Monthly Archives: October 2010

MANILA, Philippines—The European Union is providing a grant of 3.9 million euros (about P235 million) over a period of 18 months to assist the Philippines in bringing an end to extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the country.

IT seems our government wants to help foreign motor companies here to make even more money – at the expense of everybody else. So our brilliant DTI thinks that, in the process, it cannot avoid but kill hundreds, maybe even thousands, of Filipino small businesses. That, mind you, is the very same Department of Trade…

LET ME get back to religion in the RH bills because it is mainly religion which is causing much of the disagreement. There are two clauses in the Constitution dealing with religion: the non-establishment clause and the free exercise clause. The non-establishment clause is a command which says that the state may not choose any…

MANILA, Philippines—By dangling P15 million in additional funds to party-list lawmakers, House leaders should not expect them to drop their opposition to the Aquino administration’s P21-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) program and P15-billion public-private partnership program (PPPP) under the 2011 national budget.

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Ralph Recto said yesterday any effort to decongest EDSA should be anchored on reducing the number of public utility buses (PUBs) plying the national thoroughfare.

Mounting health concerns over the widespread use of chemical-based pesticides and fertilizers, along with the increasing preference for healthier food through more sound growing practices, underscore the need to further promote the same in the local agricultural scene.

Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chair Etta Rosales on Saturday said personnel of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) committed human rights violation in their treatment of inmates, who held noise barrage last week at the Bataan Provincial Jail here.

The International Labour Office (ILO) and the World Bank have jointly organized a conference on “Trade and Employment Post-Crisis: Global Shocks, Structural Changes and Policy Responses” on October 25. Held in the lead up to the G20 Summit in Seoul on 11-12 November, the conference discussed the role of open markets in supporting growth and…

MANILA, Philippines—Overseas Filipino workers’ groups and recruitment agencies have reiterated their concern over the looming enforcement of compulsory insurance coverage for all deployed OFWs, as provided by the amended Migrant Workers Act.

The Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) believes that setting a limit on credit card charges could mess up several government programs that seek more Filipinos in financial sector services.

Talk about addictive. According to the latest study on global social network usage by Internet marketing research firm ComScore.com, the Philippines has the fifth “most engaged social networking audience” in the world.

Local government units (LGUs) have significant roles when it comes to the realization of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UN-MDGs) where the Philippines is a signatory.

MANILA, Philippines — The World Bank has urged the Philippines and other countries in the Asia Pacific to jump-start talks on integrating their labor markets, saying opening up employment opportunities within the region will further help member-countries weather shocks from the West.

THE government allots only 1.5 percent of its total expenditures to local infrastructure, despite the growing need to boost the roads and bridges in the rural areas.

THE PHILIPPINE Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) will keep its target for 2010 despite slow growth in the past three quarters as most investments come in September to December, an official said.

LOCALLY MADE vehicles have lost ground to imports eight months into the pilot year of a duty-free scheme, industry data compiled by BusinessWorld showed.

SENIOR CITIZENS will now be able to get a 5% discount on more food and basic items after the Agriculture and Trade departments tagged additional commodities other than those mentioned under Republic Act 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010.

Popular culture has given us the more lasting portrayals of the “typical” bully—usually a boy, big and burly, from whom other kids generally stay away for fear of being harmed, taunted, or forced into submission into doing things against their will.

HEALTH Undersecretary Alexander Padilla said Sunday he will assume the position of chief operations officer of Philippine Health Corp. next month to sign up more members.

THE Commission on Elections said Sunday it will suspend the proclamation of winning candidates in today’s village or barangay council elections who are found to have violated the three-term limit set by law and file cases against them.

Last Sept. 29, Meralco announced the strong likelihood of its exceeding the company’s core net income target of P11 billion for 2010. Set on top of its reported P7-billion income for 2009, this is already well beyond a whopping 60-percent profit growth that’s sure to signal a lot more happier days for the power firm.

Twelve thousand five hundred twenty-six (12,526) child laborers were benefited from Angel Tree Project (ATP) of the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) that granted their wishes for food, clothing, schooling and other forms of assistance, said DoLE Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz.

CALIFORNIA, United States—Nimfa and Margaret are both special education teachers who obtained “J1” visas to teach in two different school districts in the United States.

MANILA, Philippines—With identical scores of 99.7 percent, four young Filipino numbers aces were among 65 students worldwide who topped the 2010 Australian Mathematics Competition (AMC), which drew about 400,000 contestants from at least 40 countries when it was held in August.

MANILA, Philippines— For inspiring popular interest in science and math through her weekly column “Eureka!” in the Inquirer Learning section, Queena N. Lee-Chua is the first winner, jointly with Malaysia’s Mahaletchumy Arujanan, of the Regional Prize for Public Understanding of Science in the East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific from the Third World Academy…

For sure the country’s basic education system is beset with many problems and past administrations have tried to solve them. Past regimes, have vowed but failed to resolve the perennial shortage of teachers and classrooms.

Filipino engineers and other professionals struggle to obtain international accreditation to meet requirements for jobs abroad because our basic education is only 10 years, two years shy of the international standard. Now, there is a strong move to increase basic education by two more years to make our high school graduates employable and our professionals,…

DESPITE the most respected experts’ agreement that it is urgent and necessary to reform the country’s basic education system with something like the Department of Education’s Enhanced K+12 program, it will surely face rough sailing. Mainly the difficulties arise from lack of funds and the opposition mounted by populists, leftists, anti-administration politicians and educators claiming…

SEATTLE – Women across nearly every income level gave significantly more to charity than men, nearly twice as much in some cases, according to a study by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.