Monthly Archives: July 2010

NOW that President Benigno C. Aquino is settled in Malacañang the attention of his bosses (The People) is shifting to Congress. The Senate leadership remains a tight battle as this piece is being written. But the speakership of the House of Representatives is virtually conceded to Rep. Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte, not only because former President…

WASHINGTON: The US economy will lose steam as the year progresses but will not slide back into recession, even though unemployment is unlikely to fall significantly, according to a survey released on Saturday.

CONCERNED that a disaster similar to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill could hit the Philippines, government and private sector executives have begun the process of tightening safety and contingency measures in the petroleum industry. Ramon Oca, Energy secretary, said in a recent forum organized for this purpose that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill highlighted…

MANILA, Philippines – Identifying industries with the biggest potential and investing heavily in them may hold the key to robust job generation, according to newly appointed Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory Domingo.

MANILA, Philippines – Labor leaders asked President Aquino yesterday to junk the contractual system in the labor industry, saying that this is against his 22-point platform and policy for labor.

FAIRFAX, Virginia – The Maryland Department of Labor reversed an order that withheld unemployment benefits from one of three Filipina nurses who were fired from a Baltimore hospital for speaking Tagalog.

Business leaders yesterday called for a productivity-based wage increase. “We should correct the system on salary increase. And this should only be based on productivity and capability,” said Eric Ng, president of the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI).

MANILA, Philippines – Six people were hurt in a predawn blast that shattered a 5-story building inside a paper mill compound in Malabon City, Saturday.

MANILA, Philippines – An estimated 187,000 Filipino nurses are unemployed. The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) says these nurses are competing for some 70,000 nursing positions in private and public hospitals. But as if that were not enough, the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) admits the problem of unemployment in the nursing profession may just have gotten…

Dear PAO, I resigned as a regular employee in April 2010. I already made the necessary turnover of company properties before my last day of work. I have left no debt or liability with the company. Since my resignation, I have not received my last pay although the company has already issued the necessary clearance.…

MANILA, Philippines – A World Bank study has cited the Philippines for imposing one of the strictest regulations regarding foreign ownership of businesses in the country.

MANILA, Philippines – The Alliance of Vehicle Importers and Distributors (AVID) is asking President Aquino to recall one of last Executive Orders signed by former President Arroyo because the Comprehensive Motor Vehicle Development Plan (CMVDP) was allegedly done in haste.

Japanese ship owners will continue to provide assistance and training to Filipino seafarers, the head of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said Friday, adding that the welfare of the country’s sea workers is one of the labor policies of President Benigno Aquino 3rd. In a statement, newly appoin-ted Labor Secretary Rosa-linda Baldoz said…

For the first time, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on Friday cited two officers of the Philippine Navy in contempt and imposed a P3,000 fine on each of them for their failure to attend several public inquiries of the commission into the forced disappearance of Muhamadiya Hamja. The Navy officers who were fined, the…

NUMBERS—people, cases, funds—are a messy, maddening mix in the courts. The numbers defy all myth and romance about the majesty and dread that literature ascribes to the men and women in robes, and indications are they pose a perpetual challenge for the administrators of the country’s judicial system. Indeed, attempts of the judiciary to keep…

THE DEPARTMENT of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is urging job-seekers to enroll in vocational courses to improve their chances of finding employment.

I went to a client’s office the other day and while waiting at the reception, I saw a big computer print out sign at the lobby—Happy birthday, Sonya! I asked the receptionist who Sonya was and he said that she is just one of the employees there.

LEGAZPI CITY: The Commission on Election (Comelec) finally junked the petition filed by the militant organizations in Bicol led by Bayan Muna against the Ako Bicol (AKB), a homegrown regional political party in the province. In a 15-page decision written by Nicodemo Ferrer, the poll body dismissed the petition for disqualification filed by Bayan Muna…

In letters to the Supreme Court justices, the PCIJ said that because of the court’s policy against disclosure of statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN), the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) decided to do its own research into their business interests and financial connections of the justices by mining various public records.

VEHICLE SALES IN THE FIRST HALF SURGED BY 37.1 percent to 82,147 units, from 59,909 units in the same period last year, reflecting increased consumer confidence and a better economic outlook for the rest of the year.

TACLOBAN CITY—The International Labor Organization (ILO) is taking a close look at the plight of thousands of working children in four provinces in a continuing program to end child labor in the Philippines.

Call CenterLAST week, news came out of an anti-outsourcing bill proposed by Sen. Charles Schumer. The bill, pending approval of the US legislative body, suggests to have US-based companies be charged with a 25-cent tax for every call made to a call center based outside the US. The main goals of this bill are to…

So-called promo meals some restaurants offer have prompted the Department of Social Welfare and Development to fine-tune its enforcement of the 20-percent discount for senior citizens.

A Filipina worker in west Australia has dropped a suit that she filed against a Perth franchise of global fast food giant McDonald’s for causing her alleged “forced abortion,” and accepted instead a confidential settlement, according to a report posted Thursday on an Australian news site.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — With the three-month fish aggregating device ban now in effect, the government has offered an alternative measure that would allow Filipino fishers to catch tuna in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a tuna industry official said yesterday.

THE WORLD Bank Group’s International Finance Corp. (IFC) is drafting stronger standards for environmental and social protection that projects needing its help will have to observe, Greg Radford, IFC environmental and social development director, told reporters in a briefing yesterday.

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