Monthly Archives: September 2009

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Agriculture has given in to the demand of corn farmers to adhere to a P13 per kilogram buying price for corn following a three- hour heated discussion with members of the Philippine Maize Federation (PhilMaize) last Friday at the DA head office in Quezon City.

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Francis Escudero called yesterday for a three-month freeze on loan payments to the Government Service Insurance System, Pag-Ibig Fund and the Social Security System in Metro Manila and other areas ravaged by tropical storm “Ondoy.”

(Second of three parts) Statute of limitations on TP assessments; penalties The draft RR does not provide for the statute of limitations for assessments involving TP adjustments. However, since a RR should be consistent with the provisions of the NIRC, any assessments involving TP adjustments should follow the general statute of limitations provided under the…

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) set yesterday price ceilings on basic commodities to prevent unscrupulous traders from raising prices in the wake of the devastation caused by tropical storm “Ondoy.” “The prices of goods today must be the same as last week’s. This is effective in all the areas under…

HANOI (AFP): The global economic crisis will keep more than 60 million Asians in poverty this year, the head of the Asian Development Bank said on Monday, urging a greater focus on social welfare including healthcare. “This crisis should be seen as an opportunity to take proactive measures that lay the groundwork for inclusive and…

STANDARD and Poor’s (S&P) said Philippine economic growth will hit the high-end of the government’s target range for this year and next year. Despite this, the credit rating agency said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) would hold onto current interest rate settings amid expectations of weak exports until 2010.

Dear PAO, I am working in a representative office of a Singapore-based company here in the Philippines. It has only two employees and is being funded by the head office in Singapore. The head office decided to close our office due to the high cost in maintaining it. Are the employees entitled to a separation…

A THREE-MEMBER mission from the International Labor Organization (ILO) will meet with lawmakers to discuss legislation related to the Philippines’ application of international standards on the right to organize, the Department of Labor and Employment said on Sunday. Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said the ILO mission with meet with the committees on labor and human…

A PARTY-LIST representative has filed a bill seeking the implementation of a community-based sex education program that will advocate both abstinence and contraception. Rep. Narciso Santiago of the Alliance for Rural Concerns (ARC) said there is a need for a comprehensive sex education program to provide full, complete, and accurate medical information on sexuality, contraception,…

The latest corruption tag on the Philippines by Germany-based watchdog Transparency International (TI) is seen as another blackeye on the country, a senior Filipino diplomat yesterday said.

Manila, Philippines — The chrysotile industry will be consulted next on the proposed national program for the elimination of asbestos related diseases (NPEAD). This was agreed on in a consultation spearheaded by the Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHC) of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) held on 28 September 2009.

Quebec is the last place in Canada to mine asbestos, a known carcinogenic substance. The miners who used to work extracting the needle-like fibre might be coughing up blood and dying by the dozens, but Ottawa and Quebec City continue to promote the sale of asbestos.

A party-list representative in the House of Representative who was once a hardcore member of the communist rebel group is contemplating on filing a bill in Congress seeking the labeling of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) as a terrorist organization.

MANILA, Philippines – Countries in the Southeast Asian region, including the Philippines, are expected to post steady recovery in the latter part of 2009 and in 2010 if governments continue to put in place fiscal and monetary support, Standard & Poor’s said in its latest report on the region.

The International Monetary Fund foresees a stronger than anticipated recovery from the economic crisis, with global growth approaching three percent in 2010, world leaders said.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines ranked 12th in the Asia-Pacific and 51st out of 66 countries worldwide in terms of information technology (IT) competitiveness, according to a new study conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and sponsored by the Business Software Alliance (BSA).

MANILA, Philippines – German shipping firms are still hiring new Filipino workers in spite of the effects of the global financial crisis, a ranking official said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A reminder that the path to an economic recovery will be a slow and bumpy one emerged Friday from weaker-than-expected data on US durable goods orders and new home sales.

MANILA, Philippines – The plan of the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) to double the mandatory monthly contributions of its 7.4 million members from P100 to P200 would cost workers an extra P8.9 billion, Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago said yesterday.

Author David Michaels shows that the same techniques used to successfully delay legislation and regulatory action on cigarettes have since been used on any number of other public-health problems, including today’s major global warming concerns. A growing trend disingenuously demands proof over precaution, always disputing conclusions that might support regulation because industry has learned that…

The International Labor Organization (ILO) is sending a three-man mission to the Philippines to look into labor laws and policies that relate to the country’s application of international standards on the right of workers to organize.

Saying that graft and corruption are a fact of life in the Philippines, Transparency International (TI) in its Global Corruption Report 2009 traced the root of most of the biggest corruption-tainted projects in the country to multimillion-dollar foreign-assisted projects involving foreign firms.

MANILA, Philippines – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) needs to adapt various international best practices in banking supervision to better protect the interest of depositors, a senior legislator said over the weekend.

MANILA, Philippines – The National Food Authority (NFA) does not plan to import any more rice for this year, according to NFA administrator Jessup Navarro.

MANILA, Philippines – The decrease in the proposed budget for state universities and colleges (SUCs) in 2010 would not have much of an impact on their operations, Malacañang clarified yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines — After repeatedly failing to get the coveted seal of good housekeeping from the US, local authorities have teamed up with the private sector in a last-ditch attempt to unlock up to P400 billion in development funds under the Millennium Challenge Account.

MANILA, Philippines—The Quezon City Council is mulling a proposal to give a monthly old age stipend to retired public school teachers and city government workers once they reach the age of 70.

KIDAPAWAN CITY — Four out of 10 children and youth aged three to 25 in Central Mindanao are missing schools due to armed conflict, according to E-Net Philippines, a non-government organization based here.

SAN PEDRO, Laguna — A labor group in Southern Tagalog has denounced the arrest of a worker in Rizal province, whom authorities said was an active member of the New People’s Army (NPA).

Even as the Archbishop of Cebu, Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, along with the Catholic bishops, has threatened to withdraw electoral support from presidential contenders and congressional candidates who support the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey taken from July 2 to 5, with a respondent base of 1,200 shows that there is…