Monthly Archives: October 2010

(Part II of a series on P-Noy’s K-12 Education Plan) In 1990, three major global and national programs affecting the Philippine educational system were launched: The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Education For All (EFA) and the Senate Congressional Commission (EDCOM) to survey the status of all schools in the Philippines from…

The next few days, analysts say, will make or break French President Nicolas Sarkozy. I hasten to add that the next few days will make or break the French economy.

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – The ranking of the Philippines in the World Press Freedom Index has dropped to 156 this year from 122 in 2009 mainly because of the massacre of 32 journalists in Maguindanao in November last year.

MANILA, Philippines – Opposition congressmen want to meddle in the implementation of President Aquino’s P21-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) program after failing to convince the House of Representatives to cut the funds by P6 billion.

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MANILA, Philippines – Chief Justice Renato Corona has defended the Supreme Court (SC) in exercising its constitutional duty to review actions of the Palace and Congress, saying it is not stepping on the powers of the two other co-equal branches of government.

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As part of a crackdown on credit cards and store cards, the Government is considering capping interest rates in a bid to get the consumer a fairer deal.

“Honey, I’m going to the office,” is a remark we may not hear as much if more people have their way. Three out of five workers around the world said they don’t need to be in the office to be productive, according to a study out yesterday from Cisco. The “Cisco Connected World Report” collected…

THE Philippines is the world’s sixth most climate-vulnerable country with its fast-growing population exposed to flood, drought, storms and sea-level rise, according to an index of 170 nations released early this week.

The combined net earnings of listed firms in the first half of 2010 increased by 20.1 percent to P232.2 billion from P193.36 billion year-on-year while consolidated revenues of listed companies also rose by 20.1 percent, reaching P1.57 trillion as compared with P1.31 trillion in the previous year.

The World Bank (WB) has proposed that the government increase excise taxes and reduce tax incentives as a way for the Aquino administration to set in order the fiscal situation which remains hounded with record-high shortfalls.

Food manufacturer CDO-Foodsphere Inc. has teamed up with the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), a non-profit corporate foundation established by prominent businessmen led by PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan, for a supplemental feeding program to save indigent children out of malnutrition in a pilot site in the northern part of Metro Manila. Odyssey Foundation…

Prices of commodities including petroleum are beginning to spike upward again, which could derail global economic recovery and affect growth in the Philippines, according to economists.

In its Global Gender Gap 2010 Report, released last week, the World Economic Forum ranked the Philippines 9th among nearly 200 countries in gender equity. The Philippines is also Asia’s highest-ranking country (followed by Sri Lanka at 16, and Mongolia at 27). It ranks 1st on both education and health among Asian countries, and boasts…

Though it may sometimes feel like it, having credit card debt to mend is not a dead end. In fact, just as there are myriad ways to fall into debt, there are many ways in which indebted consumers can traverse this roadblock. They should not, therefore, jump to dire conclusions or panic and take drastic…

MANILA, Philippines — The World Health Organizations (WHO) has called on all governments to expand their education and training programs, along with measures to improve recruitment, performance, and retention of healthcare workers, especially in rural and underserved areas.

Brussels, 19 October 2010 (ITUC OnLine): Maintaining biodiversity is a central issue for working people and their communities around the planet, including through the creation of decent jobs, protection of livelihoods and ensuring resilience to climate change, according to the ITUC in its submission to biodiversity talks currently underway in Nagoya, Japan.  

The Philippines gained more foreign exchange in the first nine months of the year that the balance of payments (BOP) surplus widened to $6.54 billion.

THE Aquino administration will adopt a five-year poverty reduction masterplan that aims to slash the country’s poverty incidence to 24 percent by 2015, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

The combined net income of listed firms grew a fifth in the first six months because of the strong performance of the economy, according to the local bourse. In a statement, the Philippine Stock Exchange(PSE) said the combined earnings of listed companies jumped 20.1 percent to P232.2 billion from P193.36 billion during the same six-month…

The government has raised a little more than a quarter of its revenue target from the sale of assets this year. According to Department of Finance (DOF) Undersecretary John Philip Sevilla, the agency already raised P500 million to P600 million from the disposal of “small” properties.

THE World Bank on Tuesday raised sharply its growth forecast for the Philippines this year as it urged the government to ramp up investments to support growth over the medium term. In its East Asia and Pacific Economic Update, the Washington-based lender projected that the Philippine economy, as measured by its gross domestic product (GDP),…

There were many blasts from the past last week in the first budget interpellation by Congress-woman Gloria Arroyo (Pampanga, second district) since she moved from the Palace to the House of Representatives. The last time she raised questions on the national budget was in the Senate in 1997, before she won the vice presidency the…

When Philippine carriers were banned from flying to Europe earlier this year, the country’s officials sounded downright nonchalant. After all, it was in 1999 when Philippine Airlines had launched its last commercial flight to Europe. Officials evidently thought that the ban imposed by the European Commission (EC) was, well, no big deal.

TRANSPARENCY in government is a cornerstone policy that President Benigno Aquino 3rd has promised to uphold. It has been put in doubt because of his perceived reluctance to divulge the report of the commission that investigated the hostage-taking tragedy on August 23, but he could still make good on his pledge by widening public access…

Malacañang on Tuesday said that a study suggesting that the Aquino government impose new taxes to attain fiscal stability was not done by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). “That is not a NEDA study. It‘s one of the points in a series of workshops NEDA and ADB [Asian Development Bank] sponsored as an…

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines made considerable strides in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) but challenges remained to be hurdled in other areas.

President Aquino will be attending his first full summit where he will sit together with the 20 other leaders simultaneously in an informal face-to-face setting. He would have by then one summit under his belt assuming all goes well and he attends the cozy atmosphere of the 17th ASEAN Summit in Hanoi after having skipped…

MANILA, Philippines – The Climate Change Commission (CCC) said there is a need to rehabilitate and develop the country’s river systems to effectively address the devastation brought about by typhoons.