Monthly Archives: August 2009

Press Statement Protect workers in asbestos removal, labor group says “Protect workers doing asbestos removal from power plants, boilers and pipes now before it is too late”, urges Ernesto Herrera, former Senator and General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP). Asbestos removal from power plants and boilers puts workers at risk…

NUSA DUA — More than 1.5 million women living with HIV in Asia were infected by their husbands or boyfriends and 50 million more are at risk of infection, according to a report released Tuesday.

MANILA, Philippines—About 200 Filipino employees of a New Zealand telecommunications firm joined a nationwide rally Tuesday that was held to protest the adoption of a scheme transforming the employees into sub-contractors.

BAGUIO CITY: The number of small-scale miners who died due to mountain slides in Barangay Kias at the height of Typhoon Kiko rose to 12 while two more private miners remain to be the subject of search and retrieval operations.

The large regionally diversified rural sector must be mobilized in terms of the accelerated growth of both agricultural and non-agricultural employment and output-creating activities over a widely diversified area of the Philippines. The urban industrial sector, which is still relatively small and heavily concentrated, must be dispersed and allowed to look outward toward the export…

DOÑA REMEDIOS TRINIDAD, Bulacan , Philippines   – Police arrested 11 suspected undocumented Chinese working at a mining site inside the mineral reservation area of the Biak-na-Bato National Park here over the weekend.

MANILA, Philippines – The Arroyo administration’s net satisfaction rating improved by eight points to a still “poor” –11 percent, a Social Weather Stations survey for the second quarter of 2009 said.

MANILA, Philippines—The value of Philippine merchandise exports continued to decline in June by 24.7 percent year-on-year to $3.41 billion as shipments of electronics slumped.

HUNDREDS of workers who helped build Yorkshire’s power stations are facing an “asbestos timebomb”, experts claim.

This in in reference to Mr. Emil Jurado’s article that appeared on July 30 and which asked Environment Secretary Lito Atienza and this bureau what we are doing about health care or hospital wastes.

Sometime ago, I wrote about the predatory practices of banks and credit card establishments. Some people have told me horror stories about how these companies put on the big squeeze on customers who fail to pay on time and especially on those who have exceeded their credit limit and are considered in default. Would you…

THANKLESS JOB: During the week of Cory Aquino’s passing, I learned all over again what decades of hard-boiled journalism supposedly had taught me — that giving opinion in a newspaper column is akin to cleaning an estero as a matter of civic duty.

IN line with its assumed role of spearheading the development of the country’s renewable energy sources, state-owned Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) has kicked off preparations to expand its solar power services.

THE Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) will propose a list of projects under the new Comprehensive and Integrated Infrastructure Program (CIIP) for 2010 to 2013.

Many predicted a grim future for the export-dependent Philippines as the global slump hit world trade, but recent data suggest it could avoid recession, as the government remains defiant.

P4 billion FDI commitments lowest since 1996; actual inflows lower at P2 billion MANILA – The government has approved only P4 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) pledges for the first 3 months of 2009, the lowest since the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) started compiling data for committed FDIs in the first quarter of…

MANILA, Philippines—Filipinos around the world pay between $6.93 and $19.05 to remit $200 to their families back home, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) quoted a World Bank study of global money transfer charges as of the first quarter of 2009.

MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang Sunday warned the public against the possibility of giant multinational drug companies “sabotaging” the government’s efforts to bring down the prices of medicine in the country.

Telcos capitalize on growth of netbooks MANILA, Philippines – Demand for laptops is expected to increase as the cost of wireless Internet access likewise continues to go down.

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Information and Communications Technology is urging the development of more Philippine Economic Zone Authority-accredited sites, as this is the most feasible way to extend incentives to potential ICT investors.

Is the enactment of the law extending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program—the CARPer, for CARP Extension with Reforms—a “death sentence” for the country’s millions of farmers? That’s what the militant left thinks. Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano reflected that point of view with the forceful statement he issued after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Republic Act…

Operations of companies in several economic zones have started to normalize with nearly half of those implementing temporary shutdowns resuming normal operations in anticipation of a recovery in the global demand for Philippine exports.

PRE-NEED companies have been placed in a sticky situation by the new guidelines that raised the minimum trust fund deposits to 50 percent to 60 percent of collected funds, and would like the Securities and Exchange Commission to ease the rules.

VEHICLE sales dipped 2.4 percent 71,506 units in the seven months to July 2009 from 73,290 in the same period last year, preliminary figures showed yesterday.

US FOOD companies including General Mills Inc., Kraft Foods Inc. and ConAgra Foods Inc. want the US government to raise sugar-import quotas as inventories fell to a 34-year low and prices surged.

Dear PAO, Our company is giving a 13th month pay every May and December. Recently, we have a general assembly regarding the new 13th month pay guidelines. But it was not discussed clearly to us when it came to a pregnant woman who would take her maternity leave. Can you please enlighten me about the…

With more than 1,000 people becoming infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Asia each day, the United Nations Joint Program on HIV-Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (UNAIDS) has urged governments to decriminalize consensual adult sexual behavior and drug use.

KATHMANDU (AFP) – When Anita Gimmi was unable to find work in her native Nepal last year, she borrowed 1,300 dollars and travelled to Qatar to take up a two-year contract with a cleaning company there.

MANILA, Philippines – Migrant Filipino workers are paying “oppressive and burdensome” fees to send money back home to their families in the Philippines, a labor leader said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Finance (DOF) has thumbed down the proposal to convert the Bataan Economic Zone (BEZ) into a special economic and freeport zone, saying the move is no longer necessary.