Monthly Archives: December 2010

A senior official of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said that the Philippines is likely to exceed its growth target this year, but warned of a slowdown next year because of a “quite fragile” global economic recovery.

CEBU, Philippines – Effective January 1, 2011, PhilHealth will implement additional conditions on members’ eligibility to avail of benefits. These conditions are aimed at making benefits more responsive and safeguarding the funds from possible abuse to ensure the sustainability of the program.

CEBU, Philippines – Party-list group Trade Union Congress Party urged the government and the private sector to participate in the House deliberation of the proposed Magna Carta for the Poor.

MANILA, Philippines – Workers in the Calabarzon region, comprising Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon, are getting their much awaited salary hike, the Department of Labor and Employment said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines will likely surpass its 2010 economic growth target of five to six percent because of the strong gross domestic product performance in the first half of the year, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga Jr. said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines expects its estimated $50-billion merchandise export figure this year to double by 2016, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Jejomar Binay focused his attention on housing reforms during his first five months in office.

MANILA, Philippines – Investments in the country’s economic zones jumped 17 percent to a nine-year high of P204.4 billion in 2010 as electronic firms continue to expand, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) said.

In a bit of good news towards the turn of the year, our newspapers have been highlighting the fact that the Philippines has overtaken India as the world leader in business process outsourcing (BPO). IBM’s Global Locations Trend 2010 declared the Philippines as the world’s number one location for shared services and BPO. This year,…

MANILA, Philippines – The year 2010 was a roller coaster ride for the Philippine National Police (PNP), earning praises for its vital role in ensuring honest and peaceful national and local elections, while condemned for failing to successfully resolve the hostage crisis that resulted in the death of eight Hong Kong tourists.

Maasin City, Southern Leyte, Dec. 23 (PIA) -– The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE ) met the members of the Sagip Batang Manggagawa Quick Action Team (SBMQAT) here, December 22 in order to re-orient them and present the issues and problems in the program implementation against child labor and child trafficking throughout the province.

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine National Police announced the strengthening of its human rights arm through the release of a human rights manual that is meant as a guide to every policemen on the field.

There is much optimism about how the vast sums they send home could help finance development but weak international protection leaves migrant workers at risk of abuse.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

THIS REFERS to Mark Dia’s letter. (“On Ferraris and use of ‘militant’,” (Inquirer, 11/22/10) The letter raises the potentially problematic appreciation by the international arena of the term “militant” when applied to various groups in the Philippines where it has quite different senses. This is pointed out in the 2010 book “Primed and Purposeful: Armed…

MANILA, Philippines—Over 1.5 million households outside Metro Manila have no access to safe, clean drinking water, according to the Department of Interior and Local Government.

MANILA, Philippines – About seven in 10 Filipinos see a “happy” Christmas this year, based on the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey results.

The satisfaction rating among Filipinos with the way democracy in the country works has risen, a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey revealed on Wednesday.

VATICAN CITY—The Vatican on Tuesday sought to clarify the pope’s controversial comments about condoms and HIV, saying he by no means suggested condom use could be condoned as a means of avoiding pregnancy.

It has been known for decades here and in the US that pork barrel funds are a major source of corruption. The going “kickback” or “tongpats” on public works projects is 30 percent. It could go up to 80 percent for ghost projects. The accepted practice is for the pork barrel sponsor to designate the…

MANILA, Philippines – Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez had her hands full in 2010, including parrying an impeachment complaint.

Campaigners are protesting against plans to re-open the world’s largest asbestos mine, the Jeffrey Mine in Quebec with the help of $58 million from the provincial government. The mine would export upwards of 6 million tonnes of chrysotile asbestos to less industrialised countries over the next 25 years.

MANILA, Philippines – Call centers began in the Philippines as plain providers of email response and managing services. Operated by a company, a call center is an extensive workspace that serves as a telemarketing venue where the products and services of a particular company are being promoted to clients by call center agents, often called…

Majority of Filipinos are hopeful of good things to come next year, a recent survey conducted by a market research firm showed. According to the results of Synovate’s Asiabus October 2010 survey, 51 percent of respondents “foresee their personal financial situation to be better” in the next 12 months, while 39 percent said they expect…

MANILA, Dec. 22 (PIA) — A study on safety standards for nuclear energy will begin next year, the Department of Energy (DoE) said yesterday.

State subsidies to non-financial government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) slightly dipped at end-November. Data from the Bureau of Treasury showed that for the first 11 months, the national government gave out a total of P16.323 billion in financial support to state-owned firms, or three percent lower than the P16.84 billion last year.

MANILA, Philippines – Globe Telecom has expanded its investment in the use of information and communications technology (ICT) for education with the creation of the Global Filipino Schools (GFS) program, a competency-building initiative to help students, teachers and school heads in select public high schools nationwide.

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Edgardo J. Angara has called on the government to use science and technology (S&T) to “engineer resilience” into the country’s agricultural systems in order to remain competitive in the face of natural calamities.

MANILA, Philippines – GCash Remit, the domestic cash pick-up service of Globe Telecom, was tapped by the Land Bank of the Philippines and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for the pilot implementation of the government’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program in the far-flung areas of Balabac and Taytay in Palawan, and Burdeos,…

MANILA, Philippines – Investments registered by the Board of Investments (BOI) went up by 93 percent this year to P299.39 billion from only P155.417 billion a year ago.