Monthly Archives: September 2009

FIVE ASEAN EXCHANGES—BURSA Malaysia, the Indonesia Stock Exchange, the Philippine Stock Exchange, Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) and the Stock Exchange of Thailand—have entered into an Accession Agreement with the Hochiminh Stock Exchange.

MANILA, Philippines – The World Bank has warned the Philippines and other developing countries that they stand to lose four to five percent of their annual gross domestic product if they fail to address the worsening problem of climate change.

CREDIT CARD USE IS EXPECTED TO PICK UP next year as the easing global economic crisis prompts more Filipino consumers to spend. Jose Rene Villareal, country manager of Mastercard, said credit card-funded consumption in the Philippines had managed to sustain growth, albeit at a slower pace, despite the hard times. He expects conditions next year…

ASIDE FROM AUTOMATED ELECTIONS MANILA, Philippines—Allaying fears of failure of elections in 2010, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it will prepare for manual balloting, especially for areas with problems in electricity and telecommunications network coverage.

DRUG PRICE REGULATION MANILA, Philippines—The president of a group of private hospitals Tuesday said its members had increased fees to recoup losses from 21 commonly used medicines whose prices were cut in half under the government’s drug price regulation scheme.

PARIS: Heart attack survivors who eat chocolate two or more times per week cut their risk of dying from heart disease about threefold compared with those who never touch the stuff, scientists have reported. Smaller quantities confer less protection, but are still better than none, according to the study, which appears in the September issue…

A House panel today is set to initiate investigations on allegations that agrarian reform funds are being diverted for nonagrarian reform projects in Vinzons, Camarines Norte.

The funds sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) grew faster in July as the global economy has started to stabilize, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announced Tuesday.

TO SUPPORT RP ECONOMY, FINANCES The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Tuesday said it will extend a multimillion-dollar loan for the Philippines to improve its fiscal discipline and investment climate. In a statement, the Manila-based lender said its board of directors approved a $250-million loan to finance the Development Policy Support Program (DPSP) Subprogram 3.

BUSINESS groups have called on the two chambers of Congress to immediately enact key economic legislation, before most lawmakers shift their focus to their individual bids for the upcoming 2010 elections.

For the World Bank to say that doing business in the Philippines is about the same level of difficulty as doing business in Cambodia is an indictment. Of course it depends how you measure it and the World Bank has, as is to be expected, taken an intelligent view on its assessment method. I would…

THE number of unemployed Filipinos rose in July as both the government and the private sector generated fewer jobs amid an increase in those seeking work, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said Tuesday.

A study conducted by an environmental organization in Sweden revealed that some branded flip-flops, sandals, clogs and other plastic shoes manufactured or sold in seven countries, including the Philippines, have high concentrations of phthalates and heavy metals that are highly toxic.

Prices of galunggong and rice rose faster than the income of poor Filipinos, hurting the quality of their life, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) reported Tuesday. Romulo Virola, secretary-general of the board, said that from 2003 to 2006, prices of rice and galunggong went up faster than per capita income, and that poverty worsened.

CEBU, Philippines – A year after the tragic sinking of the M/V Princess of the Stars, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines is urging the Maritine Industry Authority to lift the suspension order on the vessels of Sulpicio Lines, Inc.

MANILA, Philippines – Remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) surged to $1.5 billion in July, posting the highest year-on-year growth for 2009 at 9.3 percent, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Local and foreign businessmen are pushing for the passage of 10 bills to boost economy.

MANILA, Philippines – To continuously attract foreign direct investments (FDIs), the Philippines needs to accelerate the expansion of the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector in the immediate future, a foreign economist said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported yesterday that the number of jobless Filipinos increased to 2.9 million in July, apparently due to the lingering effects of the global financial crisis.

The unemployment rate jumped more sharply than expected in July to 7.6 percent, with 2.9 million Filipinos out of work, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said yesterday.

The Department of Education (DepED) has reduced the learning hours for elementary students, citing the “alarming size” of student population as part of its revised classroom program.

A local migrant worker group yesterday urged President Arroyo to bring to the attention of the British government the intensified crackdown of illegal migrants by its immigration authorities in the United Kingdom during her two-day visit to the country this week.

Will Liberal Party standard bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino bow to the Catholic bishops’ pressure on him to toe the Church line against the Reproductive Health bill which the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philppines (CBCP) claims to be anti-life and anti-family and withdraw his sponsorship of the bill in exchange for the Catholic bishops’…

Henry Sy’s SM Group of Companies was asked to be investigated by a lawmarker due to alleged discrimination and anti-labor policies that prevents regularization of their employees. Ilocos NOrte Rep. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., said its been the practice of the SM Group for a long time to have an anti-labor contractualization program. Marcos urged…

A bus group is open to reducing the rolling stocks on Edsa from about 3,800 to 1,000 units, but enforcing it must be equitable.

By a vote of 11 to 3, the Supreme Court on Sept. 10 threw out the petition of a group called Concerned Citizens Movement to nullify the contract entered into by the Commission on Elections and the Smartmatic International and Total Information Management.

SENATE President Juan Ponce Enrile yesterday doubted the constitutionality of a proposed legislation that would lay down the rules on presidential succession in case the 2010 elections, the first fully-automated polls in Philippine history, should fail.

THE Philippines, Southeast Asia’s second-biggest corn producer, will double planned state purchases of the grain to 600,000 metric tons this year to help support local prices and protect farmers’ incomes, an official said yesterday.

A year after Lehman Brothers collapsed, a think tank has warned the lessons of the crisis have not been learned. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) says the rapid return to the City’s bonus culture shows that real reform has been “very limited”.

The fact that children raised in homes without a dad have sex earlier is down to their genes, say US researchers. The study tested for genetic influences as well as factors such as poverty, educational opportunities and religion.