Monthly Archives: August 2010

JESSICA KNOWLES, an American Fulbright Scholar with a sponsorship grant from the Philippine American Educational Foundation, prepared the stirring video-documentary No Place for a Child. The images in the production, while not new or unfamiliar, continue to horrify: children lying on the dirty floor of prison cells, packed like sardines; tattooed young bodies scarred with…

MANILA, Philippines – Bank borrowers continued to enjoy lower rates as the accommodative policy stance of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) provided support to the economy and the favorable inflation outlook as well as well-cemented inflation expectations.

MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has corrected a 2009 report that had identified a slain union leader as a drug supplier. The CHR explained that it had made a mistake when a report from its National Capital Region office identified Nestle union president Diosdado Fortuna as a drug supplier and said that his…

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago has filed her own version of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, which would be part of the country’s commitment to several international treaties and agreements when approved.

MANILA, Philippines- More youth will join the world’s growing population of jobless people this year, according to a study conducted by International Labor Organization (ILO). The fear of more young people the growing sector of unemployed was based on the ILO report issued to coincide with the launching of the UN International Youth Year.

BANGKOK, Aug 12, 2010 (IPS) – Tanya Athikom’s search for a permanent job in the information technology sector has so far resulted in a string of disappointments. The Bangkok resident has thus been forced to accept short-term contracts in local and multinational companies here in the Thai capital.

Data provided by: ONLINE ADS for Philippine jobs decreased minimally in July from a year ago, implying stability in the business and economic environment.

The campaign to ban asbestos use in Asia took a step forward at a Building and Wood Workers’ International regional conference in Jakarta on August 2 to 4, 2010. The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union represented the IMF at the meeting.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) takes discipline in the military one notch higher with the release of the “AFP Human Rights Handbook,” which shall serve as the Filipino soldier’s “bible” as he carry out the armed forces’ internal security campaign. A soft release of the AFP Human Rights Handbook was held Thursday afternoon…

IN A DISTANT town in Laguna, the day-care center is a cramped portion of the village hall half the size of a regular room. Every day, the day-care worker has to bring home her teaching tools on a wagon, since leaving them at the village hall will eat up space of the government office.

Passion For Reason THE GOVERNMENT plans to make children spend two more years in basic education. The plan is admirable in its boldness but worrisome in its impact on poor parents. Many poor children may thus be robbed of a credential, a high school diploma; however dubious or diluted, it may nonetheless spell the difference…

SCHOOLS VS TEACHERS MANILA, Philippines—The education community is divided on the proposal to extend the 10-year basic education cycle by two years.

KIDAPAWAN CITY — A “child combatant” has surrendered to a village chief in Magpet town in Cotabato province after the boy was allegedly abandoned by members of the Black Fighters, believed to be a breakaway group of the New Peoples’ Army in the province.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) has asked government to rule on an appeal filed by workers who are contesting the company’s plan to outsource 2,600 jobs. This was announced by PAL president Jaime Bautista early evening of Thursday, four hours after it met with government mediators and representatives of the PAL Employees Association (PALEA) at the National…

THE PALACE will review the implementation of the holiday economics law, or Republic Act (RA) 9492, on a case-to-case basis, an official said yesterday, after President Benigno C. Aquino III canceled the Aug. 23 holiday in commemoration of the death anniversary of his father, former senator Benigno S. Aquino, Jr.

The so-called compromise agreement announced by the management of the Cojuangco-owned Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) comes ahead of an upcoming decision of the Supreme Court on the legality of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) decision to revoke the 16-year-old stock distribution option (SDO). The SDO took the place of outright distribution of land to…

SO I asked my young friend, Rina, where she thought her life was going. She is gainfully employed, albeit in a contractual position in the service industry. She has a kid already studying in a private elementary school courtesy of her parents-in-law, but her husband is a bum.

SEVENTEEN years after the implementation of the Local Government Code (LGC), Local Government Units (LGUs) continue to struggle with many issues and basic functions mainly due to funding problems, according to a consultant’s report for an Asian Development Bank (ADB) technical assistance to the Philippines.

GENEVA — Youth unemployment hit a record 81 million youngsters worldwide last year with the economic crisis, potentially breeding a “lost generation,” the International Labor Organization (ILO) said yesterday.

Youth unemployment stood at 13% globally at the end of 2009, equivalent to 81 million young people. That’s an increase of 7.8 million since 2007, prior to the global crisis. Here are other key findings:

VICE President Jejomar Binay on Thursday has ordered two government agencies to suspend the implementation of the order that mandates the six-month advance contribution of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to the Home Development Mutual (Pag-IBIG) Fund. In a statement, Binay directed both the Pag-IBIG and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) “to conduct a thorough…

Members of the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (Palea) and the Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) picketed the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) office in Manila on Thursday to ask the agency to tighten regulations and plug loopholes that have allowed employers to massively supplant regular workers with contractual labor.

I suspected as much a long time ago. The boys of former President Arroyo at Napocor/PSALM were sabotaging the implementation of Epira. And then, the Arroyo allies in the House led by Mikey are blaming the high electricity prices on Epira’s failure. They wanted to amend a law that had not been given a chance…

WASHINGTON (AFP) – World markets were thrown into turmoil as investors worried that US growth — a key engine of the global economy — is coming coughing and spluttering to a halt.

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announced yesterday that net inflow of foreign portfolio investments surged 164 percent in the first seven months of the year as investors pumped in more money into the local government securities and equities markets.

I knew I was going to touch some raw nerves when I raised the issue of the proliferation of Freeports in a joint meeting of the Management Association of the Philippines, Makati Business Club and the Financial Executives Association of the Philippines. Secretary Cesar Purisima had just announced his plans to raise the Government’s tax…

The quickest way to kill support for reproductive health initiatives, we told RH advocates recently, was to mention abortion. Sure enough, even supporters of the RH bill in Congress have found themselves in agreement with opponents of the measure in rejecting calls for the legalization of abortion.

MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives has organized a total of 45 major committees with the election of 16 more chairmen in plenary session on Tuesday and Wednesday.

MANILA, Philippines – Three quarters of the country’s employers turn down job applicants with poor English, according to one of the country’s leading job search sites.

MANILA, Philippines—The Makati government is to open its own breast milk bank soon. According to city health officer Dr. Ma. Lourdes Salud, the setting up of a breast milk bank is among the priorities of Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr., who envisions Makati as the very first city in the country to have such facility…