Monthly Archives: January 2011

MANILA, Philippines—The government is retaining the ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Nigeria, and Somalia, mainly because of the unstable and volatile security situation in these countries, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.

Yesterday, President Noynoy Aquino called the first meeting for the year of his full Cabinet, the third such gathering since he took office. This was apparently such an important event that the media had to be advised about it.

FIFTY-TWO party-list lawmakers on Tuesday opposed the convening of a constituent assembly to amend the Constitution, saying they feared their positions would be abolished.

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MANILA, Philippines – Foreign businessmen are urging the Aquino administration to certify the proposed bill on the creation of the Department of Information and Communication Technologies as priority legislative measure this would be the vehicle to generate $23 billion revenues and create 1.5 million jobs by 2016.

MANILA, Philippines – Business process outsourcing (BPO) companies must address the annual loss of an estimated 84,800 workers from resignations or face a massive shortage of workers 5 years from now.

MANILA, Philippines – For couples desperate to find a way out of their troubled marriages, annulment is a trying and tedious legal process. Aside from being weighed down by the difficulty of proving the psychological incapacity of either spouse, they also have to incur many expenses: the cost of litigation, filing fees, and even the…

As a segment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) more prone to abuse and maltreatment, women should be restricted to work as domestic helpers and factory workers abroad, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said Wednesday.

Filipinos working as household service workers (HSWs) cannot avail themselves of Taiwan’s recent minimum wage hike for workers, the Department of Labor and Employment said Wednesday.

THE PHILIPPINES has to accept the fact that its benefits under a proposed trade scheme favoring its garment exports to the US will have to be cut if the measure is to have a better chance of getting approved by the new Congress there, government and private sector officials yesterday said.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines said Tuesday it would introduce special medical visas for foreigners, as the country seeks to grab a bigger share of Asia’s booming health tourism industry.

WASHINGTON—A global population explosion combined with the steady effects of climate change are forecast to create a worldwide food shortage in the next 10 years, but the news isn’t all bad for some countries.

Here are some aspects to consider in understanding what happens to the Philippine economy this year. The first is to analyze how sound are the “macroeconomic fundamentals.” This means keeping the fiscal, monetary and the investment fronts vibrant but stable. They should facilitate an economy that is operating without crises or imbalances.

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino and his Cabinet were not able to come up with a list of priority bills for Congress. The Cabinet meeting in Malacañang was still going on as of press time late yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-National Appellate Matrimonial Tribunal (CBCP-NAMT) judicial vicar Archbishop Oscar Cruz yesterday said he believes that if House Bill 3952 titled “An Act Recognizing Spousal Violence, Infidelity and Abandonment as Presumptive Psychological Incapacity Constituting a Ground for the Annulment of Marriage” would be passed, the sanctity of marriage…

MANILA, Philippines – More Filipinos expect their personal quality of life to improve in the next 12 months, according to the latest survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

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NEW YORK — The outlook for the global economy in 2011 is, partly, for a persistence of the trends established in 2010. These are: an anemic, below-trend, U-shaped recovery in advanced economies, as firms and households continue to repair their balance sheets; a stronger, V-shaped recovery in emerging-market countries, owing to stronger macroeconomic, financial, and…

MADRID—Global tourism bounced back from the world financial crisis with unexpected vigor, surging almost 7.0 percent last year on the back of strong growth in emerging economies, the UN World Tourism Organization said Monday.

Despite the problems they face, Filipinos’ optimism has remained high, and even improving to near-record-high levels, according to a new survey by pollster Social Weather Stations.

MANILA, Philippines—The House of Representatives is working on trimming down to 20 its list of priority bills it intends to pass on its first year, including the proposed measures on reproductive health, Marcos victims compensation, and Freedom of Information.

(Updated 4:23 p.m.) Sarah Bonnin-Ocampo, a ground crew of Philippine Airlines, filed criminal and administrative complaints against a party-list representative before the Office of the Ombudsman and the House ethics committee, respectively, for having been “dishonored” in public and being called a “menopausal bitch.”

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Labor and Employment(DOLE), in coordination with the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), started recruiting 10,000 registered  nurses for its “RN HEALS” program on Monday.

Local garment makers will receive pointers from Chinese experts on penetrating the lucrative China market.

It’s all over (the holiday hoopla, that is) but the cleaning up. But before you pick up your trusty broomstick and dust pan, and take out those cleaning aids from your musty cabinet shelves, read this: A toxic watchdog has urged the public to use safer alternatives to avoid health risks due to cleaning chemicals.

MANILA, Philippines – The Board of Investments (BOI) will tighten the rules on the grant of tax incentives in an effort to raise more income for the government.

Despite the odds, with President Aquino and the Senate leadership thumbing down discussions on Charter change (Cha-cha) at this time, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago has set the ball rolling on the matter Cha-cha on the Senate, insisting on the need the determine the public pulse and the necessity, if there is indeed any, of amending the…

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines may lose $5 million worth of investment for a denim facility if the US Congress decides to nix the Save the Industries Act.

GROWTH in the Philippines’ retail and consumer sector is forecast to drop by half this year, the sharpest fall in Southeast Asia, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). In a report titled “Strong and Steady: 2011 Outlook for the Retail and Consumer Products Sector in Asia,” PwC said the Philippines’ retail and consumer industry…

MANILA, Philippines – The Aquino administration is still hopeful that economic growth would be within the seven percent to eight percent growth projected for 2011.