Monthly Archives: January 2010

Six years is a long time for a bad president, Fidel Ramos famously said. What’s a long time for a bad spouse?

MANILA, Philippines – Doctors and hospital owners opposed a Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth) circular imposing a 90-day preventive suspension on member-hospitals and clinics with pending administrative cases.

MANILA, Philippines – The number of distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle East is on the rise, according to a group of migrant workers.

MANILA, Philippines – After successfully narrowing the lead of his main rival, Nacionalista Party (NP) presidential bet Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. moved to “evade” the areas perceived to be the bailiwicks of Liberal Party (LP) candidate Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

Worldwide decline in total fertility rate and aging “Remember the population bomb? The new threat to the planet is not too many people but too few.”

HERE are excerpts from the cover story by Jack Goldstone of the January-February issue of Foreign Affairs, the world’s most respected journal on international relations.

FOR a century now, some analysts of mankind’s situation have been warning against the overpopulation myth.

Major development projects in Middle Eastern countries make the region still the top labor market for overseas Filipino workers (OFW) for 2010 and the years after, according to the government’s overseas employment agency.

THE ALLIANCE OF CONCERNED TEACHers (ACT) has assailed what it called the Arroyo administration’s continued failure to provide formal education for a growing number of young Filipinos, highlighted in 2009 by the more than 5.6 million out-of-school children and youth.

BAGUIO CITY – Philippine coffee is a much sought after product among Filipino-Americans in the United States, but an official of the Philippine Coffee Board (PCB) said the country has yet to produce enough to satisfy the growing demand.

Fifteen passengers were injured in an accident involving two buses on the northbound lane of Edsa in Quezon City Friday evening, according to the Quezon City Police District (QCPD).

In many Third World Countries, violence against children and women continues to be a pressing problem. Such violence is often manifested in the form of physical and sexual abuse.

MANILA, Philippines – Ninety-two percent of Metro Manila residents reject the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill pending in the House of Representatives, according to a survey conducted last month.

MANILA, Philippines – About 1.7 million Filipinos are addicted to shabu, marijuana, and other dangerous drugs, and 1,189 of them are undergoing treatment in rehabilitation centers, according to the Dangerous Drugs Board.

GARDEN CITY, New York — Ten Filipino nurses cleared last year of misdemeanor charges for quitting their jobs at a Long Island nursing home have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit.

MANILA, Philippines – A party-list group advocating women empowerment clarified yesterday that it is marriage itself and not the marriage license that should be subject to expiration period because under prevailing laws, a marriage license is only good for 120 days while marriage itself is a lifetime commitment unless annulled by the courts.

OTTAWA — Health Canada sat for more than a year on a report by a panel of international experts that concludes there is a “strong relationship” between lung cancer and chrysotile asbestos mined in Canada.

THE Philippine economy may have slowed down further in the fourth quarter of 2009 as the composite leading economic index (LEI) contracted at its fastest pace in nine years, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) said.

An official from the joint venture of Smartmatic and Total Information Management (TIM) on Friday said it could not continue with the software customization of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines until the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has finalized the official list of candidates as well as the number of registered voters in each…

MANILA, Philippines – Investors in emerging market (EM) nations, including the Philippines, should prepare to exploit privatization opportunities once the economic crisis is over, according to Eurasia Group, a global research and consulting firm.

MANILA, Philippines – Nacionalista Party president and standard-bearer Sen. Manny Villar has again narrowed the lead of his rival in the presidential race from 19 to only 11 percentage points in a span of three weeks, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) Special December 2009 survey results showed.

MANILA, Philippines – A seasoned diver of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) sacrificed his life yesterday afternoon while helping in the retrieval of the remains trapped inside the sunken ferry M/V Catalyn B.

MANILA, Philippines – The government will implement the first wave of the controversial Unified Multipurpose Identification System (UMID) cards in March, initially for members of the Social Security System (SSS) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

MANILA, Philippines – Sales of the local automotive industry expanded by 6.4 percent to 132,444 units in 2009 due to higher replacement rate of typhoon damaged vehicles coupled with stronger-than-expected growth in overseas Filipino workers’ remittances.

NINETY-two percent of Metro Manila residents have rejected the controversial Reproductive Health bill pending in the House of Representatives, former Environment Secretary Joselito Atienza said Friday.

Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza yesterday blamed the series of sea tragedies, eight of which were recorded in the past two years, to “human error.” Mendoza said such cause was traceable to lack of competent seafarers and ship maintenance crew.

The Wack Wack Golf and Country Club was hit by a wildcat strike Wednesday after the entire wait and kitchen staff picketed over the sudden outsourcing of the money-losing food and beverage department to Carte Blanche, which is part of the Skyline Group.

I’ve been arguing for a long time now, without much success I must admit, that the traditional methods of measuring an economy miss the most important factor: People. And with Christmas just past and a new year starting, now is a good time to think of people.

The Social Security System will release the first two million unified multi-purpose identification cards in March, with four other state agencies adopting it for their common use.

WITH less than six months left in office, President Arroyo turned on the aid spigot Thursday, signing a law to condone P280 billion in penalties for employers who failed to remit the social security premiums of their employees and seeking to make permanent a P15,000 dole to one million of the poorest families.