Monthly Archives: November 2009

The oil price-cap protection that the government is imposing through Executive Order 839, which requires oil firms to temporarily peg prices of their products at their October 15 levels, and until the declaration of a state of calamity in Luzon is lifted, may not offer as much protection as we think.

EO harmful to foreign investments The Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines on Monday urged the government to lift Executive Order 839, which froze petroleum prices to their levels before October 15 when the Philippines was ravaged by back-to-back storms. In response to the devastation, the government recently declared a state of calamity over the…

It’s not rocket science, but somehow, a job interview is one of the trickiest moments in an adult’s life. we stutter, lose our train of thought or black out altogether. It shouldn’t be such an intense emotional rollercoaster. You just have to be yourself (but a slightly better version of) and let the chips fall…

THE Philippines may not yet be ready for climate change, as a self-assessment of national agencies, local government units (LGUs) and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) showed that implementing and mainstreaming climate-change programs are far from becoming a reality in the country.

World Bank Press Release No:2010/117/EAP Washington, DC, November 3, 2009 — The economic  rebound in East Asia and the Pacific has been surprisingly swift and very welcome but take China out of the equation and the regional picture is less rosy, says the World Bank’s half-yearly assessment of the economic health of the East Asia…

NEGATIVE FARE: Many balikbayan friends and relatives coming home from the United States for All Saints Day surprise us with questions that seldom occur to us natives who are too close to the trees to see the forest.

MANILA, Philippines – Organized labor is pushing for the adoption of one national wage rate to increase the purchasing power of workers and their families.

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Higher Education was urged yesterday to identify the 177 substandard nursing schools nationwide.

MANILA, Philippines – Regarded as the third largest country in the world with the most number of people who can speak English, the Philippines may not be that good in English after all.

MANILA, Philippines – Foreign and local businessmen demanded yesterday the termination of President Arroyo’s Executive Order 839, which places petroleum products under price control, saying the directive will adversely affect 80 percent of the country’s oil supply and create a black market.

“FRANKLY, MY DEAR. I DON’T GIVE A damn.” These words from Rhett to Scarlet in the film classic “Gone With The Wind” fittingly summarizes the attitude of most males to the Reproductive Health (RH) bill.

As the Department of Education (DepEd) goes full swing in connecting schools to the Internet, Education Secretary Jesli Lapus has issued guidelines for the responsible use of Internet services by students and school officials.

A lawmaker is seeking additional provisions for financial assistance to marginalized senior citizens to enable them to maintain a “good quality of life with dignity and respect.”

A farmers group has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to hand down a writ of amparo and habeas data to stop the states security forces from undertaking acts of abuse against them in Aurora province.

MANILA, Philippines—While they comprise almost half of the country’s population, children hardly figure in the budget, and allocation for their concerns and needs remain measly every year, according to the report of the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Rights of the Child.

DO you want to know what’s wrong with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs? I’ll tell you right away—some companies are using it only for tax avoidance, if not for public relations.

The Supreme Court has granted in part a petition of female   flight attendants of the country’s flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) seeking to remove a gender bias provision in their collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that sets the retirement age for women five years earlier than that for their male counterparts.

THE Philippines may be the call center capital of the world, with its vast pool of English speakers, but it lacks the management talent that the business process outsourcing sector needs to fill higher-level positions in the industry.

The jobless situation in the Philippines was likely to worsen this year and next year because of the trade contraction resulting from the global crisis, according to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Unescap).

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines may find itself no longer on top of mind among companies wanting to outsource and offshore some of their functions if nothing is done to boost global awareness of what the country has to offer.

Last week’s article on the possible health dangers of cell phones elicited a deluge of comments from our readers — including my colleagues in the medical profession, even my own patients, former classmates, and friends. They raised more valid concerns on other health issues about cell phones that I decided to devote an additional article…

MANILA, Philippines – A group of ethanol producers are calling for the increase in tariff for ethanol from one percent to 20 percent to encourage investors to put up more ethanol plants and meet the mandated five percent enthanol blend mandated under Biofuels Law.

MANILA, Philippines – The National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) yesterday called on employers to grant their workers non-wage benefits in the absence of salary hikes.

ILOILO CITY—A confederation of government workers and the supplier of overpriced training equipment of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) have scored the agency’s findings that pinned the blame on 14 employees and the supplier but virtually exonerated the director-general, Augusto Syjuco.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Justice (DOJ) has expanded the coverage of its program which provides free legal assistance to policemen who are facing charges related to their duties.

MANILA, Philippines – Government agencies will hire some 93,000 unemployed or underemployed Filipinos this year for a P1.77-billion roadside maintenance program in line with President Arroyo’s call for agencies to strengthen the country’s economic foundation in the face of continuing uncertainties in the global economy and international labor markets, Malacañang announced yesterday.

Just because some people have had ample experience in administering something does not mean they get better at it; or that they actually learn while doing it. Put another way, some people not only do not learn, they actually get worse each time.

MANILA, Philippines – The 29 largest business process outsourcing (BPO) providers in the Philippines, mostly engaged in contact center activities, reported P94.4 billion in combined revenues in 2008, up 21 percent or P16.1 billion from the P78.3 billion they posted in 2007.

The spirit of volunteerism is alive and well, weeks after the devastation wrought by two destructive weather conditions. The volunteers in ABS-CBN’s Sagip Kapamilya, for example, came from all age groups and varying backgrounds. Most of them arrived in groups — families, officemates, barkadas, among others — all standing up to bring help or to…

MANILA, Philippines – Environmentalists yesterday vowed to get to the bottom of the toxic pollution incidents that downed residents of a village in Silang, Cavite, demanding that a hazardous waste treatment company there make a “full disclosure” of what chemicals, and in what quantities, have spilled out to the environment.