Monthly Archives: February 2010

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will intensify its campaign against HIV/AIDS in workplaces amid rising cases of the fatal disease in the past few years.

LABOR CHIEF REITERATES MANILA, Philippines—HIV testing cannot be a requirement for employment, Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said in a statement e-mailed to media outfits.

MANILA, Philippines—There is no need to ban the deployment of Filipino seafarers to foreign-flagged ships passing by the pirate-infested waters of Somalia because effective interventions are in place, the labor department said in a statement e-mailed to media outfits.

Worldwide PC shipments surpassed 90 million units in the fourth quarter of 2009, a 22.1 percent increase from Q4-08, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. It was the strongest quarter over quarter growth rate the worldwide PC market experienced in the last seven years. It should be noted that these numbers are compared to…

Monthly inflation rate is expected to reach 5 percent in the second and third quarters of 2010, but still within the full-year target range of 3.5 percent to 5.5 percent, the Bangko Sentral said Friday.

THE Philippines launched a European-funded program Thursday to reduce the country’s large number of summary killings and disappearances of activists, journalists and union workers.

Under a new and more stringent Syrian labor regulation, foreign workers, including Filipinos, will only be allowed to work in Syria for a maximum of three years .

I met Dr. Ola Madsen many years ago when this huge and muscular motivational speaker came to the Philippines, and I was given the privilege to share the same speaker’s platform with him. This Swedish man is very committed to his faith. He sent me an email which I share with you now. Dr. Ola…

(First of 3 parts) MANILA, Philippines – After 41 years of fighting the government, the CPP/NPA/NDF (CNN) miserably failed to achieve its strategic goal of seizing political power. Inarguably, the future seems bleak for the movement, as its military capability and people’s support to its cause continue to decrease consistently each year. Today, it has…

There is this unfolding drama in Europe that will be instructive for us. Four member-countries of the European Union are in some degree of fiscal trouble. The four countries are: Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain. In the memos doing the rounds in financial circles, the four countries are collectively referred to by the acronym PIGS.

MANILA, Philippines – Government health authorities will distribute free condoms today to customers of flower shops in Manila’s Dangwa Flower Market, reversing a nine-year-old policy against the promotion of artificial birth control.

Manila (12 February) — A high level delegation of six officials and experts of Japan International Labor Foundation (JILAF) headed by its President and former JTUC-RENGO (largest trade union organization in Japan) President, Mr. Tsuyoshi Takagi, will arrive in the Philippines on February 16 to observe and participate in Trade Union Congress of the Philippines’…

In my recent columns, I started my denouement of the fictitious achievements of the Arroyo administration. Just after that, Newsweek, a highly reputed international magazine read by millions had a full page on “Asia’s laggard.” That laggard is the Philippines.

Asbestos is back in the news as efforts are made by a United Nations agency to add the chrysotile variety of asbestos to the world’s list of most hazardous substances.

“Ban Asbestos Now,” a campaign to build awareness of the continued use of asbestos in the United States, today launched the Ban Asbestos Now Video Search, asking students across the United States to use their creativity to draw national attention to the toxic, and often deadly, substance considered “the largest manmade public health crisis in…

CEBU, Philippines – The Visayan Association of Ferryboat and Coastwise Service Operators is supporting the planned nationwide strike by all shipping owners in protest of the several memorandum circulars issued by the Maritime Industry Authority.

BAGUIO CITY – The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PHIC-CAR) achieved universal coverage of membership in Cordillera in 2009, according to PHIC Media Relations Officer Maggie Del Rosario during an interview Tuesday.

MANILA, Philippines – Television network GMA 7 yesterday took the initiative to call on its talents and showbiz personalities to take a leave of absence if they continue to endorse candidates or political parties during the campaign period.

MANILA, Philippines – The newly formed Climate Change Commission is proposing a P2-billion budget this year, the same amount originally allocated to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for reforestation.

The management of the South Korean firm Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Philippines Inc. assured President Gloria Arroyo on Thursday that Filipino workers in its shipyard in Subic Bay Freeport are safe.

I decided to attend at least one forum of presidential candidates, the one at the University of the Philippines last Monday. Getting through the UP campus traffic regulations which nevertheless did not prevent chaos was the first challenge. I ended up cluelessly going through the candidates’ entrance which was clogged from the outside by supporters.…

Rising prices of sugar and tilapia could worsen the hunger incidence in the country, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said on Thursday.

Power supply in Mindanao, Visayas critical A lack of power supply hovers above the whole of the country’s main island of Luzon because of power-plant outages blamed on maintenance shutdown, technical problems and low water levels from the El Niño phenomenon.

Total investments in the country decreased 32.04 percent last year as businesses reeled from the impact of the global financial crisis, the Trade Department said yesterday.

The Confederation of Government Employees Organization Inc. (Cogeo ), a group of current and retired government employees, chided the Supreme Court (SC) yesterday for its decision to uphold an earlier lower court order on state pension fund Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) for the garnishment of P400 million — which could eventually balloon up to…

Someday, when it finally becomes possible to amend the 1987 Constitution without the narrow considerations of personal and partisan interest, like term extensions, perhaps the people who get to do the amending will take a long, hard look at the party-list system. Far from being a means of guaranteeing “proportional representation” to marginalized sectors in…

Almost seven out of 10 Filipinos are unaware of the party-list system for Congress, results of a recent Pulse Asia survey showed.

Baguio City (6 February) — The Department of Social Welfare and Development will intensify its anti-hunger mitigation programs for this year to address the rising hunger incidence attributed to the typhoons that devastated the country late last year.

PHILIPPINE exports in December rose at its fastest pace in nearly four years, but the full-year figure was the worst contraction on record.

AT least 12 million indigenous people in the Philippines continue to suffer from poverty and human rights abuses, a United Nations State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples report said.