Monthly Archives: December 2008

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has set an average inflation target of 3.5 to 5.5 percent for 2010 or lower than the official average inflation range for 2009 of six percent to eight percent.

A ranking United Nations official said yesterday the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has committed to stop its practice of recruiting and using children in combat operations.

A group of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) has asked the Supreme Court to issue a final ruling on a multi-billion suit they filed against US firms Brown and Root. Inc. and the Halliburton Group of Companies.

More high school graduates are now opting to work rather than pursue higher education, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported yesterday.

Children rights advocates in the country will submit reports of child rights violations committed by the Arroyo administration to visiting United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy.

A New People’s Army (NPA) guerrilla, who was earlier captured by military forces in Quezon province, admitted that they recruited the 15-year-old boy whose family had reported missing.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US president-elect Barack Obama on Saturday vowed to make the largest investment in the country’s infrastructure since the 1950s, as part of his plan to revitalize the slumping US economy.

Teletech Telesystems Inc., one of the largest business process outsourcing (BPO) companies in the country has announced it will be opening at least three more centers in the country as it expects to grow by 20 percent next year.

As developed economies succumb to recession, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said overseas Filipino workers’ remittances would slow down in 2009 but ruled out the possibility of a decline as labor deployment continued to increase.

by Jerome Aning from Philippine Daily Inquirer MANILA, Philippines—A moderate workers’ group on Sunday said it was joining the growing opposition led by civil society and Church-based groups to the renewed drive by allies of President Macapagal-Arroyo to amend the Constitution.

from People’s Journal The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines yesterday said it was closing ranks with civil society groups and Church-based organizations opposing fresh attempts to amend the 1987 Constitution to allow a term extension for President Macapagal-Arroyo and other elected officials.

The panic in global financial markets has sparked an unprecedented rush into safe US Treasury securities, driving yields on short-term government notes down to almost zero.

The Department of Education(DepEd) on Thursday admitted that there is still a large number of school-aged children out in the streets, and that these young people face exploitation in all forms.

While over a thousand Filipino workers in Taiwan have lost their jobs as the country’s export sector was hit badly by the international financial crisis, the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) said that Taiwan continues employing Filipinos in industries not as affected.

The peso should be allowed to depreciate to about P55 to the dollar to boost local consumer spending and to improve the country’s export competitiveness, an economist said at an exporters’ forum on Thursday.

The Economist’s arm: Economic drivers weak   The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said the Philippines’ economic growth is expected to slow sharply in 2009 because of the deepening global financial crisis. EIU is “the world’s foremost provider of country, industry and management analysis.”

Somebody asked me why there are longer labor strikes especially at this time when prices of basic commodities are skyrocketing and jobs are harder to find. Why are laborers and employees in the private sector not asking for higher wages?

The Social Welfare Department is negotiating for a loan of up to P25 billion from the World Bank to support the conditional cash transfer program called Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino.

THE World Bank would fund the Philippines’ education and health subsidies for poor families amid the global financial crisis, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said.

The Manila City Prosecutor’s Office has filed criminal charges before the Manila Regional Trial Court yesterday against a 34-year-old woman for inducing female minors to solicit sex.

by Patricia Evangelista from Inquirer MANILA, Philippines — There is a reason why traditional democratic discourse rejects active military involvement in politics, and stresses civilian supremacy. The reason is this: that violence, or the threat of violence, which the military utilizes in the enforcement of its goals, must be without bias in its service to…