Monthly Archives: May 2011

The Global Union representing workers in the garment industry has today released a damning report on working conditions in Asian sportswear supply chains.

MANILA, Philippines — A migration expert has warned the government against playing hard ball on the request of Saudi government to lower the minimum wage of household service workers, saying that it could lead to job losses for thousands of Filipino migrant workers.

Leaders of eight associations warned yesterday they will escalate their protests if the minimum wage of domestic helpers is not increased from HK$3,580 to “at least HK$4,000.”

MANILA, Philippines—Noting that their last wage increase was more than a decade ago, an alliance of migrant workers, including Filipinos, in Hong Kong on Monday asked the government to increase their minimum monthly salary to at least P22,000.

MANILA, Philippines — President Aquino was elected with the highest mandate in Philippine history and still enjoys relatively high approval ratings today.

CIVIL society groups allied with President Benigno Aquino III are bickering over a House bill to make it official policy to tap non-government organizations to build houses for the poor and to subsidize those by imposing an extra 1-percent real property tax.

The  number of AIDS cases will rise to more than 30,000 in 2015 or five times the current number of cases, a health official said last week.

MANILA, Philippines – The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), the pension fund for state employees, would be diverting its offshore investments to a number of locally-listed companies in priority sectors.

MANILA, Philippines –  The National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) lambasted the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) yesterday for making a false claim that there was no fee increase at state universities and colleges (SUCs) all over the country.

THE Philippines on Friday said that Saudi Arabia had rejected a demand to guarantee higher pay for Filipino maids, temporarily closing one of the largest labor markets for job-hungry Manila.

Once again and for several times already, the poor sector or the “stereo type slice of our society” particularly the Class D which allegedly constitute the largest segment of our population, is being used and cited as reason for the passage of the RH bill. The call is that before making any decision for or…

The political tsunami in Singapore in recent weeks serves as a sounding board for the future political landscape in Southeast Asia.

MANILA, Philippines –  Statistics show that there has been a downward trend in crime rates over the last two years, an official of the Philippine National Police (PNP) said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines –  Recruitment industry leaders warned the government yesterday that many Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia might lose their jobs as a consequence of the continuing disagreement over the rules on hiring of Filipino domestic helpers, also called household service workers (HSWs).

The country’s top two investment promotion agencies, the Board of Investments (BoI) and the Philippine Export Zones Authority (Peza), generated a total of P145.23 billion worth of committed investments from January to March, which was 123.22 percent higher from the P65.06 billion of approved investments generated in the same period last year.

The third batch of 71 Filipino nurses left for Japan yesterday to undergo intensive Japanese language training to further boost their chances of passing the country’s tough licensure examinations.

MARIVELES, Bataan: Six Chinese workers sustained head and body injuries after they allegedly figured in a brawl with other Chinese inside a power plant undergoing construction in Barangay Alas-Asin here.

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines  – The country is expected to be self-sufficient in rice by 2014 because of good harvests that lessened rice importation, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said during his visit here last week.

In the wake of the spate of vehicular accidents in some of the country’s main thoroughfares involving buses, more lawmakers are proposing that bus drivers undergo retraining programs and be given a fixed monthly salary.

An alliance of overseas Filipino migrants group yesterday asked Congress to conduct an investigation into the alleged involvement of some members of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in the Middle East in human smuggling.

The government will look for other programs that could help nursing graduates get jobs after college, Malacañang yesterday said amid growing number of unemployed nurses in the country.

MANILA — Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) continue to be at-risk of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), with 27 new cases reported for the month of March.

CEBU, Philippines – The Trade Union Congress Party, a Visayas-based partylist group filed a petition with the Energy Regulatory Commission to contest the proposed tariff hike filed by the Visayan Electric Company.

MANILA, Philippines—Communism is not bad—in fact it’s legal, says the man who commands the Armed Forces of the Philippines in its war against the 42-year-old Maoist insurgency.

MANILA, Philippines—Catholics who support the reproductive health (RH) bill may no longer be considered real Catholics, a bishop said yesterday.

TAGAYTAY CITY, Cavite: Cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) are expected to rise to alarming levels in 2015, the Department of Health (DOH) warned on Thursday.

MANILA, Philippines—From separate energy and air-conditioning fees to Internet and e-mail fees, college enrollment charges seem to be getting longer and more burdensome. A youth group monitoring colleges and universities nationwide yesterday noted that in addition to the rising tuition in private colleges and universities, miscellaneous fees have been padding education costs with “hidden fees”…