Monthly Archives: October 2010

MANILA, Philippines – The government should adopt a national program for research and development (R&D), with better policies and a bigger budget.

While the new DepEd Secretary, Brother Luistro is getting acquainted with UNESCO during the ongoing Autumn Executive Board meeting in Paris, former DepEd undersecretary to Brother Andrew, Isagani Cruz was tasked to inform the media and the public how President Noy Aquino’s K-12 education plan would work out. Expecting an avalanche of arguments to follow,…

MANILA, Philippines – It’s payback time. Former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo played out her role as opposition leader in grilling administration officials over their budget proposal.

Sports scientist asks Congress to make daily exercise mandatory MANILA, Philippines – An expert in molecular biology and sports science called Wednesday on lawmakers to enact legislation that would encourage daily physical exercises, including in workplaces, as a solution to the worsening problem of lifestyle diseases like hypertension and diabetes.

MANILA, Philippines – To ensure its scholars get employed, especially in the Information Technology (IT) industry, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) enters into partnerships with private sector organizations.

I am writing this column in Cebu City while in the thick of preparations for a conference dubbed as the biggest human resource event of the year: The 47th annual conference of the People Management Association of the Philippines. The conference opens at 2 p.m. today at the Cebu International Convention Center.

TO RECALL the first part of this topic, the World Bank’s latest report on the country, titled “The Philippines: Fostering More Inclusive Growth,” started its analysis of poverty in our country by asking: “Who are the poor, what are the characteristics of the poorest Filipinos?” The World Bank’s answer: first, the typical poor Filipino belongs…

A COMPREHENSIVE road map that will ensure the increase in the income of all Filipino farmers is the “sure-fire” way of reducing rural poverty, the University of Asia and the Pacific’s Center for Food and Agribusiness (UA&P-CFA) said in a paper.

FILIPINO migrant workers, mostly those undocumented, feel the brunt of foreign governments’ stringent economic measures resulting from the impact of the global financial crisis with continuing arrests in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) while those in Malaysia are forced to use their passports as collateral to get loans to get by as they continue to…

UNITED NATIONS—More than a third of all women in the world have been forced into sex, beaten or abused by a partner or family member, a top UN official said Tuesday.

MANILA, Philippines—Employers have been given until mid-November to update their employees’ loan accounts to remove their delinquent status with the Social Security System, SSS chief executive Emilio de Quiros Jr. said Tuesday.

THE Philippine auto-manufacturing industry should formulate an “export strategy” to boost its regional competitiveness before the government can consider added incentives, Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said on Tuesday.

FOOD production and even economic growth in Asia, including the Philippines, will be under threat owing to the expected 40-percent shortfall in water supply and demand in the region by 2030, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said.

A suspected chemical leak from a construction site downed a teacher and 14 students of a high school in Iloilo City Monday afternoon.

MANILA, Philippines — United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has cited the province of Albay as a model for good practices on disaster risk reduction for this Thurday’s commemoration of International Day for Disaster Reduction.

MANILA, Philippines – A second bill seeking to improve regulation of the credit card industry has been filed in Senate. Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. has filed Senate Bill 2492, which seeks to provide more transparency on interests and charges that consumers pay credit card firms.

SUCs urged to diversify sources of income MANILA, Philippines – The budget of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for 2011 has been cut by P400 million.

US-based investment bank Goldman Sachs revised its 2010 Philippine economic outlook saying the economy will grow 7.4 percent from 4.2 percent after the stronger-than-expected rebound in the first six months.

BRUSSELS, Belgium—Civil society groups that gathered in Brussels for the Asia Europe People’s Forum (AEPF) have called for the cancellation of the free trade agreements between the European Union and the developing economies, particularly those with India and South Korea.

Manila, Philippines — Newly installed Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines Christopher Thornley never responded to the request of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the Associated Labor Unions (ALU) and the Building and Woodworkers International (BWI) for an appointment to receive the trade union statement on asbestos and make a brief response to…

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the country’s largest trade group, is supporting a proposal for a 12-year primary and secondary schooling for children under the K-12 program of the Aquino administration.

THE loose definition of ‘mass housing’ has been a source of government revenue hemorrhage, according to a Department of Finance (DOF) official.

COTABATO City: The fisheries experts in the country disclosed on Tuesday that the supply of tuna in Mindanao particularly in the fishing grounds where fishermen from General Santos City used to capture has reached its critical level—which needs further study on how to make the supply sustainable. Regional Director Sani Maca-balang of the Bureau of…

Filipinos have higher initial expectations of President Benigno Aquino III than of his predecessor Gloria Arroyo when she first assumed power in 2001, according to a new survey by pollster Social Weather Stations.

MANILA, Philippines – The local economy may grow by 7.1% this year, beating official government estimate, on the back of higher consumption, investment spending and a strong service sector, a bank said.

ZAMBOANGA CITY: New Zealand has blacklisted the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), adding the two organizations to its list of international terrorist groups.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will send a resident advisor to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and other short-term technical assistance missions to the Philippines in support of capacity-building for reforms and upgrades in tax administration.

My son who is working for a British multinational bank in Singapore made the observation to me the other weekend that the regional financial sector seems bullish on Indonesia. He had been going to Jakarta as part of his regional responsibilities over the past few months and he can see why people in the know…

MANILA, Philippines – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday that the net inflow of foreign direct investments (FDIs) plunged 42 percent in the first seven months of the year due to a lack of major capital inflows and higher equity withdrawals.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has set up an online job search system to enable prematurely terminated Filipino household helpers and other workers in Hong Kong to find new employment.