Monthly Archives: April 2010

THE BEST near-term answer to the current power shortage is for the government to invest less than $1 billion in reviving the “still-brand new” Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, according to outgoing Pangasinan Representative Mark O. Cojuangco.

FORMER labor undersecretary and now Nacionalista Party senatorial candidate Susan “Toots” Ople is pushing for the recall of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Memorandum Circular 268, which allows banks to freely subcontract out in bulk jobs normally performed by their regular employees.

FROM just a handful of lenders and several thousand borrowers in the 1970s, the business of microlending and microfinance has ballooned into a P12-billion industry serving an estimated 7 million poor Filipinos, most of them women.

THE GROWING information technology and business process outsourcing industries have urged the government to stabilize the country’s power situation, stressing that erratic supply will affect the image of the Philippines as a prospective investment site.

MANILA, Philippines – Locally made vehicles continued to lose market share in the first quarter as tariffs on competing Southeast Asian imports were dropped and work on an incentive program for car assemblers stalled.

Are we really simply a bunch of oversensitive humorless bleeding hearts who take offense at the most innocuous comments, or on the contrary, the problem is precisely that we do not assert ourselves enough, that we have gotten used to being ridiculed, embarrassed, humiliated in the global stage that the bullies in this world have…

After some of his listeners had rudely—to my mind— posted in some Web site parallels between Manuel V. Pangilinan’s commencement address and excerpts from the addresses and remarks of some notables, Obama and Oprah, among them, he tendered his resignation as chairman of Ateneo de Manila University’s board of trustees, and returned the honorary doctorate…

EMERGENCY measures invoked by the military and police in the name of national security should not prevent trade unions from exercising legitimate rights and activities, including strikes.

DESPITE improving official export figures, the small and medium enterprise (SME) sub-sector is bucking a plan to cancel the release of money meant to help them tide over the global financial crisis and realign this amount to the government’s El Niño Calamity Fund. The Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) said its Cebu chapter submitted a…

BUSINESSES remain opposed to a wage hike this year, citing a fragile economic recovery, preferring non-wage benefits for workers instead.

MANILA, Philippines—Philippine Airlines (PAL) employees on Monday held a motorcade on Monday in protest at a massive retrenchment to be implemented on May 31.

Early last week, I had the privilege to cover the first of three briefings this year by the joint foreign chambers of commerce in the Philippines on the country’s foreign investment climate.

MALOLOS, Bulacan: Nacionalista Party senatorial candidate Susan “Toots” Ople is pushing for the recall of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Memorandum Circular 268, which allows banks to freely subcontract out in bulk jobs normally performed by their regular employees. Former Labor Undersecretary Ople said that labor unions have been strongly opposed to circular, which has…

MANILA, Philippines – To prevent the company from bleeding further, Philippine Airlines (PAL) will implement the next phase of its restructuring program, starting with the spin-off of three non-core units, effective at the close of business hours on May 31, 2010.

MANILA, Philippines – North Harbor operator Manila North Harbour Port Inc. (MNHPI) has advanced payments of more than P100 million to port and transport workers for their past services as part of its commitment to comply with the terms of its contract with the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA).

Bangko Sentral Officials may want to look into the practice of banks who are either too lazy or intentionally not loading the necessary bills for their cash dispensing machines.

MANILA, Philippines – Fewer students are opting to take up nursing apparently due to the continuing slump in the hiring of health workers in the United States, the country’s largest labor group reported yesterday.

Always beaten in the negotiation game? Here’s a list of must-dos to gain the upper hand in bargaining sessions. You know you’re good. You’ve got skills, the experience and the expertise to do the job well. Despite this, how come you always seem to be on the losing end in salary negotiations?

The Partido ng Manggagawa supports the P75 wage petition filed by the TUCP. Its basis is rock solid. Inflation has truly eroded the purchasing power of workers in the almost two years since the last wage order in June 2008. And price hikes in the coming months should indeed be factored into any computation of…

MANILA, Philippines – A recent survey by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) showed that more Filipinos are at-risk for lifestyle-related diseases.

When people talk about child laborers, they generally refer to juvenile sakada workers, house-help, watch-your-car boys, little sampaguita vendors, port area baggage kids and beggars. Some people in show business, however, hope that child stars and starlets will soon be added to that list.

The third reality of the workplace is that there will be temptations, usually financial or sexual. For example, sales people may be tempted to fudge on their expense account. Or an unscrupulous supplier offers a kickback to a purchasing assistant in exchange for the order. A married employee may be attracted to a co-worker and…

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MANILA, Philippines—A study recently released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) provides an informative and substantially probing picture of how families of overseas Filipino workers spend their remittance money.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

… but hunger incidence still near all-time peak THE NUMBER OF FILIPINO FAMILIES who feel poor has fallen to a level last seen 23 years ago but hunger remains near the record high, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said, tracing the dichotomy to significant belt-tightening.

Regarding our proposal to boycott party-list groups of dubious legitimacy or whose nominees are discredited politicians or scheming operators, we received a plea that Mindanao party-lists be given a fair chance.

MANILA, Philippines—Elections Commissioner Armando Velasco urges Filipinos abroad to vote for the May 10 polls, either by mail, in person or using the pilot automated polls in Hong Kong and Singapore.

New law scraps DST, travel tax, airport fee for migrant workers Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are now exempted from paying documentary stamp tax (DST) on their remittances as well as travel tax and airport fee.

(This is the conclusion of  the columnist’s discussion of this subject, which started last Friday.)