Monthly Archives: May 2010

THE PHILIPPINES could become Southeast Asia’s hub for automotive part manufacturing under the new Motor Vehicle Development Program recently laid down by Executive Order 877, a group of car and parts manufacturers yesterday said.

Cebu City – A Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) Region 7 official admitted the agency can only conduct at least one routine inspection of firms a year in the region to see if such firms are complying with labor regulations. This is far from ideal, according to DoLE 7 Regional Director Elias Cayanong, but…

SALES IN THE COUNTRY of personal computers are projected to hit $3.9 billion by 2014 from $2.4 billion this year, driven by rising incomes, continued strength of business process outsourcing (BPO), state programs to computerize public services and schools, as well as resumption of system upgrades firms had put off amid the economic slump.

Introspective — By Romeo L. Bernardo Economic issues for next president Conclusion The author moderated the discussion by a panel of economists in the 9th Ayala Corporation-UP School of Economics Lecture Series last April 14. The panel was composed of former Economic Planning Secretary Philip Medalla, former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, former Agriculture UndersecretaryArsi Balisacan,…

RP aims to be removed from US piracy watch list by next year … But setting up special courts to handle infringement cases may take some time THE PHILIPPINES is batting to be removed from the United States’ annual watch list of countries notorious for copyright piracy by 2011 after it figured once again in…

Is there a global standard for gender equality? Could we use such a standard to hold companies accountable for their progress toward providing men and women with equal opportunities?

THE Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has called on government to impose stricter measures on private employers who disregard the safety and health of workers, after the tally of accidents in 22 worksites totaled 51 deaths and eight injuries since January this year.

An Aquino presidency will be open to “the idea of nuclear power in general” but may not necessarily buy the notion of reviving the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) that his mother mothballed in 1986 because of still-unresolved issues, Liberal Party (LP)standard-bearer Sen. Benigno Aquino III said yesterday.

CEBU, Philippines – The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines is urging companies to be proactive in protecting their workers by complying strictly with safety and health standards to avoid accidents and deaths.

Without demeaning Filipino labor, its strength and voice through the years has increasingly been diminished and silenced. This year, sans the din of election campaigning, we note that there are fewer workers who would march the streets or lay their lives for the cause.

MANILA, Philippines – The Social Security System (SSS), the state-owned pension fund for private employees, said it has collected a total of P127.74 million in overdue contributions from delinquent employers.

MANILA, Philippines – State-run firms remitted P316 million in dividends to the National Government in the first quarter of the year, more than double the amount remitted in the same period last year.

After contracting 4.5 percent, the operating income of local banks and financial institutions grew 7.1 percent last year to P315.7 billion, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data released recently showed.

The country’s chronic reliance on remittances from Filipinos working overseas or the so-called overseas Filipino workers (OFW) resulted in the Philippines slipping eight notches in the ranking of countries based on growth opportunities.

Today is a non-working holiday by virtue of Proclamation 2043 issued on April 28. Like many other people with five-day workweeks from Monday to Friday, I personally benefited from the non-working holiday proclamation. An extra day off is always welcome particularly at this time when the heat is more oppressive than usual and given the…

OUSTED President Joseph Estrada overtook Senator Manuel Villar Jr. for second place in the presidential race, while frontrunner Benigno Aquino III maintained his lead, the latest Manila Standard survey showed.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Energy (DOE) has finalized the 2009-2030 Philippine Energy Plan (PEP), a blueprint of the energy development undertaking of the country over the next two decades.

DESPITE high-profile raids and publicity stints, the Philippines has fallen short of addressing violations of intellectual property rights (IPR) in the country, according to the US government. In its Special 301 Report released April 30, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) retained the Philippines on its Watch List, citing Manila’s “ineffective enforcement of…

SENATOR Manuel Roxas II maintained his lead in the vice presidential race while Senator Loren Legarda continued to lose ground to Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, the latest Manila Standard survey showed.

THE Labor Department on Friday ordered Philippine Airlines’ management to recall all the notice of terminations  it issued to an estimated 3,500 workers last week, and following a mediation hearing presided by Undersecretary for Labor Relations Rosalinda Baldoz.

Instead of a wage increase, a package of jobs and livelihood is what President Arroyo will unwrap today as the nation marks Labor Day.

On the occasion of Labor Day, Makabayan senatorial bet and Nacionalista Party guest candidate Satur Ocampo yesterday said that the next presidency should strive hard to make up for the serious neglect workers suffered under the Macapagal-Arroyo administration. He said that next presidency’s top priorities should include higher wages and benefits for laborers.

Trumpets ‘achievements’ for the sector in final Labor Day speech Painting herself as a champion of laborers while trying to appease the workers’ displeasure over her administration’s anti-labor policies, President Arroyo, in her last Labor Day speech yesterday, enumerated to various labor groups and workers in attendance at the event her “achievements” for the benefit…

Dear Fellow Communicators, As an observer of language, I came across a very instructive case study recently of how a revealing, off-the-cuff press statement of a presidential candidate, Sen. Benigno Aquino III, was fudged in translation and in paraphrase by certain media outlets that reported it. The concern of Jose Carillo’s English Forum being primarily…

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Saturday directed Labor Secretary Marianito Roque to speed up the ongoing tripartite negotiations on wage hikes as well as to immediately address the pending labor cases before the National Labor Relations Commission.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

This is to inform the general public that the Mining in Cantilan article that came out on April 11, 2010 was prepared with the intention of documenting the then ongoing protest action in Cantilan, Surigao del Sur led by Mayor Tomasa Guardo. The protest action which was participated in by local community members opposed mining…

BETS ALL SEE OVERSEAS CONTRACT WORK AS MERE STOP-GAP MEASURE HOW do the presidential candidates propose to deal with Philippine poverty? We ask the eight leading contenders for the presidency of the Philippines to give us a brief, 500-word reply to this and related questions about jobs and job-creating investments. We provided a brief background…

ON Labor Day and a few days before Filipinos troop to the polls, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) challenged all presidential candidates to bare their plans to create badly needed new jobs and arrest mounting unemployment.

MANILA, Philippines – The Climate Change Commission (CCC) yesterday urged young Filipinos to actively involve themselves in the global fight against climate change. In the Philippines, the CCC identifies the youth as one of the sectors vulnerable to climate change since they will be the future inhabitants of the planet.