Monthly Archives: December 2010

THE Education department (DepEd) said it would have to close down schools in areas of high security risk if kidnappings should continue despite looking at redeploying principals and teachers in affected areas.

BUTUAN CITY, Philippines – Suspected New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas swooped down on a banana plantation owned by Dole Philippines in Barobo, Surigao del Sur last Tuesday morning and destroyed some 1,600 banana plants.

IN a bid to protect the public against abusive taxi drivers who either charge extra fee or refusing to accept passengers the Department of Transportation and Communications, has formally launched on Thursday its campaign to penalize erring taxi drivers.

BOCAUE, Bulacan – The P500-million domestic fireworks industry continues to thrive and withstand the impact of smuggling and competition from foreign brands that aggravated a decline in sales since 2000.

MANILA, Philippines –  The House of Representatives will closely monitor the implementation of the P22-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) program next year

MANILA, Philippines –  Local and foreign businessmen have united to form an anti-corruption project that will receive a $1.4-million grant from Siemens AG.

MANILA, Philippines –  Nearly nine in 10 Filipinos look to 2011 with hope, buoyed by the reform agenda of President Aquino, with just one in 20 feeling apprehensive, results of a recent Pulse Asia survey showed.

ALL that gloom and rain for days at  Fontana Leisure Park in Clark, Pampanga did not dampen the enthusiasm of child representatives from 10 countries who participated at the recent first Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Children’s Forum.

Manila (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) – The Philippines is expected to hold on to its position as the world’s top call center destination as more companies from markets like the United States look to subcontract more of their requirements to help cut costs.

At least 160 Filipinas and one Indonesian were arrested for allegedly working illegally at an elite wedding reception at the World Trade Center in the United Arab Emirates.

Amid the alarming number of foreign household helpers dying or being abused in Kuwait, the Philippine Embassy there has urged agency owners to step up efforts to ensure the safety and welfare of overseas Filipino workers in that Middle East country.

MANILA, Philippines – Only 43 of the 283 members of the House of Representatives or about 15% have been religiously attending plenary sessions of the 15th Congress in their first 6 months in office.

MANILA, Philippines – The International Shipping Federation (ISF) has urged the Philippine government to ratify the Maritime Labor Convention 2006 (MLC 2006).

Forced child labor is still a major problem plaguing the world’s markets. The U.S. Department of Labor just announced it has added six new products from a dozen new countries, 11 in Africa, to the list of countries that use child labor or forced child labor to produce goods for markets around the globe.

The Aquino III administration’s objectives of achieving 7-8% growth, reducing the budget/deficit to GDP ratio to 2% by 2013, and not reforming the tax system are internally inconsistent. Achieving two objectives may be done simultaneously but not all three. Achieving inclusive growth-oriented fiscal consolidation requires reforming the tax system. And reforming it now rather than…

In the late 1980s, the Philippines was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records for allegedly the biggest corruption of all time. The country was under the regime of the late President Ferdinand Marcos, who was ousted through a bloodless People Power Revolution in 1986. Hopes were high with the new administration under the…

WAGES IN THE PHILIPPINES are among those that were hit hard by the financial and economic crisis, the International Labour Office (ILO) said in its latest report.

SINGAPORE — The Philippine software industry has been ranked third in Southeast Asia in terms of “maturity” although the sector, along with its counterparts in most countries in the region, stood at the bottom of a yearly industry index covering 52 countries.

Real value of wages in the Philippines and Malaysia posted the biggest drop at four percent for the region in 2008 as the worldwide financial and economic crisis cut global wage growth by half in 2008 and 2009, a new report by the International Labor Office (ILO) said.

MANILA — The Philippines’ famous diaspora of overseas workers is fuelling a boom in the real estate market back home as they snap up houses and apartments to safeguard their futures.

Church leaders have softened their position with respect to the information drive the government is planning to launch as part of its measures to promote President Aquino’s policy on responsible parenthood that would include both natural and artificial family planning methods, Malacañang implied yesterday.

Advocates of the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill in the House of Representatives yesterday suffered a big setback even as the P200-million budget for the purchase of condoms and contraceptives was removed from the budget.

The House minority bared yesterday the removal of a provision in next year’s budget that would prevent the unused portion of the massive P21 billion budget for the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) from turning into savings the use of which would be under the discretion…

This is about your December 7 editorial “Credit Cards vs. Consumers.” While consumer feedback is always appreciated, we at the Credit Card Association of the Philippines (CCAP) believe a few misconceptions regarding bank interest rates need to be cleared up. First, many people forget that there is no interest charged if your credit card bill…

REMITTANCES from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) reached a record this year in October, the Philippine central bank said. In a statement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said money sent home by OFWs through banks rose by 9.3 percent to reach $1.7 billion in October compared with the $1.531 billion in the same month last…

THE management of state-run Home Guaranty Corp. have rewarded themselves with P22.2 million to acquire executive cars and another P9.349 million in “incentive awards” in 2009 despite the government corporation racking up P9.98 billion in losses, Bagong Henerasyon Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy said Tuesday.

THE Aquino government and the Catholic Church on Wednesday have agreed to provide the public “full information” on the methods of family planning, both natural and artificial.

Majority of Filipinos are satisfied with the performance of President Benigno Aquino 3rd, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed on Wednesday. The survey showed that 74 percent were satisfied and 10 percent dissatisfied with the performance of President Benigno Aquino 3rd, for a “very good” net satisfaction rating of +64.

More than one in four adults in the Philippines are jobless or are looking for more work despite strong economic growth this year, the government said Wednesday. The October unemployment rate stood at 7.1 percent, unchanged from a year earlier but up slightly from July’s 6.9 percent, according to the latest quarterly report from the…

CEBU, Philippines – Officials of the Home  Development Mutual Fund yesterday said several private establishments are violating the law by not remitting the monthly premiums of their employees to Pag-IBIG.