Monthly Archives: March 2010

MANILA, Philippines – The economic crisis affecting the country is almost over, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported yesterday.

Last February 16, we held a conference on barriers to investment. It was a working conference that brought in a variety of groups that are involved in one way or another with wanting much greater levels of investment in the Philippines. It was to discuss a working paper we have done and have now finalized…

MANILA, Philippines – Japanese electronic firm Nidec Corp. is set to implement a $300 million (P13 billion) expansion program in the Philippines which is expected to create an additional 10,000 direct jobs, officials said yesterday.

THE PHILIPPINES MAY GET AS much as $2.5 billion in financial assistance from various institutions worldwide to fund environmental projects and programs.

MANILA, Philippines—Forget about the rich. This was Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral’s succinct advice to the Philippines’ next president insofar as health care was concerned.

The Philippines is forecast to grow at 3.5 percent this year, owing to a stronger outlook for the world economy, rising deployment of overseas workers that will boost remittances, recovery in private consumption and robust public spending, according to the World Bank’s latest issue of the Philippines Quarterly Update (PQU).

MANILA, Philippines—Where did the money come from? A party-list group claiming to represent poor children has been able to afford television ad placements costing about P24 million with the country’s biggest network, according to an election consortium monitoring campaign spending.

The country’s travel aviation industry may be in danger of losing important routes if it ends up on the blacklist of the European Community Air Safety Commission (EC-ASC), according to the head of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).

The Department of Education (DepEd), following the lead of Early Childhood Care and Development Council (ECCDC), has launched a summer program in schools nationwide for children aiming to enter pre-school and elementary this year.

MANILA, Philippines – She has poor eyesight and difficulty reading, but 80-year-old Rosalinda Meneses made sure she was able to fill up her ballot completely.

Social conflicts related to race, color, sex and religions often result in historical atrocities around the world, said the permanent representative of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the United Nations.

A high-ranking United Nations (UN) official has called for the implementation of the 1996 Tripoli Agreement between the Philippine government and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MNLF), and a possible consolidation of the two-decade old pact with future peace agreements that will be entered into by Manila.

MANILA, Philippines – Five construction workers were buried alive after the land they were digging collapsed on them in a construction site in a Cagayan de Oro City subdivision yesterday, authorities said.

MANILA, Philippines – The government faces a major setback in its efforts to privatize Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC)-Exploration Corp. after the board of the state-owned corporation failed to decide on the Department of Finance’s plan to sell the 10 percent participating interest of PNOC-EC in the Malampaya natural gas project.

MANILA, Philippines – A 28-year-old welder died after he was reportedly electrocuted while doing repairs on a ship docked at the North Harbor in Manila Tuesday afternoon.

Rising poverty, driven by population growth and other issues, leads to increasing hunger and subsequently rising diseases (and death) caused by malnutrition, unsanitary living conditions and limited access to drugs and medical care. The ones that suffer the most from poor diet and nutrition are children, especially street children.

MANILA, Philippines – Oil firms have raised the prices of all their petroleum products by 50 centavos per liter late Tuesday, giving consumers no time to refuel before implementing the price adjustments.

ANILA, Philippines – President Arroyo has signed into law a bill that reduces taxes on life insurance from five percent to two percent and provides staggered rates for documentary stamp tax.

MANILA, Philippines – Public school teachers will get free legal assistance from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) if they face lawsuits while on poll duty on May 10.

MANILA, Philippines – The Liberal Party (LP) said yesterday its standard-bearer, Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and his running mate, Sen. Manuel Roxas II were the most trusted by Filipino voters among public figures and among all candidates running in the presidential and vice-presidential elections on May 10, according to a Pulse Asia survey.

A number of overseas Filipino workers’ (OFW) groups urged President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo last week to veto amendments to the migrant workers’ law, which they said are anti-OFW particularly the provision on mandatory insurance.

A Filipino family that has been staying in Ireland for eight years is now facing possible deportation by Irish authorities due to the father’s participation in a recent workers’ action in a food factory at County Kildare, Ireland.

MANILA, Philippines—About 17.3 million Filipinos aged 15 years old and above are tobacco smokers with at least 13.8 million smoking daily, the Philippine Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) showed.

THE central bank is warning people against using their credit cards to withdraw cash because of the high interest rate their issuers charge on it.

The ruling party’s standard-bearer Gilberto Teodoro Jr. on Tuesday became the first among presidential candidates to come up strongly in favor of the reproductive health issue.

MANILA, Philippines—Here’s the good news: the number of jobless Filipinos went down partly due to election-related activities. The bad news is that the underemployment rate went up, data from the January 2010 Labor Force Survey showed.

Agency urges enactment of energy conservation law MANILA, Philippines–The Energy Regulatory Commission has agreed to implement a so-called interruptible load program as a stop-gap measure to alleviate the current power crisis in Visayas and Mindanao.

DESPITE the series of crises that recently hit the country, the government reported on Tuesday that the number of jobless Filipinos slightly dropped as of January this year.

MANILA, Philippines – Breast feeding advocates have tied up with a high-IQ organization to debunk the claims of infant formula makers whose advertisements claim that their products increase a child’s intelligence.

MANILA, Philippines – The National Power Corp. (Napocor) board has decided to put in the back burner discussions on the development of nuclear energy.