Monthly Archives: May 2011

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine society remains divided on the reproductive health (RH) bill, if the heated debate on “Harapan” aired by ABS-CBN and ANC on Sunday night is any indication.

MANILA, Philippines – Foreign ministers of Association of Southeast Asian (Asean) member-states will seek to strengthen further the regional and global campaign to combat piracy and violations of intellectual property through the development of multilateral and bilateral arrangements, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Sunday.

MANILA, Philippines—A construction worker fell to his death while working from the third floor of a townhouse being constructed in Quezon City on Saturday afternoon, a police report said.

MANILA, Philippines – The World Health Organization (WHO) said it is important for the Philippines to have a legislated policy on family planning to make the program sustainable.

MANILA, Philippines—About two million farmers, fisherfolk and the poorest of the poor are in line for a rice subsidy or short-term employment from the government to tide them over the lean months and help them cope with rising food prices, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said Friday.

PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino 3rd has issued two presidential decrees as part of compensation adjustments for government workers and state personnel.

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino ordered yesterday the early disbursement of bonus and cash gifts for the 1.1 million government workers, in time for the resumption of classes in June.

MANILA, Philippines – Workers in Metro Manila will probably get no more than P30 increase in their daily take home pay.

President Benigno S. Aquino III attended the first day of the 18th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit today, which kicked off with the ASEAN Leaders’ Plenary Session focusing on the implementation of the Roadmap for the ASEAN Community.

MANILA, Philippines—Labor groups on Friday assailed employers’ announcement that they could only afford an P13 daily pay increase and President Benigno Aquino III’s refusal to certify as urgent a bill seeking a P125 across-the-board wage hike pending in Congress.

MANILA, Philippines – President “Benigno” Aquino III asked businessmen to consider creating a profit sharing or productivity incentives plan, a measure he has been advocating since he was part of Congress.

MANILA, Philippines – In the end, the National Capital Region (NCR) wage board decided to give more weight to the arguments of employers for a ‘just’ minimum salary hike for Metro Manila workers after exhaustive week-long public hearings.

Finnish Immigration Service figures show a rise in work permits for cleaning jobs. Foreign workers are meeting with growing levels of exploitation in Finland. Particularly in the cleaning and household services sectors, many cases of exploitation have the hallmarks of human trafficking.

MANILA, Philippines — Construction companies were reminded by the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) to strictly enforce occupational safety and health standards (OSHS) in their worksites to keep their workers out of harm’s way.

MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City have a chance to return to school after the city government and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) signed an agreement to train them.

EMPLOYERS were urged yesterday to accept the prospect of higher wages, with President Benigno S. C. Aquino III saying that a round of nationwide adjustments expected to start next week will “not be a threat” to growth.

I flew to Singapore last week to brief a group of businessmen on what’s happening in the Philippines, and what to expect. I was competing against analysts from other countries doing the same. So how would I convince these businessmen to no longer ignore the Philippines, as they have been doing until now?

THE Bangko Sentral on Thursday raised two benchmark interest rates by 25 basis points after the government reported that inflation had spiked by 4.5 percent in April.

MANILA, Philippines—The country’s top employers can afford to grant a pay increase to minimum-wage workers, President Benigno Aquino III said Thursday.

THE lack of cooperation from brand owners as well as mall operators where counterfeiting is prevalent deters the government’s anti-piracy efforts, according to the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL).

SALES of imported vehicles outpaced those of locally assembled models during the first quarter, according to the Philippine Automotive Federation Inc. (PAFI)

As inflation is poised to breach original forecasts this year primarily due to the continuing rise in crude oil prices and the possibility of higher-than-estimated salary wage hikes, all indications point to an increase in interest rates to balance out what could turn out to be a disastrous situation.

The 2011 corruption index by Political-Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. (Hong Kong) was a red flag. Sleaze in the Philippines had worsened since 2010, among 16 Asian economies. On a scale of one to 10, with 10 as worst, the country scored 8.9 percent, poorer than the previous 8.25. The Philippines retained its third-most corrupt slot…

Admittedly, one of the subjects most exhaustibly discussed in this column, is the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill. Since its introduction in Congress almost 15 years ago under the aegis of foreign groups with seemingly inexhaustible funds, I have written so many articles against it mainly because it is unconstitutional or illegal and unnecessary. While…

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino yesterday called on employers to be more generous to their workers by way of profit sharing.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) yesterday raised interest rates by 25 basis points to control inflation expectations and contain second round effects after inflation rose to a one-year high of 4.5 percent in April because of surging oil prices.

Prominent think tank Forensic Law and Policy Strategies Inc. (Forensic Solutions) submitted to the government a national policy and framework for Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) that it hopes the Aquino administration would consider to help ensure the success of PPP projects by way of delivering more, better and affordable services to the Filipino people.

The 18-point plunge in the government’s overall performance rating might have stung President Aquino once again as he yesterday slammed, in a speech before company executives, two critical columnists who had attributed the recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey results to the Chief Executive’s laidback working style.

The effort against corruption was rated the weakest under the administration of President Aquino during the three years since 2007 that the Washington-based think tank Global Integrity held its surveys, with the Philippines receiving an overall “very weak” grade of an average 57 percent, a rating that his critics said mimicked his empty anti-graft rhetorics.

The Philippines will likely post a slightly lower export growth this year after shipments of a number of the country’s agricultural exports to Japan slowed down due to the disasters that struck the north Asian nation in March this year.