Monthly Archives: May 2010

MANILA, Philippines – Nine of the country’s strongest brands received the prestigious Superbrands status during the 2nd Superbrands Certificate Cocktail Presentation for Volume VI held last March at Zuni’s Restaurant in Greenbelt V, Makati.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday proclaimed the 28 winning party-list organizations in the 2010 automated polls. Comelec chairman Jose Melo, reading an en banc resolution, announced on Monday afternoon that the following party-list organizations will be awarded seats in the 15th House of Representatives:

Saying it is almost a month since Labor Day, a moderate labor group questioned Malacañang Monday over the delay in granting a wage hike for laborers in Metro Manila.

MANILA, Philippines—The New People’s Army (NPA) does not recruit child warriors or brutalize children caught up in its struggle with government forces, a leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) on self-exile in the Netherlands said yesterday.

REDISTRIBUTING property rights through agrarian reform is a key policy direction that should be taken by the new administration of President-apparent Benigno Aquino III to help the country adapt to climate change, experts on land and asset reform said at a recent conference.

MORONG, Bataan—The incoming administration of President-apparent Benigno Aquino III should seriously consider the use of nuclear energy, including the opening of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), nuclear power experts said at the weekend. They also think the government should make available the needed power supply amid the increasing energy shortage that has been causing…

The Philippines saved the landmark nuclear review conference from collapse by putting forward a last-minute compromise formula after countries failed to reach an agreement on a number of issues in four weeks of intense, and sometimes heated negotiations in the United Nations.

The new president’s incoming administration must enact policies to enable the Philippines to have a knowledge-based economy, a step ahead from the service-based economy it is now developing into, according to XMG Global, a Canadian think-tank with an Asia Pacific office in Makati City. The new administration must also craft policies to strengthen the foundations…

The country’s economic expansion during the first quarter—the highest in 30 years—is unsustainable because it depended solely on election spending, a former Cabinet secretary said. Benjamin Diokno, the former Budget secretary during the Estrada administration, said the better-than-expected growth the Philippines experienced during the first three months was not sustainable because it was mainly driven…

Domestic work employs millions of workers, mostly women, around the world. The June 2010 session of the International Labour Conference will hold a first discussion on a new international labour standard for a domestic workforce that is growing worldwide. ILO Online spoke with Manuela Tomei, Director of the ILO’s Conditions of Work and Employment Programme,…

Even as the dusts of the last electoral battle have not yet fully settled down, the advocates of the RH bill are already making lots of noises. They are beating their breasts and bragging that most of the politicians who are staunch supporters of the bill were reelected thereby showing that the Church campaign against…

MANILA, Philippines – Workers in Metro Manila are likely to get the much-awaited increase in their daily take-home pay within the week.

The Anti-Violence Act Against Women and their Children Republic Act 9262, or the Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children, defines abuse against women as the following: 1. Physical violence refers to bodily harm.

Speak Out Against Domestic Violence Depression, anxiety, isolation, bruises, broken bones and even death. No one should ever have to endure the brutality of domestic violence but it happens and sadly more frequently. Everyday there are 29 women who become victims and so many more are unaccounted for. Breaking the cycle of violence is possible…

Dr. Giovanni Tapang, chairman of the well-respected organization AGHAM, the Samahan ng Nagtataguyod ng Agham at Teknolohiya para sa Sambayanan, which was founded in 1999, wrote extensively in his The Manila Times column the serious vulnerabilities of the Commission on Elections-Smartmatic Automated Election System. Below is his assessment of how the AES fared.

Chairman Jose Melo of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and his fellow commissioners are satisfied that the first Automated Election System (AES) experience of the Philippines has been a success—they are now deciding whether top purchase the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines or just lease them from Smartmatic- Total Information Management (TIM) in the…

The consensus among Filipinos seems to be that the recent automated and electronic counting and canvassing and transmission of results of our May 10 national and local elections were a good step toward the right direction. Though E-voting (electronic voting) is relatively new to the Philippines, it has been around since the 80s.

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec), Malacañang Palace and the leaders of both houses of Congress are all agreed—as most of the Filipino people seem to—that the May 10 elections were a success. They have declared that the first Automated Election System (AES) experience of the Filipinos resulted in credible elections. And Comelec is now deciding…

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Agriculture is setting up 84 units of automatic weather stations (AWS) and upgrading its 10 agro-meteorological (agromet) sites nationwide as part of the government’s sustained initiatives for the agriculture and fisheries sector to better adapt to climate change.

MANILA, Philippines – Over 200 environment officials and experts from Asia and Europe have cited the reforestation program of the Philippines, tagging it as one of the “low carbon pioneers” in the world in efforts to confront the challenges of climate change.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Bamboo Industry Development Council (PBIDC) has been created by Executive Order No. 879 to help strengthen the bamboo industry in the country.

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines –  Environmental activists expressed alarm over the series of killings of known anti-mining crusaders in Cagayan, the latest of which took place on the eve of the election against a local leader of the Alyansa Tigil Muna.

MANILA, Philippines – Four laborers working on a 27-floor condominium project’s elevator system were killed while another worker was severely injured after falling several floors below at the height of the heavy downpour on Friday night in Quezon City.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines is one of the countries in Asia where HIV/AIDS cases are increasing at an alarming rate, an official of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday night.

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SAYS JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER MANILA, Philippines—Japan should “open up” to the world once more, including to more non-Japanese nurses, Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said in a speech during the Sixteenth International Conference on the Future of Asia hosted by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun on May 20.

Further adjustments likely following surprising Q1 GDP result EXPORT GROWTH TARGETS have been revised upwards on the back of strong orders and could be hiked further following the economy’s better-than-expected performance in the first quarter.

THE PHILIPPINES is backing an updated Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) work program aimed at increasing competitiveness, with the country wanting to increase deployment of skilled workers.

THE FINANCE department has drawn up a “wish list” for the incoming administration in the hope that fiscal consolidation will continue to be pursued. The items form part of a transition report submitted last May 21 to Malacañang for forwarding to the next Palace occupant.

AS in past election years, the Philippine economy surged in the first quarter of this year with a 7.3-percent growth, driven by the massive spending that accompanies every election, whether from government or otherwise. Also a factor but to a lesser extent has been the general recovery in rich economies from the global financial crisis,…