Monthly Archives: August 2010

Sometimes, we feel like we can do a better job than our bosses. That’s a legitimate belief, but not one that we can actually say to their faces without getting fired. And that’s not the only opinion that we should keep to ourselves in a corporate setting. When talking to your superiors, there are things…

MORE public high school students will be making the jump to exclusive schools next year after the government hiked its tuition subsidy under a government assistance program.

MANILA, Philippines–In a bid to promote transparency, the Department of Interior and Local Government ordered all local government officials and units to publicly disclose all their financial transactions and budget reports.

THE GOVERNMENT should take “out of the box” steps to lower subsidies given to the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) line on Edsa, which costs over P5 billion a year in taxpayers’ money.

The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has opened its website to the public who can post and even track the status of their complaints.

In first seven months The Philippines investment scene is poised for recovery this year as strong new inflows are expected to match the P464.2 billion record high posted in 2008.

(Updated 3:34 p.m.) The board of trustees, corporate and regulatory offices of water utility MWSS received P384 million in bonuses and allowances last year, documents released by the Senate committee on finance Tuesday showed.

MANILA, Philippines–Under fire for alleged excessive salaries and bonuses of its officials and employees, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System has recommended to President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III the immediate suspension of nine months’ bonuses and a review of four other bonuses.

The Diocese of Laoag has opened a marriage tribunal for troubled Catholic couples, the first tribunal of its kind in the Ilocos region.

MANILA, Philippines — The Aquino administration has effectively decommissioned the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group and the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission after it gave the two agencies a zero budget under the proposed 2011 budget.

An unidentified gunman shot dead an activist and court sheriff in Balangiga town in Eastern Samar province, in what seems to be another extra-judicial killing under the Aquino administration.

Both private and government sectors are laying down contingency measures in case Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong are terminated by their employers as a backlash of the Aug. 23 hostage incident in Manila that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead.

Q2 upturn welcomed; Moody’s raises RP growth forecast BETTER-THAN-EXPECTED second- quarter growth may have boosted the Philippines’ prospects but fiscal and reform issues remain a concern, debt watchers and an international bank said.

THE European Union (EU) trade commissioner said the bloc would still seek a free-trade agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) if the political and economic issues are hurdled.

THE INTELLECTUAL Property Office (IPO) is implementing a new strategy involving the use of Customs laws and the possible creation of a specialized police unit in the effort to end piracy, an official last week said.

MANILA, Philippines – A Palace spokesman on Tuesday said former Akbayan party-list representative Etta Rosales is determined to investigate cases of enforced disappearances in the country in her new capacity as chairwoman of the Commission on Human Rights.

CEBU, Philippines – An official of the Philippine Cancer Society yesterday expressed alarm over the increasing lung cancer deaths among women, saying more and more women are drying from the disease.

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Foreign business chambers have partnered with an academic association in a bid to minimize jobs-skills mismatch in the labor sector. The American, Australian-New Zealand, British, Canadian and European chambers of commerce had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (PACU), to endorse “deserving and qualified” college students for internship…

THE Aquino administration has formed a body that would look into which obsolete government owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) would be abolished in line with efforts to rein in its budget deficit.

This is a bright new day for reproductive health advocates. After years of pushing for the passage of a comprehensive and nationwide reproductive health policy, legislators, principally led by Rep. Edcel C. Lagman of the First District of Albay, are optimistic that the 15th Congress will finally pass a reproductive health law.

MANILA, Philippines – Experts in the promotion of renewable energy in Asia said the Philippines is on the right track as they cited the government’s efforts in formulating laws that focus on the use of renewable sources of energy.

MANILA, Philippines—The government has started implementing a new family planning marketing strategy designed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (PNA) – The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) has so far released some P3.629 million worth of assistance to more than 900 tuna industry workers here who had lost their jobs due to the impact of the two-year fishing ban in the high seas off the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.

According to the latest UN Agriculture Outlook 2010-2019, wheat and coarse-grain prices could increase by 15 percent to 40 percent from their price levels during 1997 to 2006. Dairy and vegetable-oil prices are also expected to jump by more than 40 percent.

A migrants’ rights group is urging the government to set up a shelter for male overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in distress in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), saying their number has increased in the past years.

Instead of abolishing the National Food Authority (NFA), a newly formed think tank proposed measures to transform the agency into an economically viable state firm even while fulfilling its primary mandate to help pursue food security and stabilize the price and supply of rice, especially for the benefit of poor Filipino consumers.

Filipinos and the young, single and independent top the list in the region of consumers planning to save more, according to the latest MasterCard survey on consumers’ saving priorities.

MANILA, Philippines—The National Food Authority must be transformed into an economically viable entity that will fulfil its mandate of pursuing food security and stabilize prices of rice for the benefit of underprivileged Filipino consumers.

MANILA, Aug. 29 — Climate Change Commission (CCC) vice chairman Secretary Heherson T. Alvarez has declared that the drafting of the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP) is underway, as the law mandates its completion by April 2011.