Monthly Archives: February 2010

Taiwanese electronics and information technology (IT) firms are looking at the possibility of directly investing in the country or partnering with local firms, the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) said on Thursday.

Dear PAO, This is in connection with the suspension of pension payments once a person reenters employment, does this also apply if the pensioner gets a part time employment or does it only apply to full time employment? PQ

With only four months to go before the automated polls—a first in Philippine election history—about seven out of 10, or 71 percent of Filipinos do not know the new polling system or know little of it.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) announced Thursday it has developed a master plan for helping farmers counter the negative effects of dry spell brought on by El Niño on their crops.

The Philippines’ existing stimulus package failed to further reduce poverty and boost economic growth in the short term, affecting the government’s capacity to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015, according to a joint report by the United Nations and Asian Development Bank (ADB).

A prolonged dry spell is expected to further worsen the already critical power supply in southern Mindanao, a power firm executive said on Wednesday.

In 2005, the UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura then provided an overview of what has been achieved between 1999 and 2005 when director of nations have closed rank with him in tackling regional problems specially in the eradication of extreme poverty in developing countries with the Education For All (EFA) projects. Focused on the six…

When it comes to employee termination cases, the employer bears the burden of proving that the dismissal is for a just and valid cause; and in case of doubts in the evidence presented by the employer and the employee, the doubts are resolved in favor of the employee. The immediate subsequent action of the employee…

MANILA, Philippines – Barely three months before the May elections, about one out of every two Filipinos thinks the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is prepared to effectively implement the automated election system (AES) despite setbacks, a recent Pulse Asia survey revealed.

MANILA, Philippines – A chemical leak on a barge undergoing repairs killed three workers and prompted authorities to close schools and move to safety nearly 2,000 residents in Bauan, Batangas Tuesday night, authorities said.

Quebec has some nerve to come after the Alberta oilsands industry. Its latest high-profile salvo came after the Copenhagen climate conference in December, when Premier Jean Charest singled out Alberta for causing Canada to adopt what he considered weak targets for reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.

Asbestos is a silicate mineral that has proved very effective in a variety of industries, before the people the dangers that had implemented involved with their use. Before it came under strict conditions, asbestos has been an integral part of the construction industry, including the many different trades involved in the construction process.

At a recent forum organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, the people who want to lead this country into the future took turns lambasting the Department of Health for distributing condoms in line with its HIV/AIDS prevention program last Valentines Day at the Dangwa terminal, Metro Manila’s main flower market.

The bill that launched a hundred protest rallies by thousands of Filipino elderly as President Arroyo took her sweet time enacting it was finally signed into law yesterday by her.

Malacañang yesterday appealed to the country’s elderly to be patient and wait for the Expanded Senior Citizens bill to reach the desk of President Arroyo. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Malacañang has not yet received the bill. How can you act on something that’s not even in our possession yet, Ermita said.

Poverty reduction The government’s Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan (KALAHI) programs, aimed at reducing poverty in the country, has reached 12,826 KALAHI barangays and in turn, helped reduce insurgent recruitment. These programs, which improved the quality of lives of the people and developed public confidence in government, include construction of water systems, farm-to-market roads, day…

MANILA, Philippines – The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the business information arm of The Economist Group, has declared the Philippines as the best in the world in terms of its microfinance environment.

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan , Philippines  – Provincial board members voted 7-1-2 during their plenary session Monday afternoon to adopt a resolution on the construction of nuclear power plants from South Korea along the province’s coastline.

The Philippines’ bioethanol supply deficit will widen further as the government moves towards full implementation of the Biofuels Act next year, according to the agency tasked with monitoring the sector.

MANILA, Philippines – President Arroyo has signed into law Republic Act 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act, ending weeks of speculation on whether or not she would act on this measure. Deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar, quoting Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, said that the President received the enrolled copy of the bill last Monday…

Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) announced that TMP and Lexus Manila Inc. (LMI) models sold in the Philippines are not affected by the US accelerator-pedal recall.

For the country to catch up with its rich neighbors and for the level of poverty to be reduced, the economy would have to consistently achieve growth of from seven to eight percent a year, World Bank (WB) Philippines country director Bert Hofman said yesterday.

The reported rift between top-ranking leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) has turned for the worse due to their conflicting priorities in the utilization of organizational funds, a ranking official of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said yesterday.

The top World Bank official in the country said yesterday the investment climate under the Arroyo administration remained weak due to poor governance, pervasive corruption, and lack of policy reforms.

Elite conspiracy in Erap ouster confirmed Close to 10 years after the ouster of then sitting President Joseph Estrada through a coup d’etat, which was preceded by the collapse of the Senate impeachment trial deliberately done to trigger street protests, as the then political opposition and the elite civil society walked out of the Senate…

Last year, Professor Solita “Winnie” Monsod came out with a three-part assessment in another broadsheet of how the President did on her original BEAT THE ODDS agenda. Monsod gave the President a dismal grade of 47 out of 100.

MANILA, Philippines – Money sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) hit a new monthly record high of $1.567 billion in December, enabling the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to register a stronger-than-expected growth in remittances for the whole of 2009.

NAMFREL chairman Jose Cuisia Jr. has been on TV lately bemoaning the refusal of the Commission on Elections to continue the accreditation of what started out as a US-funded National Movement for Free Elections as an election watchdog.

In my column last week I discussed property relations between spouses. I was flooded with e-mails relating to the subject. For the benefit of all others who may be similarly situated, I shall  answer two of the more complicated questions here but will also discuss a Supreme Court decision clarifying how the properties between spouses…

OFFICIAL statistics indicate that nearly half (more than 430,000) of the new jobs created in our economy last year were in trade and private household employment. The numbers suggest that a great number of Filipinos turned to informal buying/selling or vending activities and domestic household jobs to cope with the overall economic slowdown.