Monthly Archives: January 2011

MANILA, Philippines—The number of active manpower agencies licensed by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has dropped by almost half from 1,200 in the 2007-2008 period to less than 700 active companies now, a recruitment consultant said Sunday.

MANILA, JANUARY 23, 2011 (STAR) By Sheila Crisostomo – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has expressed disappointment over the hiring scheme for Filipino nurses and caregivers under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).

FOR perhaps the nth time, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reminded banks and credit-card companies on Friday to engage in fair and reasonable behavior when collecting from delinquent cardholders.

THE PHILIPPINE Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), bucking other state agencies’ moves to approve fewer incentives, plans to keep green-lighting new tax-free sites for investors at its usual pace.

THE 36 million Filipino workers whose quality of life did not improve in 2010 need to face another set of economic challenges this year—a triple whammy of price increases that would further lower their living standards if the necessary interventions will not be put in place on time by the government and social partners.

Below is a short list of the pending bills in Congress, which the same alliance of civil society groups believe, should be prioritized and passed during the current Fifteenth Congress. The list is based on the bills cited in the draft of Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) chapters; the Citizens’ Roadmap for Poverty Reduction…

THIS review comes from an alliance of Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and CSO networks which have been involved in the Millennium Term Philippine Development Plan process. These include the Caucus of Development NGO Networks, Freedom from Debt Coalition, Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation, Trade Advocacy Group, Fair Trade Alliance, Rice Watch Action…

RIYADH: A group of 20 undocumented Filipinos staged a silent protest on Saturday in front of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter.

LUCENA CITY, Quezon, Philippines – Two Catholic bishops, priests, lay people from different church organizations in Quezon province held a motorcade and rally on Saturday to drive home their opposition to the reproductive health bill pending in Congress.

CONTACT centers want the government to strictly implement its calendar of non-working holidays to ease labor costs.

MANILA, Jan. 21 — Power distributor Manila Electric Company (Meralco) explained on Friday the requirements for applying for the senior citizens’ discount.

THE Philippines should maximize the utilization of benefits under its existing free trade agreements with other countries as one of the vital market strategies to increase exports, a high-ranking Trade official said.

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino workers appeared to be losing their popularity among foreign employers.

MANILA, Philippines –  Foreign portfolio investments in local stocks and securities, also called “hot money” hit a new record level of $4.61 billion in 2010, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

THE country’s palay and corn production in 2010 slightly dropped from their respective levels from the previous year as a prolonged dry spell brought by the El Niño phenomenon took its toll on staple crops, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Friday.

MANILA, Philippines –  The House of Representatives will look into the real reason behind the high electricity rates in the country, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines — The outsourcing industry boom has created more opportunities for Filipinos in different fields, taking up a considerable portion of the 1.011 million new jobs in the Philippines as of October.

A Filipino graphic artist and a medical technologist are among the winners of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) program’s “Online Volunteering Award 2010,” the Philippine Mission to the UN disclosed over the weekend.

MANILA, Philippines—Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz has admonished the Philippine labor attaché in Hong Kong whom a domestic helper complained had verbally abused her while she was seeking his help about her illegal dismissal.

THE country stands to lose as much as P30 billion in revolving investments and about $1 billion worth of value-added wood products exports if the government implements a logging ban.

FOREIGN investments in local stocks and securities, also called hot money, yielded a net inflow of $4.6 billion in 2010, up 12 times from just $388 million in 2009.

Last week I wrote about the initiative of the Foreign Chambers to suggest actions and reforms that could take this country forward. The government too has released various plans and programs, but not in such a concerted fashion.

MANILA, Philippines — TESDA training programs are designed to enable trainees to learn and master the competencies needed for a job.

The TUCP Party-list is batting for the inclusion of labor education in the curriculum for tertiary education to increase the awareness of college students on labor laws, labor rights and privileges and other related concerns.

BAGUIO CITY, Jan. 21 (PIA) – The United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Baguio supports the Reproductive Health Bill but against anything that would harm the health of women and babies.

ECONOMIC GROWTH likely stayed steady at 6.5% in the last three months of 2010, a Cabinet official yesterday said, allowing for full-year growth of slightly above 7% that tops the government’s 5-6% target.

OVER 300 FIRMS have signed a pledge against bribery and other unethical practices under a private sector campaign seen complementing the government’s anti-corruption efforts.

SINGAPORE — Multinational firms trying to get a bigger piece of the Asia growth story face a rising risk of becoming embroiled in corruption scandals unless they enforce stricter compliance norms and new regulations.

MANILA, Philippines – Children in public schools nationwide will soon be given the opportunity to work their little plots of earth, when the Department of Education (DepEd) starts its program to combat malnutrition called “School-based Food and Nutrition Program,” with the slogan “Ating anihin masustansyang pagkain, tanim ng paaralan natin (Harvesting nutritious food in school…

The Philippine Embassy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has posted online a list of 24-hour hotline numbers that Filipinos can contact even after office hours.