Monthly Archives: January 2011

MANILA, Philippines – The Court of Appeals (CA) has ruled that government employees are not entitled to cost-of-living allowance (COLA) separate from their regular pay, otherwise, they are guilty of double compensation that is prohibited by the Constitution.

GENEVA (Reuters) – Last year tied for the hottest year on record, confirming a long-term warming trend which will continue unless greenhouse gas emissions are cut, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.

The days of executives of government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) enjoying unwarranted salaries and excessive perks, some of which were noted to have been the equivalent to 25 months of salaries, will soon come to an end.

The government is sticking to a seven to eight percent economic growth target this year despite independent projections and the government’s own estimate in drafting the budget that the gross domestic product (GDP) expansion will not exceed five percent for the year.

MANILA, Philippines – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) warned that inflation expectations could turn upward but would still fall within the three percent to five percent target set by monetary authorities this year amid rising global food and oil prices.

MANILA, Philippines – The Board of Investments (BOI) is expecting investment inflows to contract by 15 percent due to a lesser number of power projects for this year.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Wood Producers Association (PWPA) appealed yesterday to President Aquino to reconsider a total log ban, warning of its social impact on over two million people directly and indirectly working in the wood industry.

Exploiting the poor and using them as an excuse to justify the adoption of some measures smacks of demagoguery. Yet this practice has been going on and seems to be accepted in every democratic society like ours because it appears harmless and tolerable. Sometimes, however, the proposed measures to be adopted or the steps to…

MANILA, Philippines – Governance has been a major problem of the Philippines and will require years for the country to effect transformation, according to the European Union’s outgoing Ambassador Alistair MacDonald.

The country’s huge dependence foreign remittances had reached an alarming level that money transfers has overtaken agricultural output as primary source of income in the rural areas, according to a private study.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION ITUC OnLine 006/180111 (Washington D.C., 18 January 2011): A delegation of over 60 trade union leaders from all parts of the world is beginning a 3-day series of meetings in Washington D.C. with the Managing Director of the IMF, the President of the World Bank and other senior officials, as well…

The ASEAN CSR Network held an inaugural ceremony on 11 January 2011 in Singapore to celebrate its incorporation led by its founding members, namely, the ASEAN Foundation, Indonesia Business Links, International Chamber of Commerce-Malaysia, the League of Corporate Foundations (Philippines), CSR Club of Thai Listed Companies Association and Singapore Compact for CSR, which also hosts…

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MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines is one of over 120 countries where the “worst forms of child labor” continue to exist, perpetuating a cycle of poverty and often denying children the chance to attend school and learn the skills they need to become productive adults, said a US Department of Labor report.

THE PROVINCE of Camiguin and the municipality of Alfonso Castañeda in Nueva Vizcaya grabbed the top spots in a national survey of good governance in 2008, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) said in a statement released yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines—Only a day after it announced that it was recruiting nurses for rural health work, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) was swamped by more than 15,000 applicants, a labor official said Tuesday.

MANILA, Philippines—The reproductive health bill is one of 12 priority bills that President Benigno Aquino III will be presenting to Congress for approval this year.

The spirit underlying the formation of cooperatives is universal to all types of human groupings — from families to clans and tribes to society — which is to seek a common goal for the common good.

A CENTRAL credit information bureau cannot start operating because Malacañang has yet to appoint its top executive. “There is no president yet,” Fe B. Barin, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman, told BusinessWorld Friday night.

PEOPLE SHOPPING for insurance policies are using different channels to do so, IBM said yesterday, and insurers must therefore “embrace multiple channel strategies” to stay on top of their game.

SEVERAL Southeast Asian economies enjoyed as much as a five-fold increase in foreign direct investments (FDI) last year while the Philippines was recording a decline, United Nations data released on Monday showed.

THE GOVERNMENT could revive plans to establish economic zones for garment exporters as growing demand from China may spark a flurry of factory expansions, a Board of Investments (BoI) official said.

WASHINGTON—People with HIV are three times as likely to suffer strokes, said a study out Wednesday that has led researchers to question if antiretroviral drugs could be to blame.

A decision by a mediator-arbiter of the Department of Labor and Employment-National Capital Region (DoLE-NCR) involving a certification election (CE) issue among the rank-and-file employees of the country’s biggest bank subverts industrial democracy.

The economy is likely to grow 4.6 percent this year far lower than the government projected seven percent gross domestic product (GDP) expansion, according to a United Nations (UN) report.

Going by the principle that haste makes waste, President Aquino yesterday disclosed that only 12 out of the 32 bills that have made it to their priority shortlist may be presented by the executive department to the 15th Congress.

According to CHED Memorandum Order 59, series of 1996, general education demands “an interdisciplinary approach which would help the students see the human being as an integral person living in both a national and a global community.”

MANILA, Philippines – Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman Dr. Patricia Licuanan said that CHED has no jurisdiction over hospitals that collect the OJT fees from nursing students. “Essentially, it should be the department of Health (that should look into it),” Licuanan told The STAR. “We have no authority over the hospitals at all,” she…

MANILA, Philippines – Without a bilateral labor agreement or a Lebanese law to protect overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), the Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday the Philippines’ current deployment ban to Lebanon remains.

The Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF) rebellion claims to be Maoist. If so, then Maoist China should have been their center of orbit. However, a personal account which a veteran political player revealed to your Chair Wrecker and some close friends had debunked that notion.