Monthly Archives: October 2009

MANY sections of the citizenry and media, including this paper, have expressed dissatisfaction with the way the government has handled the latest, and most devastating, physical disaster Metro Manila and its environs have suffered in 40 or more years.

IMF expresses concern over fiscal situation MANILA, Philippines – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the Philippine government should put on the breaks on its stimulus spending next year to prevent the country’s fiscal situation from deteriorating further.

THE CONVERSION of several public schools into evacuation centers for tens of thousands rendered homeless by Storm “Ondoy’s” floods should worsen the short shrift public school students have been getting from the Department of Education’s decision last August to cut class hours to five or even four hours. DepEd officials have justified the truncated class…

ANSWERING the question let me cut to the chase, and offer my answer to the question which entitles this piece. As a professional economist who has directed national sample surveys of Philippine poverty dozens of times for over two decades, I think that the current global slowdown is not worsening it, in the same way…

Can the lumbering elephant overtake the hyperactive dragon? What appeared unthinkable for decades, if not for more than half a century, may actually happen soon, perhaps as early as next year.

State-run Social Security System (SSS) cut down the interest rates of its loan window for home repairs and improvements from 13 percent to 9 percent to help members affected by tropical storm Ondoy.

PARIS (AP) — Unemployment is rising around the world as the recession leaves few corners untouched — but sharp differences remain between companies directly hit by financial or housing-market collapses and those that have deliberately protected jobs with expensive measures — including subsidizing shorter working weeks.

MANILA, Philippines – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is set to adopt a package of relief measures for banks to enable them to extend assistance to bank customers adversely affected by tropical storm “Ondoy.”

MANILA, Philippines – The visiting high-level mission of the International Labor Organization (ILO) has gathered sufficient but “contradictory” evidence on the alleged extrajudicial killings of labor leaders in the country.

MANILA, Philippines – President Arroyo ordered yesterday that the list of basic commodities placed under price control be expanded to ensure that all residents affected by tropical storm “Ondoy” would be protected from profiteers.

The Supreme Court (SC) has decided in favor of the employer of a Filipino seaman by not ordering to give full death compensation to the latter’s family because of official findings that he committed suicide.

Malacañang yesterday welcomed the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) move to determine if the Philippine government is abiding by international labor laws by sending a mission to the country to investigate reports of abuse and state-sponsored killings of local labor leaders and members.

The Social Security System (SSS) has cut down its interest rate on home repair and improvement loans from 13 percent to nine percent to help members affected by tropical storm “Ondoy,” a top official said yesterday.

Two legislators yesterday blasted both the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) for their utter failure to address the sorry plight of many overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

ISTANBUL (Xinhua) – World Bank President Robert Zoellick said Friday that a multipolar economy which is less reliant on the United States will be a more stable world economy.

ISTANBUL (Xinhua) – International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Friday that resuming economic growth does not mean the crisis is over, warning against risks of a stalled recovery and urging for reforms of the 186-nation agency.

INDIANAPOLIS — Before she dies, Dorothy Kuykendall wants her day in court. The 76-year-old from Terre Haute was exposed to asbestos, a toxin that can lead to a deadly cancer called mesothelioma, more than three decades ago when she handled the material regularly as a worker at the city’s Glas-Col Apparatus Co.

Most countries today encourage investment in the private sector to grow the economy and create jobs. The Philippine government is apparently an exception to this trend. Businessmen invest in a business to make money, and any sensible government encourages them to do so and be successful. Then other investors will come.

President Gloria Arroyo has ordered all government agencies to mobilize their employees to assist in ongoing relief and clean-up efforts in the aftermath of the devastation wrought by tropical storm Ondoy. The death toll from flooding unleashed by Ondoy has risen by more than 30 to 277, the government reported Thursday.

MANILA, Philippines – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects the Philippines to post stronger economic growth this year and next year after successfully weathering the global financial storm mainly due to fiscal and monetary reforms.

Apparently, if government heeded the findings of a study done 32 years ago, people shouldn’t even be living in those deadly subdivisions in Marikina. Felino Palafox Jr., a leading Filipino environmental planner, told Business Mirror and ANC that government had been warned about the serious consequences of allowing residential subdivisions in those places that experienced…

It’s like asbestosis, a dreadful disease that sticks needle-like asbestos into your lungs so you die of cancer early. Companies were taken to court and the claimants won despite that no one knew of or even suspected asbestosis existed in those earlier days (I know since I worked for an asbestos company for nine years).

The House of Representatives has approved a joint resolution with the Senate mandating all government financial institutions, including the Pag-Ibig Fund, the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Social Security System (SSS) to suspend for at least three months the payment of loans and interest payments in the wake of the deluge caused by…

An International Labor Organization (ILO) official who headed a recently concluded high-level fact-finding mission to the Philippines on alleged human rights abuses committed against workers, yesterday urged President Arroyo’s government to prove that it does not sanction extra-judicial killings, harassment and disappearances of trade union leaders who are being linked to leftist groups.

ISTANBUL, Turkey — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Thursday that the global economy is recovering faster than expected — but warned governments against premature withdrawal of stimulus efforts.

MANILA, Philippines – Liberal Party standard-bearer Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III topped the latest nationwide survey on the 2010 presidential hopefuls conducted by Makati-based polling firm StratPOLLS Inc.

MANILA, Philippines – Adapting to the impact of global warming in developing countries is set to cost up to $100 billion a year over the next 40 years, according to a new World Bank study.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The US economy moved closer to emerging from recession in the second quarter, according to revised data Wednesday showing a smaller-than-expected 0.7 percent pace of output decline. The figure for gross domestic product (GDP) was better than last month’s estimate of a 1-percent drop, and stronger than the average estimate of private economists…

THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) kept its interest rates steady on Thursday, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised its economic growth forecast for the country until 2010. Citing the country’s sustained remittance growth and the slow recovery in exports, Dennis Botman, IMF Philippines resident representative, said the country is likely to post growth…

State-run Social Security System (SSS) said Thursday it was offering early renewal of loans to its qualified members as assistance to those who were affected by tropical storm Ondoy.