Monthly Archives: May 2010

MANILA, Philippines – Europe’s debt crisis would not pose a large risk to emerging markets in Asia, including the Philippines, that have broadened beyond export-led growth and towards domestic demand, economists from leading investment banks said.

MANILA, Philippines – The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), are facing a split as a result of the recently-concluded national and local polls.

MANILA, Philippines – Environmental group EcoWaste Coalition yesterday asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct more stringent tests on skin whitening products for traces of mercury.     In a letter to FDA director Nazarita Tacandong, EcoWaste asked the agency to organize random market inspections to detect and eliminate other toxic chemicals such as lead,…

MANILA, Philippines – The United Nations (UN) named yesterday three active insurgent groups in the Philippines as persistent users of child soldiers in armed conflicts and expressed serious concern about national armed forces using children for military intelligence and interrogation purposes.

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino sailors on foreign ocean-going vessels wired home a total of $888.949 million in the first quarter, up 11.04 percent or $88.414 million from the $800.535 million they remitted over the same three-month period in 2009, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) reported Sunday.

MANILA, Philippines – Money sent home by Filipino seamen in the first quarter grew by 11% from a year ago to $888.95 million, but a prolonged economic crisis in Europe could hurt future remittances, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said on Sunday.

Knowing the Philippines well, I’d say Senator Benigno Aquino III faces an impossible task. He based his campaign on a moral revolution, a return to honesty and decency in government. The people voted for him because they wanted it too. The sympathy they felt for his mother that they transferred to him only added to…

ABOUT 399 colleges and universities have raised matriculation fees for this year, with some going as high as 13 percent for school year 2010 to 2011, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said Friday.

President Gloria Arroyo has approved this year’s Investment Priority Plan, which lists the industries that are entitled to fiscal incentives, taking into account the residual effect of the global meltdown in 2009.

MANILA, Philippines – Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said yesterday the impact of the European debt crisis on the Philippines would be nil to minimal if the troubles are confined to Greece and do not spread to other parts of Europe and the world.

GENEVA — A major international study into the link between cellphone use and two types of brain cancer has proved inconclusive, according to a report in a medical journal.

MANILA, Philippines –  News reports say the PPCRV has received 70,255 and encoded 43,035 election returns (ERs). Out of these, they found 29 discrepancies, or an average of one in 1,484 ERs (.07% error rate). PPCRV chair Henrietta de Villa was quoted saying, “We can say that the election is clean because the discrepancy is…

SIGNS OF FRAUD FLOOD HOUSE HEARING Automated polls machine supplier Smartmatic admitted yesterday unforeseen errors in the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines on the day of the elections last May 10 primarily on the time stamps on election returns (ERs) that set off sparks flying at yesterday’s House hearing on the reported widespread electronic…

TOKYO — The developed world is suffering from a “debt curse,” with the worst case — Japan — expected to take up to 2084 to bring its public debt down to an acceptable level, a study said on Wednesday.

Europe’s recent travails have been of keen interest to us in Asia, especially as they triggered talk of a recurrence of the financial meltdown of 2008. So it was with both eagerness and curiosity that I agreed to take part last May 13 in a panel discussion on the subject of “Asian Expectations of Europe’s…

Bank borrowers enjoy lower loan rates Pilipinas (BSP) continued to disengage from crisis intervention measures as economic conditions steadily show signs of improvement and as financial markets remain stable.

Time was when only the press, rather a wee sector of it, reported the jockeying for positions in new administrations. Today, judging from wildly spreading texts, just about everybody knows, or thinks so, what’s going on. Latest SMS are about what Cabinet posts are being bagged by which faction in the incoming Noynoy Aquino government.…

There is no doubt that the PPCRV did a wonderful job as the citizens’ watchdog in the last elections. The dedication and vigilance of its volunteers and members are truly remarkable. Were it not for the PPCRV and various other church and school groups, NGOs and the Filipino people as a whole, the historic first…

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) yesterday reported that there are more job vacancies now but fewer jobseekers.

MANILA, Philippines – Businessmen continue to maintain a bullish outlook on the domestic economy due to higher spending brought about by the recently concluded May 10 elections, strong recovery in export earnings, moderate inflation, steady growth of overseas Filipino workers, and stable exchange rate.

MANILA, Philippines – Despite increased public awareness of laws protecting women’s rights, 30 Filipino women continue to suffer from domestic violence everyday, a non-government organization said yesterday.

A clamor is growing in the business sector primarily among small entrepreneurs for the next government to review the open trade policy adopted under President Gloria Arroyo, including free trade agreements signed under her administration that would result in marginalizing local industries.

ABOUT 1.5 million government employees are assured of continued wage increases in the succeeding three years, even as President Gloria Arroyo ends her term in Malacañang on June 30.

An official of the administration party on Wednesday admitted that having a political party machinery was “no longer an advantage” as shown by results of the May 10 fully automated elections, the first in the Philippines and Asia.

MANILA, Philippines – The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) disclosed yesterday that the Philippine software industry lost $217 million last year due to software piracy.

TEKA MUNA!: Social Security System president Romulo Neri is offering to the Commission on Elections the multipurpose ID cards that SSS has been sharing with three other agencies as voters’ identification cards.

MANILA, Philippines – Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Sen. Francis Escudero hold different views on the proposal of Social Security System (SSS) chairman Romulo Neri to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to use the unified multi-purpose identification cards as voter’s IDs.

MANILA, Philippines – The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) ended its count yesterday, and concluded that although there were discrepancies in the election returns (ERs) that the group tallied, no systematic fraud occurred.

MANILA, Philippines – Nearly half of Filipinos expect their lives to get better in the next 12 months, the latest survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

MANILA, Philippines—As tales of fraud multiply, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) Wednesday reiterated that the nation’s first automated elections on May 10 were credible, saying that it found only minute discrepancies in its validation of election results.