Monthly Archives: October 2010

The Philippines is ill-prepared to embark on the ideal 12-year basic education curriculum, at least for now, lawmakers eyeing the money problem say. The Enhanced K+12 program will add two years of senior high school to the current system and will be implemented beginning school year 2016 to 2017.

Tabuk City, Kalinga – Two pocket miners have died due to alleged gas poisoning and suffocation after they were trapped inside a small-scale mine tunnel in section Umbog, Bagtayan, Pasil town over the past several days.

MANILA, Philippines—Let me make it quite clear: I am pro-life, pro-poor, pro-women. And therefore, like most Filipinos (average of 82 percent according to a Pulse Asia Survey, but ranging from 76 percent to 91 percent across all geographic areas and socio-economic classes), I am in favor of the government providing family planning information and services…

“Honor and Excellence’’ was the heart of Prof. Winnie Monsod’s last lecture for the recently-concluded semester at the University of the Philippines-Diliman School of Economics. For her students, her words and fervent advices always bring a good note to end the term.

MANILA, Philippines—Solita C. Monsod, University of the Philippines School of Economics professor emerita, endorses the Aquino administration’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, which goes by the brand-name Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. I, a UP kickout, reject it.

LAST October 3, we discussed the need for the Aquino III administration to do “best practices called the 4-Cs” within its first 200 days. Recall the record of President Aquino III’s first 100 days which materialized well below what was anticipated, considering the nationwide optimism at his inaugural on 30 June and further boosted after…

CITING the small number of big corporations participating in biodiversity conservation, nevertheless, it was pointed out that the presence of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is needed to be actively and positively involved in biodiversity promotion.

Monsignor Juanito Figura said if a law or state policy is against Christian teachings, the Catholics are not bound by conscience to obey. Is he advocating anarchy against his elected government? A government that is responsible to all people, not only Catholics. A Bishop said “civil disobedience remained an option if the Aquino administration pushed…

Manila (22 October) — Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz recently said that the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will develop information materials on productivity and labor standards, including occupational safety and health (OSH), in the Chinese language to promote voluntary compliance with labor laws while improving the productivity of Filipino-Chinese owned firms, especially…

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—Human Rights Watch has slammed a ruling by an Emirati court which condones the beating of wives by their husbands, saying it sends out a signal that violence against women and children is acceptable.

Buhay Party-List Rep. Irwin Tieng, one of principal authors of the “anti-cyberboso law,” has expressed alarm over the rising incidence of “cyberbullying” whereby children in schools all over the country are being harassed by their peers using mobile phones, social networking sites and other means in the Internet.

MANILA, Philippines—Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has thumbed down the demand of some party-list representatives to be given an additional P50 million in pork barrel following the decision to provide the amount to regular members of the House of Representatives starting next year.

BOSTON — There are countless distractions, threats, and roadblocks to getting work done. Good bosses take pride in shielding their people from these annoyances. Here are three ways you can help your employees focus on what matters as adapted from “The Boss as Human Shield” by Robert I. Sutton:

TACLOBAN CITY — The German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) is assisting the Philippine government in developing “green” growth strategies for enterprises to deepen the business sector’s involvement in efforts against climate change.

Three Filipino English teachers were recognized as outstanding foreign experts by China’s Jilin Province for contributing to the province’s economic and social development.

MANILA, Philippines – A backhoe operated by a private contractor damaged pipes of the Maynilad Water Services along EDSA in Quezon City before dawn yesterday, disrupting the supply of water to around 6,000 households for around eight hours.

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang clarified yesterday that it had never questioned the Supreme Court’s power of judicial review but only the prudence of its decision to stop President Aquino’s dismissal of the previous administration’s midnight appointees.

MANILA, Philippines – The deplorable situation of some of the country’s overseas workers has hogged headlines for days. More than a month after an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) abandoned her newborn on a Gulf Air flight, OFW Marlon Cueva supposedly took his own life on his return trip home.

MANILA, Philippines – Nine people were killed and nine others wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded inside a passenger bus in Matalam, North Cotabato yesterday morning.

MANILA, Philippines – The National Government’s budget deficit ballooned to P259.8 billion in the first nine months of the year, up from the previous year’s P237.5 billion due to lower-than-programmed revenues, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said yesterday.

Urgent appeal for presidential decision My last column requested that the President immediately appoint the new members of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). Further, I strongly recommend that Doris Magsaysay-Ho be reinstated as one of the three ABAC members. She provides continuity and is responsible for making labor mobility a focus item. ABAC meets…

MANILA, Philippines – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) stressed the need for emerging economies in Asia including the Philippines to start tightening its accommodative monetary and fiscal policies in light of emerging signs of inflationary pressures as well as strong influx of capital brought about by the robust economic growth in the region.

CHIEF Justice Renato Corona has vowed to defend the Constitution and the rule of law following the attacks on the Supreme Court and the judiciary’s independence, integrity and power of judicial review.

Oct. 21–The multisectoral Fair Trade Alliance (FairTrade) asked the Aquino administration to flesh out its industrial policy amid what the group called as the new government’s “bothersome” pronouncements. “The bigger challenge of the Aquino administration is the overhaul of the trade and development policy regime that has been in place in the last three decades,”…

SIXTEEN mining firms looking to operate in Mindanao raised concerns that illegal small-scale miners will fill in the void created by the open-pit mining ban imposed by the provincial government. The ban is contained in the province’s new Environment Code, which took effect on Monday.

THE Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) asked President Benigno Aquino 3rd on Wednesday to review the amnesty given to the rebel soldiers who took part in three mutinies against the previous Arroyo administration.

3M households lack food once in 3 months – SWS Some 3 million families, or 15.9 percent of the total in the Philippines, are experiencing hunger at least once in three months, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey revealed.

ACCESS to budget information in the country is transparent but not enough to trickle down to the common Juan dela Cruz, an international study revealed. The International Budget Partnership (IBP) in its Open Budget Survey 2010 gave the Philippines a score of 55 out of 100, indicating that the government provides the public with “only…

In any debate, the debaters first agree on what to debate about. In the public debate about K+12, many participants have differing ideas about what exactly DepEd has embarked on.

MANILA, Philippines – “Big Business” has come out loudly and strongly in support of the Department of Education (DepEd) and its move to implement the ambitious K+12 Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) plan which will add two years in the BEC and transform the current six years of elementary and four years of high school to…