LOCAL IMPACT OF GLOBAL MELTDOWN   RP banks, investment firms, even exporters are forecast to weather the storm but labor sector will suffer.

MANILA, Philippines–Despite the lingering global economic crisis, major Philippine business process outsourcing (BPO) providers, mostly contact center operators, have been aggressively recruiting new staff, a labor group said on Sunday.

Families of overseas Filipinos are now investing less of their remittances on housing and financial instruments and are instead putting more money away for savings, a central bank survey showed.

The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) has approved a P600 increase in the monthly pension of its old-age and disability pensioners.

State employees and pensioners will soon receive an early Christmas gift, Malacañang said yesterday.

The Monetary Board yesterday closed down three more rural banks identified with the Legacy group and placed them under the receivership of Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.

The Philippines’ main Muslim separatist group has agreed to stop recruiting child soldiers and return those in its ranks to civilian life, a United Nations official said Friday.

OLD-AGE and disability pensioners of state-run Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) will have a pension increase starting January next year.

AMID a global credit crunch, overseas Filipino worker (OFW) households are holding on to their cash rather than investing them in financial instruments, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.

THE United Nations and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front will start next year their talks on an action plan to stop the recruitment of children as soldiers. Radhika Coomaraswamy, special representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict, revealed this yesterday during a press conference in Ortigas, Pasig City.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has downscaled its growth outlook for the Philippines from six percent this year to 4.5 percent and from 6.2 percent in 2009 to just 3.5 percent, citing weak exports and direct foreign investment outflows and slower private consumption.

The government rejected yesterday the World Bank’s economic growth projections for the Philippines this year and for 2009, saying that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is still likely to expand within the 4.1 percent to 4.8 percent projection for 2008 despite the global financial turmoil.

The monthly salaries of Filipino workers employed in various countries abroad have doubled despite the prevailing global crisis, a local recruitment official reported yesterday.

Portfolio investments continued to flee the country in November, suffering from tightening global liquidity that persisted despite efforts of central banks to release more funds into the global financial system.