Monthly Archives: September 2009

The Philippines dropped 16 notches in the latest World Economic Forum (WEF) World Competitiveness Report to No. 87 out of 133 countries. Singapore ranked No. 3, Malaysia 24th, Thailand 36th, and Indonesia at 54th. The Philippines was at the bottom in a list of 23 Asian countries in the earlier World Bank competitiveness survey.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) is sending high-level representatives to conduct a one-week fact-finding to the Philippines this month to look into labor rights violations and to investigate the unexplained killing of labor union leaders.

The revolution in knowledgebased economics, globalization and the “flatness of the world” has exerted an increasing pressure in the education sector to continuously reinvent itself and be more accessible to the public. To be able to address the need for a globally competitive workforce, highly skilled individuals, and educationally qualified human resource—the Philippine higher education…

VIENNA: Oil-producing and developing countries should not bear the brunt of efforts to clean up the environment, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) crude producers’ cartel insisted Thursday, ahead of a major climate conference in December.

CEBU, Philippines – Capitol must think twice and study further the environmental impact of a coal-fired power plant before allowing the Korean Electric Company (Kepco) operate in Cebu, Korean environmentalists warned yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has urged donors to “continue, and ideally boost, their current commitments” to help the agency pull the world’s developing countries out of poverty.

MANILA, Philippines – The contraction experienced by the global economy resulting from the financial crisis now makes it virtually impossible to attain the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015, according to a new report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Although great strides have been made in efforts to make basic medicine affordable to the majority of Filipinos, the fight is far from over. Even at the risk of incurring the ire of our good friends from Pfizer who have taken time to explain Pfizer’s side of things, we will continue to write about the…

WASHINGTON — The recession is ending and the economy is finally growing again. That’s the message implicit in the Federal Reserve’s latest survey of businesses around the country, which found economic activity stabilizing or improving in most regions.

HONG KONG (AP) — International air travel, whacked by the economic downturn, is starting to stabilize but may not recover until 2011 as companies and passengers continue to scale back, executives at aviation giants Boeing Co. and Airbus SAS said Wednesday.

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT , Philippines  — Visiting lawmakers from Guam said Subic Bay would make an ideal training center for the thousands of Filipino skilled workers needed in the US territory, where “ the largest US military buildup since the end of World War II” will be made.

Our competitiveness ranking has once again dropped, this time substantially. We lost 16 places in an annual World Economic Forum report. While four other Southeast Asian economies also saw their positions worsen, it was the Philippines which posted the largest fall. We remained second to the last among the eight economies in the region, besting…

MANILA, Philippines – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday that foreign direct investments (FDI) yielded a net inflow of $892 million in the first half of the year due to an improvement in equity capital and more reinvested earnings.

Here’s the opposition’s dirty little secret: There is no such thing as unity right now, and there probably won’t be when the polls close in May. And if the opposition really wants to win it all in next year’s elections, the first thing it has to do is perhaps to drop the pretense of seeking…

MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court upheld yesterday the legality of the automation of next year’s elections. In dismissing the petition of a group of concerned citizens to void the P7.2-billion automation contract, the SC said the Commission on Elections and Smartmatic Corp.-Total Information Management Inc. did not violate Republic Act 9369, the Poll Automation…

Directory company Yellow’s decision to move its 018 business to the Philippines may be frustrating thousands of users but those complaining about poor service from overseas operators need to “get over it,” says a call centre expert.

Claims of a breakthrough in the Doha round of global trade talks following last week’s ministerial in India appear to follow a familiar pattern for such meetings: namely, that such claims are a bit premature when you examine the details of what actually happened.

After saying there is no more time to pass a bill promoting population control, Speaker Prospero Nograles yesterday ordered Majority Leader Arthur Defensor to simplify the plenary debate to pave the way for the voting on the measure.

News that these last three years, the sixth graders of rural-area schools got higher National Achievement Test (NAT) scores than their city-school counterparts should buoy up our hopes. It is a sign that despite the corruption and deficiencies of the government the neglected rural areas are not as doomed to failure and unrelieved poverty as…

MANILA, Philippines – Consumers’ outlook on the economy improved in the third quarter of the year on the back of improving global conditions, declining inflation, easing interest rates and a relatively stable peso, results of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Consumer Expectations Survey showed.

UITBB Statement on the Rotterdam deadlock monodetrabajadorThe Rotterdam Convention talks in Rome have ended on the 31st of October 2008 in a deadlock.

The House Committee on Health approved to consolidate three bills banning the importation, manufacture, processing, use, or distribution in commerce of asbestos and asbestos-containing products in a hearing held on 9 September 2009. The House of Representatives is the Lower House of the Philippine Congress.

DESPITE the tax and credit reforms the Philippines instituted the past year, the country fell three ranks to place 144th in a list of 183 economies in the 2010 Doing Business Report as it remains one of 10 places in the world investors find most difficult to start and close a business.

Two hundred signatories from 44 countries, among them, noted scientists and health experts, have asked President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo “to end poison rain” or the aerial pesticide spraying of banana plantations in Mindanao.

PHILIPPINE AND TAIWAN labor authorities have agreed to extend their memorandum of understanding on the Special Hiring Program for Taiwan (SHPT) beyond March 30 next year, if no new agreement is approved and signed by Taipei and Manila before this date.

It is with great interest that I read Ceres Doyo’s column “Bad Bananas and Collateral Damage.” (Inquirer, 8/13/09) While my affiliation to Davao is limited to the fact that my wife and her two brothers were born in Davao City, my concern is in my sincere belief that somewhere, somehow, there is a better, safer…

MANILA, Philippines—A greener and more eco-friendly Asia for its teeming population.

AMID 400,000 JOBLESS NURSING GRADUATES FILIPINO nurses may opt to stay in the country to work as “digital medical butlers” for a medical knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) firm that will put up training facilities and a contact center to service clients abroad.

The Arroyo administration was seriously addressing concerns on corruption and human-rights abuses in the country, a Malacañang official said Wednesday, stressing that the government has made gains.

CEBU, Philippines – The management of SPC Power Corporation management is appealing to the employees’ union to be “reasonable with their demands” and to return to the negotiating table without having to threaten the company with a notice of strike.