Monthly Archives: December 2010

CEBU, Philippines – Retiring employees may now be automatically enrolled to the Lifetime Member Program without personally going to PhilHealth office.

MANILA, Philippines –  In a meeting with energy and power players and industry stakeholders, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the largest business organization in the country, lauded AES Philippines, owner of the Masinloc power plant, for its initiative to fast track the upgrading of its power plants.

MANILA, Philippines –  The information and communications technology (ICT) industry helps government bring more jobs and opportunities to Filipinos whose lives also improve with more access to technology, President Aquino said at the formal opening of an industry-led ICT exhibition in Pasay City last Thursday.

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines—A group supporting the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has warned bishops opposing six reproductive health (RH) bills being pushed in Congress that they face imminent defeat, urging them to work and pray to win more lawmakers to their side.

MANILA, Philippines – Parañaque Mayor Florencio Bernabe has been cited by the Local Government Academy for the city’s efforts to fight and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

CEBU CITY, Philippines  – The regional office of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) must seriously look into its own findings that 22 percent of 2,200 establishments it had inspected in Metro Cebu did not implement the recent adjustment in the minimum wage.

MANILA, Philippines—Claiming that working the night shift could cause cancer, an occupational health and safety NGO on Saturday scored the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) over its decision to allow pregnant women to work the late hours.

More and more people are developing some form of asthma with the worsening air pollution in Metro Manila. Even the most powerful person in this country is not exempted from this horrific situation. We are told that P-Noy’s sinusitis has gone from bad to worse not necessarily from smoking but because of air pollution. Maybe…

Philippine media, especially television, will have to account for the big Information Gap in our country. Media are the principal means for acquiring information and a look at those top rating television shows will show that more emphasis is placed on what the Filipinos want rather than on what they need to know.

VOW OF POVERTY: Having witnessed the ostentatious display of overflowing wealth among officials in the past, I was appalled by reports that many members of the Official Family of President Noynoy Aquino are poor by today’s standards.

MANILA, Philippines—The Aquino administration would make do with whatever amount Congress had allocated for its budget for responsible parenthood, Malacañang said Saturday.

MANILA, Philippines – An estimated 1.54 million people in the ASEAN region have been infected with the HIV virus as of end 2009 from 1.58 million in 2007.

MANILA, Philippines – Contrary to claims of his predecessor, President Aquino said only 61 percent of the country — and not 99 percent — has electricity. He said his administration, with a budget of P1.4 billion for the energy department for next year, is determined to bring electricity to the remaining parts of the country,…

MANILA, Philippines – Parliamentarians from 10 Asian countries have urged governments in the region to allocate at least one percent of their national budgets to projects designed to strengthen disaster risk reduction, the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) said.

WASHINGTON—The US jobless rate surged to 9.8 percent in November, a hammer blow to the economic recovery and to President Barack Obama’s hopes for a quick end to high unemployment.

MANILA, Philippines – Vice President and presidential adviser on overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) Jejomar Binay directed yesterday the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to discuss with the Insurance Commission and other concerned agencies the possibility of allowing Hong Kong- based insurance companies to provide coverage for Filipino workers.

MANILA, Philippines – While trying to take in as many passengers as he could, Arthur Crisostomo, 45, skips lunch and bites from a P6 bread to ease his hunger.

Who really believes women’s reproductive health is the main concern in House Bill 96? Bill Clinton in Manila. Photo: Philippines InquirerLast week in Manila, Malcolm Potts, grand-daddy of the international family planning movement, announced that unless the much debated “Reproductive Health” bill is passed in this session of Congress, the Philippines would become the next…

Koronadal City (4 December) — Hospitals in Region 12 or SOCCSKSARGEN Region lead the more than 600 hospitals in the country in complying with the Department of Health (DOH) mandate to phase out use of mercury-containing devices.

DAVAO CITY – Two former Bombo Radyo Davao broadcasters Dennis Lazo and Arthur Borneo filed a complaint of illegal dismissal before the National Labor Relations Commission regional officer here last Wednesday December 1.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) reported the adoption of an 18-point agenda on health and safety for Mindanao workers during the the two-day 3rd Mindanao Occupational Safety and Health Summit held in Zamboanga del Norte through a joint resolution recently.

Unions representing government workers are set to fight a protracted battle against the implementation of the P21-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) even under a new secretary in the event that Corazon “Dinky” Soliman is replaced.

FOR the past decade, Americans dialing customer service stood a strong chance of being connected to someone in India. Now they’re more likely to end up phoning the Philippines.

It was interesting to be a kibitzer on the side, actually an armchair viewer from the comforts of my office, at the recent AVID forum. Though I wasn’t physically present, I sent a crew to cover the whole forum and from the footage of the coverage got some good insights from the venerable speakers at…

MANILA, Philippines – The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday launched in the Philippines the 2010 “World Health Report,” where it strongly recommended an increase in tobacco and alcohol taxes to raise funds for health insurance.

MANILA, Philippines – More Filipinos are taking up vocational courses to work as barbers and hairstylists abroad, according to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

MANILA, Philippines – The number of non-European workers entering the United Kingdom will be strictly regulated, the British embassy said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – A Cabinet member has 15 cars while some have millions in cash deposited in banks. These are some of the interesting details in the Statements of Assets and Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) of President Aquino’s official family.

Effective next year, Switzerland will implement a new minimum wage for domestic workers in that central European country—the first such law implemented by the Swiss federal government following reports of widespread salary abuse.

The season of gifts and gift-giving is again upon us. To avoid “temptations” that may turn this holiday custom into a form of corruption, the Labor Department has suspended labor inspections from Dec. 1 to mid-January.