Monthly Archives: January 2011

It was pretty disappointing that Economic Secretary Dondon Paderanga was not able to give a more spirited defense of the administration’s conditional cash transfer program when it was attacked, ever so gently, by Sen. Bongbong Marcos during the FOCAP forum last week. Sen. Marcos raised the growth versus equity thing… that P-Noy is sacrificing growth…

MANILA, Philippines – Members of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) will form an informal advisory body on corruption, peace and security, and climate change.

THE Commission on Higher Education (CHED) on Tuesday said it is confident that less number of private colleges and universities will implement tuition increase amid various student groups raising alarm on the expected hike. In an interview with Executive Director Julito Vitriolo, the commission expects only around 20 percent, or less of the total population…

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines ranked 130th in the 2010 Global Peace Index (GPI), an international survey that measured the state of peace in 149 countries.

SHANGHAI – Many Chinese cities are raising minimum wages for workers, fanning inflationary pressures while also seeking to soothe frustrations over price hikes.

LONDON, United Kingdom—The world needs fundamental changes to the global food system to feed the expanding population, said a British government report on how to feed the planet until 2050.

THE AGRICULTURE department will create a database of farmers and farm lands to allow effective planning and monitoring of government services for the sector.

Something is very wrong somewhere when a predominantly agricultural country like the Philippines earns the dubious distinction of being the world’s largest rice exporter and the government agency responsible for ensuring rice self-sufficiency racks up a gargantuan P177-billion debt.

MANILA, Philippines – Children will soon be required to take one year in kindergarten education as pre-requisite to enter Grade I under a bill that was passed on third and final reading at the House of Representatives.

SATISFACTION RATINGS for the country’s top institutions and officials aside from the president are basically stable, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted just before the end of last year found.

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATE) – The local economy likely grew between 6.2% and 7.2% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, pushing full-year growth to 7% to 7.4%, the head of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said on Tuesday.

The government is projecting a healthy farm growth for 2011 and a double digit growth for the first semester, according to a statement Tuesday from the Agriculture Department.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines and its Southeast Asian peers are expected to post an average growth rate of 5.5% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

(Updated 5:35 p.m.) MANILA, Philippines — Iraq’s ambassador called Tuesday on the Philippines to lift its travel ban to Iraq, saying Filipinos can benefit by taking part in his war-damaged country’s reconstruction.

A total of 2,448 abused and distressed Filipino nationals have been repatriated to Manila from Western Saudi Arabia in 2010, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

A hard-hitting radio commentator was shot dead in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, yesterday morning, police said, becoming the second journalist to be murdered in the eight-month-old Aquino administration.

JOBLESSNESS would remain high this year, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said on Monday, as global unemployment continues to rise, since the start of the global financial crisis. In a statement, the ILO said that its annual employment trends survey showed that high levels of unemployment and growing discouragement in developed countries, as well as…

I welcome our classmates from the UST Medicine Class of 1965, many of them from abroad, who are here to celebrate our Sapphire Jubilee reunion and homecoming. This piece is for you, guys.

Now, this topic is hot, hot, hot! There’s probably one sitting in your kitchen. And you’re probably using it more than once a day. It’s that M word: the microwave oven, of course! Latest scientific clinical studies done by Swiss, Russian, and German experts dish out this burning warning: Throw away those microwave ovens! And…

MANILA, Philippines – The robust export performance in 2010 will result in more businesses and investments in the local export sector, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Investments in the country’s electronics industry reached a record level of $2.318 billion or P102.5 billion in 2010.

OFFICIALS from Malacañang and the Catholic Church met for the second time on Monday to discuss the responsible parenthood (RP) bill—the Palace’s proposed version of the reproductive health (RH) bill—and agreed to treat it as a poverty-reduction measure of the government.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine government is finally sending a fact-finding team to Afghanistan to determine whether or not it will lift the existing ban on the deployment of Filipino workers there.

Asean experts are fine-tuning their action plans and tapping financial support from overseas in an effort to reduce poverty and tackle HIV/Aids as part of the United Nations’ millennium development goals, a workshop has heard.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Tens of thousands of Malaysian households have been thrown into domestic chaos as a shortage of maids hits a country with a long-standing addiction to cheap foreign labor.

MANILA, Philippines—Despite a sharp rebound in the economies of many countries, job recovery in the Asia-Pacific region continues to lag behind growth, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is building a cache of information built around consumers and the complaints they may have against any of the credit-card brands out there in the market that are abusive or unfair.

POOR-QUALITY jobs brought about by the global economic crisis will persist in the Philippines in 2011, the International Labor Office (ILO) reported.

MANILA, Philippines – The year of the Metal Rabbit, which begins on February 3, will be a better year for Philippine business and the economy in general.