Monthly Archives: March 2011

MANILA, Philippines – Proposals for a national identification (ID) system never got to see the light of day, so to speak, due to stiff opposition from sectors who fear it may infringe on the rights of citizens.

Federal Express managing director for Indonesia and the Philippines Rhicke Jennings informed us that Fedex will be coming back to the Philippines with plans to increase its presence in the country. In 2009, Fedex closed its Asian hub in Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority or SBMA – the first time the delivery giant ever closed a…

CEBU, Philippines – Social Security System-Cebu branch manager Mario V. Corro clarified that self-employed and voluntary-paying members who are delinquent in the payment of their loans are not included in the penalty condonation program offered by the government insurance system.

MANILA, Philippines – Why has science and mathematics education in the Philippines deteriorated? According to a University of the Philippines (UP) expert, this is because local education persisted in using an obsolete discipline-based curriculum in math and science (which is mostly by rote and without much inquiry and high level of thinking) already rejected as…

MANILA, Philippines –  Amid the developing nuclear crisis in Japan, Science Secretary Mario Montejo expressed support for the opening of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) but stressed safety precautions should be implemented.

SINGAPORE: Asia is poised for another year of solid growth in 2011 even if the impact of the killer earthquake and tsunami on Japan remains unclear, Standard and Poor’s (S&P) said Wednesday.

MANILA, Philippines –  Malacañang said yesterday it would repatriate overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Bahrain who may want to go home, but will not yet resort to forced evacuation and repatriation despite the declaration of martial law in that country.

PARIS: Following is a primer on the health consequences of exposure to radiation: Radiation risk Three things, say experts, determine whether a blast of radiation will be harmless, debilitating or lethal—the intensity of exposure, its duration and access to treatment. Radioactive fallout includes caesium 137, a long-term element and iodine, a short-term element. Intensity of…

MANILA, Philippines – British banking giant Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC) downplayed the impact of the violence in the Middle East and North African (MENA) states on the growth of remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

MANILA, Philippines – Investing in the world’s 1.2 billion adolescents aged 10 to 19 now can break entrenched cycles of poverty and inequity, and reduce the risk of HIV in the Philippines.

A prolonged crisis in Japan as a result of the multiple disasters that hit it will slow down the supply chain for electronics including that to the Philippines which relies heavily on Japanese raw materials for its semiconductors, its biggest export product, the Semiconductor Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. (Seipi) said yesterday.

President Aquino bragged to reporters that his government was among the first that immediately offered humanitarian aid of some $14 million to Japan, but he now refuses to order the evacuation of some 300,000 Filipinos in Japan, and unconscionably tells its citizens in Japan not to expect his government to pay for their airfare to…

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine capital is woefully unprepared for a major quake that could hit at any time and kill tens of thousands of people, flattening nearly half the city’s homes, experts warn.

It’s really too early to tell the impact of the deadly earthquake on the Japanese and the global economy, but stock market pundits agree that the catastrophe will result in a massive reconstruction job that, in the medium-term period, could finally prop up the gross domestic product in the devastated nation.

Honda Cars Philippines said the massive quake and destructive tsunami in Japan will not affect its local operations, adding it can produce completely knocked-down vehicles due to available parts and components from other countries.

If true character is what we show when no one is looking, real civility (or the lack of it) will definitely be on display in times of widespread calamity. And the recent disaster in Japan brought to the fore both the character and the deep respect for others that the citizens of that country possess.…

ALCATEL-LUCENT, ICAP and Infosys Technologies are among the companies moving employees in Japan elsewhere after Prime Minister Naoto Kan warned the risk of leaks from an earthquake-damaged nuclear plant was rising.

MANILA, Philippines – It’s been called a “life-saver” to impoverished families but to former Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and 2 barangay officials, the P21 billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) program allocation in the 2011 national budget is an unconstitutional campaign and a “grave abuse of discretion of the Executive Department.”

TOTAL earnings of Philippine industries grew by double digits in the third quarter of 2010 mostly because of higher growth in banks and non-bank sectors, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) said.

THE number of Filipino women in senior management positions fell at its fastest pace for over seven years partly because of the economic crisis, according to Grant Thornton’s International Business Report (IBR).

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PHILIPPINE businesses have begun counting the possible economic costs of Japan’s worst disaster since the Second World War, with electronics exporters warning of disruption in their raw material sourcing.

MANILA, Philippines – Investments are expected to breach the P300-billion mark again this year as figures for the first two months jumped by 185 percent, the Board of Investments (BOI) reported yesterday.

Technology firms are facing major disruption to supplies in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami which have devastated parts of Japan.

CREDIT card companies were warned Tuesday against mobbing their prospective customers to avail of their services, because not all people have the capacity to pay credit cards.

The Philippine population has been growing at a high pace compared to neighboring countries. At the same time, the economies of neighbors with which our country is often compared have been growing faster than ours over the last few decades. Part of their success comes from their ability to deal with their population growth.

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga, Philippines – Five minors working as entertainers in videoke bars in Olongapo City and Zambales were rescued by policemen and personnel of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) over the weekend.

State pension fund Government Service Insurance System’s (GSIS) thrift bank unit GSIS Family Bank said it has resolved issues with its employees union, following the recent signing of a collective-bargaining agreement (CBA).

MANILA, Philippines –  The retail prices of sugar and cooking oil are going down despite the rising cost of petroleum, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said.

MANILA, Philippines –  More Filipinos are jobless this year. Results of the National Statistics Office’s (NSO) Labor Force Survey yesterday showed that the number of unemployed people in the country totaled to 2.91 million in January this year from 2.82 million in the same period last year. Overall unemployment rate stands at 7.4 percent this…