Monthly Archives: October 2010

WASHINGTON—US companies are hoarding nearly one trillion dollars of cash that they are unlikely to use for expansion amid a muddled outlook on economic recovery, rating agency Moody’s said Wednesday.

MANILA, Philippines – Graduates of the more popular computer school chains performed well and enjoyed a high success rate in getting information technology (IT) jobs.

SAN PEDRO, Laguna, Philippines — Authorities have ordered the “temporary shutdown” of Tanduay Distillers Inc.’s plant in Cabuyao, Laguna, following reports that its water discharges had triggered a fish kill in Laguna de Bay. The plant actually burned down last October 15.

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Consulate-General in Macau, China, has set a dialog with groups of overseas Filipino workers questioning various Philippine government policies, among them the controversial affidavit of support (AOS) and compulsory membership to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and Pag-Ibig Fund.

I’m on my way home from Indonesia, where I spent part of the past week attending the annual meeting of the Asian Network for Occupational Accident Victims (ANROAV), an organization that brings together NGOs working on occupational health, safety, and labor issues all across Asia. The meeting was held in Bandung, in West Java —…

MANILA, Philippines – The National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) has ended labor disputes at 2 prominent companies in the country, resulting to hefty economic packages for workers.

A 28-year-old Filipina worker in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was “rescued” after allegedly being assaulted by her Egyptian employers, a UEA-based news site reported.

MANILA, Philippines – Presiding over last week’s Senate finance committee hearing on the 2011 budget of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Sen. Edgardo Angara called for a review of the various scholarship programs funded by the government through the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in order to assess their status, as well as their…

MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives will insert special provisions in the P1.64-trillion national budget to oversee the implementation of the Aquino administration’s controversial P21-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) program next year, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte said yesterday.

WE WISH to call attention to Judy Quiros’ news report titled “Iran embargo used as excuse to exempt firms from wage hikes.” (Inquirer, 10/28/10) The report inaccurately attributed to me this statement: “She said for the banana industry, giving wage increase to workers at this time was simply not possible.” (Paragraph 8)

For those of you who are on the uphill road of getting out of debt and working towards the light at the end of the tunnel, paying off credit cards can feel like it eats up every penny you make. Several months ago, I was paying the minimum or close to it on multiple cards…

Heavy smoking in middle age more than doubles the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia later in life, according to one of the first long-term studies to examine the issue.

The country retained its rank as among Asia’s most corrupt even as it slightly improved in its ranking this year in Transparency International (TI)’s yearly global corruption survey which placed the Philippines 134th out of 178 countries ranked.

MANILA, Philippines – Annual revenues of the country’s information technology-business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) sector could more than double to $25 billion – equivalent to a 10-percent share of the global market – by 2016, according to an industry roadmap unveiled yesterday by the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP).

THE Philippines was ranked 12th most corrupt country in the world by Transparency International in 2010, down from last year when it was placed 113th, according to the group’s Corruption Perceptions Index released Tuesday.

PHILIPPINE factory output continued to expand by double digits in August, with imports of raw and intermediate goods keeping pace for the period, according to data released by the government on Tuesday. The National Statistics Office (NSO) said the volume of production index (VoPI) rose 25.6 percent year-on-year in August, accelerating from the revised 22.1-percent…

MANILA, Philippines – Only 43 countries have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

MANILA, Philippines – Business executives in the country are fed up with the prevailing corrupt practices in procurement and supply management and have lined up a series of initiatives aimed at stopping unethical dealings that have cost businesses as much as 50% of their investments here.

MANILA, Philippines – Five big business groups yesterday urged the government to lead in family planning activities as an effective strategy to reduce poverty.

While waiting for the chance to land a job abroad, nursing, engineering, and accountancy graduates in the Philippines should help expand the skills gap in the country, the International Labor Organization (ILO) director to the Philippines said over the weekend. The graduates should fill the manpower shortage in business process outsourcing (BPO), particularly in medical…

Davao City (27 October) — From 27-28 October, Davao will host over a hundred representatives from the Regional Development Councils (RDCs), Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs), Regional Tripartite Industrial Peace Councils (RTIPCs), chambers of commerce and industries, the youth sector, and civil society from all over Mindanao for the second leg of the Department of Labor…

There’s a scene in Young Frankenstein, when Dr. Frankenstein meets Igor (Eye-gor) for the first time. He motions toward the disfiguring hump on Igor’s back and says, “I can fix that.”

Voters complain about long lines, missing names MANILA, Philippines—Peaceful and orderly but with the same old problems. Although no major election-related violent incidents were reported during Monday’s conduct of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections in Metro Manila, the usual complaints were aired by voters.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) is working closely with the United Nations’s International Labor Organization to reduce, if not eliminate, youth unemployment in the Philippines within six years.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) is working closely with the United Nations’s International Labor Organization to reduce, if not eliminate, youth unemployment in the country within six years.

MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang will continue to implement an order suspending the perks and privileges enjoyed by officials of government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) and government financial institutions (GFIs) until the Supreme Court “restrains” it from doing so, it said Monday.

Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz yesterday said the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is working very closely and actively with the International Labor Organization (ILO), other United Nations organizations, such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and its multipartite partners in the…

THERE are many ways to attract fresh investments into the country. The government could, for instance, offer stability, standards and predictability of process and outcome to potential business investors, both local and foreign. But Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo’s recent proposal to do so by cutting short the right to security of tenure enjoyed by workers…

You’ve heard about the usual tips to prevent heart disease. You know about the bad effects of cigarette smoking, alcohol, fatty foods, and stress. You know that you have to control your blood sugar and blood pressure to prevent diabetes and high blood pressure, respectively. But what more could you do to protect your heart?…

MANILA, Philippines – A group of solar power producers is proposing to put up around 170 megawatts (MW) of solar energy in the country next year.