Monthly Archives: April 2009

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US recession has deepened, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday, as fresh data showed industrial output slumped to a decade low in March and annual inflation fell for the first time in 54 years.

MANILA, Philippines – Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap said yesterday that the Philippines well do well to delay by five years the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) which is scheduled for implementation next year.

MANILA, Philippines – Broadcast giant GMA Network Inc. and energy firm Aboitiz Power Corp. (APC) are the two new entrants to the Philippine Stock Exchange’s (PSE) elite roster of listed companies in the PSEi, the main index of overall stock market performance.

MANILA, Philippines – As inflationary pressures drop this year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) decided yesterday to cut its policy rates by another 25 basis points, bringing the cumulative reduction to 150 basis points since December 2008.

The global financial crisis has forced Philippine economic managers to lower the country’s economic targets from 2009 until the end of President’s Gloria Arroyo’s term in 2010 and beyond.

It’s becoming more evident that this crisis is not going to be as bad as feared—it’s going to be worse, the news that comes out each day is of ever worsening conditions. Now the expectation is that the world economy will shrink by 1 percent this year. A recovery in 2009 is no longer a…

Local investors are less confident about the country’s economic situation in the first three months of the year, saying it will neither get worse nor get better anytime soon, a survey revealed Thursday.

WASHINGTON — The International Monetary Fund on Thursday forecast a prolonged, deep global recession in a crisis “nobody is escaping,” with recovery slow and difficult.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has declared April 21 to May 1, 2009 as International Labor Organization (ILO) Week, Malacañang said Friday.

PARIS (AFP) — These are dangerous times: suicide rates go up in the spring and during an economic downturn, an analysis of suicide trends published Friday shows.

The last voyage of the ship “Otapan” to a Turkish ship breaking yard last July was a victory for “pre-cleaning” advocates of reducing the human and environmental dangers inherent in ship dismantling and recycling. But does it also lead to decent working practices? Last week, experts from the ILO, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and…

NINE out of 10 Filipinos in Metro Manila have cut down on their spending out of fear they will make less money as a result of the economic crunch, but are optimistic the economy will get better, a survey says.

The Final Report of the Presidential Task Force for Education (PTFE) contains several recommendations to reform our educational system. Many of these recommendations are not new, but were widely discussed and agreed upon in earlier surveys, such as the Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM, 1992) and the Presidential Commission on Educational Reform (PCER, 2000).

MANILA, Philippines – An educator-turned-lawmaker has hailed the passage of a new law aggressively expanding a government-subsidized student jobs plan, saying it would help put in check rising youth unemployment.

MANILA, Philippines – In choosing a career path, do not go for popular, but for “employable” courses.

A new report from the Guttmacher Institute and the University of the Philippines Population Institute reveals that low levels of contraceptive use in the Philippines result in high rates of unintended pregnancy and a broad range of negative consequences for women, their families and the national health care system.

CHEAPER POWER: After filing a bill lowering royalties on indigenous sources of energy to reduce the retail cost of electricity, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile now wants to grant tax exemption to distribution utilities to further cut power costs.

MANILA, Philippines – Some 2,600 mothers and 52,000 babies died in the country last year due to lack of sexual and reproductive health knowledge, a leading New York-based policy research group revealed in a study.

MANILA, Philippines – Public school teachers’ groups are opposing a move by the House of Representatives to cut a proposed P9,000 increase in their pay to P6,000, saying it will put them at a pay level below policemen and soldiers in the government’s salary scheme.

MANILA, Philippines – Green as far as the eye can see. This is what greets farmers every day at the Leonie Agri Corp. (LAC) farm, a 42-hectare verdant tract in the northern Nueva Ecija town of Sta. Rosa.

WASHINGTON – The recession is easing? Not so fast. An unexpected drop in sales of just about everything from cars to clothes sent a sobering message Tuesday: The economy is still vulnerable.

MANILA, Philippines – After stalling in January, inflows of remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) went up by 4.9 percent to $1.3 billion in February, bringing the two-month total to $2.6 billion, or 2.5 percent higher than a year ago level, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Growing numbers of children of illegal immigrants are being born in this country, and they are nearly twice as likely to live in poverty than those with American-born parents, a report says.

The Joint Foreign Chambers has urged the government to also allow non-distressed companies, like business process outsourcing firms, to adopt flexible job arrangements to make them more competitive amid the global economic slump.

Remittances from migrant Filipino workers grew 4.9 percent in February to $1.32 billion year-on-year, as job layoffs slowed down and deployment increased, the Bangko Sentral said yesterday.

Foreign companies represented by four major foreign chambers indicated plans for reduced work hours to cope with a worsening global recession.

Delinquent borrowers of the old housing loan program of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) get a reprieve as the pension fund offers them a chance to save their homes from foreclosures or cancellation of their Deed of Conditional Sale under a new condonation program.

As the number of Filipino seamen being held hostage in Somalia has swelled to 120, the Philippine government remains clueless on how to provide protection to the thousands of Filipino seafarers sailing through the dangerous waters of Africa.

This is a reaction to The Times “Special Report: The Church and Human Life” article “Mala-cañang’s pro-Life stand mainly a matter of morals” published April 12, 2009, reported by Angelo S. Samonte.

Dear PAO,  My husband works overseas and he sent me an e-mail stating that he will no longer send money to support our minor children. I was told that I need to send him a demand letter. Where can I get a sample of a demand letter? Thanks.