Monthly Archives: January 2010

MANILA, Philippines – Department of Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said yesterday he will not issue an order that would allow grade school and high school students with delinquent accounts in private schools to take their exams.

MANILA, Philippines – An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) yesterday expressed hope administration presidential candidate Gilbert Teodoro’s withdrawal of support for the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill is sincere and not merely to get on the Church’s good side.

MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed the disqualification of 10 party-list groups from running in the May 10 elections.

MANILA, Philippines – Cases of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in the country have reached epidemic proportions, prompting health authorities to sound the alarm to stem the rampant transmission of the deadly disease.

MANILA, Philippines – The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) reported yesterday a widening rift within the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) over Jose Ma. Sison’s decision to put up a huge amount of money to support the party’s national and local candidates in the May elections.

MANILA, Philippines – The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is pushing for the development of the rural sector through a new Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP).

MANILA, Philippines – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has raised its inflation forecast to 4.7 percent instead of four percent this year due to higher food, commodity and utility prices.

MANILA, Philippines – Battered by the global financial turmoil and typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng, the Philippine economy, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), grew by 0.9 percent last year, the slowest pace in 11 years, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) reported yesterday.

Palawan, the country’s renowned ecotourism site, is once again hailed as among the top 10 best destinations for elite travelers in China. Initiated by Ctrip.com, China’s leading and trusted online travel agency, and popular high-end travel glossy Elite Traveller, the polling for top overseas destinations of 2009 gathered a total of 4,340,122 valid votes through…

MANILA, Philippines—education Nation, a coalition of captains of industry and other concerned citizens, Wednesday launched a blueprint for reform to save the Philippine education system from collapse.

Like many working parents, Beverly Flaxington armed her 11-year-old daughter with a cell phone in fifth grade when the time came for her to venture out alone. At first, it was a great way to stay in touch.

DAVAO CITY—At least 150,000 people who depend on the tuna industry in General Santos City could end up jobless as a result of a two-year ban on tuna fishing in Western and Central Pacific, a fishing magnate said.

Casual sex, orgies are seen as possible causes of the problem MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine General Hospital on Wednesday said the number of Filipinos infected with HIV rose dramatically in the past 10 months and now includes young urban professionals such as call center agents.

BEIRUT – Abused, humiliated and deprived of the most basic rights, foreign maids in Lebanon are starting to fight back against their employers in court and, in rare cases, they are winning.

Investor confidence in the Philippines has dropped to the second worst among 10 countries in the pan-Asia region based on the latest survey of global financial services giant ING.

The Arroyo government has a penchant of employing senior citizens, or persons way past retirement age, in vital and sensitive offices. One good example is the octogenarian Charito Planas, the head of the moribund Nayong Pilipino and more recently replacement for resigned Presidential Spokesman Lorelei Fajardo, who can hardly walk and has to be aided…

Now that this matter of a proposed temporary marriage contract has somehow subsided in excited contemplation and spirited discussion, it might be but proper and just to look into the matter with more calm and prudence — in the light of on the ground concrete and practical realities.

The Philippine Business for Education’s (PBEd) Education Nation coalition on Wednesday presented a 10-point education reform agenda that the next president should adopt to lift the quality of education in the country.

AMID the skyrocketing sugar prices today, the projected extreme bad weather conditions this year is expected to further take a toll on the country’s declining cane output, Victorias Milling Co. Inc. said.

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) issued a memorandum to all private and public colleges and state universities barring them from implementing a “no permit, no exam policy.”

Manila, Philippines (27 January 2010) — With the end of the official session of the 14th Congress on February 5, 2010 fast approaching, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the Associated Labor Unions (ALU) and the Building and Woodworkers International (BWI) launched an email campaign urging the Senate to pass Senate Bill 741…

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday the global economy is rebounding better than anticipated after two years of crisis but warned the recovery remains fragile and fraught with risks.

GOODBYE, STICKERS: The stickers blocking the view of windshields of motor vehicles will be scraped off when all conveyances are finally equipped with a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag by November.

MANILA, Philippines – More than half of the country’s annual expenditures for health products ranging from P100 billion to P150 billion are unnecessary because they hardly provide any therapeutic effect, former health secretary Alberto Romualdez said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Employment prospects appeared bleak for graduating college students and other young workers.

The 2010 Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report, the annual EFA rating of each UNESCO Member State conducted by an independent team of UNESCO experts, stated that the Philippines trails the Republic of Tanzania and Zambia in education.

The Philippine Government Service Investment System (GSIS), a state-managed pension fund for government employees, has failed to reveal the extent of losses incurred by its Global Investment Program (GIP) in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, according to a top union official in the Philippines. Instead, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) Secretary-General…

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the biggest labor center in the country calls on presidential candidates and political parties to come-up with a clear agenda to resolve the increasing numbers of unemployed workers in the Philippines. To date, there are 2.8 million unemployed Filipinos according to the latest NSO data.

CONGRESS on Monday approved the rules for granting full tax exemptions to cooperatives to allow them to serve their members and customers better and make more money, an official said.

MANILA, Philippines—The number of jobless worldwide reached nearly 212 million in 2009 following an unprecedented increase of 34 million compared to 2007, on the eve of the global crisis, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said in its annual Global Employment Trends report.