Monthly Archives: May 2011

No doubt, health care is now one of the biggest concerns of Filipinos given the high cost of medicines and hospitalization, not to mention doctors’ professional fees. So it’s not surprising that this would be high up in the current administration’s agenda.

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino needs to deliver on his campaign promises, focusing on fighting graft and corruption, creating job opportunities and reducing poverty in the Philippines, if he wants to maintain his still high popularity rating, according to the latest issue of Spark, an online newsletter prepared by advisory and research consultancy group Stratbase…

MANILA, Philippines – The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the World Bank yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen collaboration on food safety in the Asia-Pacific region, which accounts for over 40 percent of the world’s population and nearly half of global food production.

MANILA, Philippines – A Bataan lawmaker reiterated her consistent petition for an alternative use of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) in view of the nuclear disaster that hit Japan.

Manila, Philippines – Bus drivers can look forward to shorter working hours and much better working conditions in the coming months.

The debate on the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill resumed in Congress this week, where the pros and the antis debate once more on this highly-toxic issue, often with those supporting the RH bill (notice they have dropped their new name Responsible Parenthood and returned to using once again the term Reproductive Health) peddling lies…

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines has rejected an appeal from Saudi Arabia to cut the minimum wage for Filipino maids in half and will not be sending new domestic helpers until the dispute is solved, the labour chief said Friday.

MANILA — The Aquino government is willing to support the initiatives being pursued by the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines to strengthen the entrepreneurial capabilities of the employees to improve their income.

MANILA, Philippines—Bus drivers should avoid working 14 hours a day to prevent accidents on the road, particularly Commonwealth Avenue, a ranking labor official said Thursday.

SAN FERNANDO CITY, Pampanga, Philippines – Six months after a P24 per day wage hike was approved by the government, labor groups are now asking for P90 across the board wage increase in Central Luzon.

THE Commission on Higher Education said Wednesday two of every five high-school graduates may not move on to college this year as around 300 private colleges and universities would be increasing their tuition by up to 15 percent.

SOMETIME back in one of my previous columns, I wrote about Doing Business in Free Trade Areas, a program spearheaded by the DTI International Trade Group. The program is meant to educate business and raise people’s awareness of FTAs and how to take advantage of the opportunities from our free trade agreements. Studies showed that…

MANILA, Philippines –  The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), the state-owned pension fund, will provide an initial P5 billion for housing loans to be administered by state-owned Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF)) or Pag-IBIG Fund.

MANILA, Philippines –  The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), the state-owned pension fund for government employees, said it would now focus its investments on local equities, fixed-income market and even in the Aquino administration’s public-private partnership program for infrastructure.

PERSIDA ACOSTA Dear PAO, I was hired as a supervisor in a manufacturing company here in Batangas early this year under probationary status. We were actually 2 supervisors hired at the same time. After 5 months and 2 weeks, we were informed by the admin manager that our contract ended and we will not be considered…

MANILA, Philippines –  The largest ever international research into people’s online activities and behavior showed Filipinos as one of the frontrunners in social media despite lower online usage and engagement compared to global levels.

POLICE investigators have linked a leftist underground movement to the murder of radio broadcaster Marlina Sumera who was gunned down in Malabon City on March 24 by four unidentified suspects.

MANILA, Philippines – Two young Filipino budding scientists, both incoming college freshmen this June and products of public schools, bagged grand prizes in the prestigious Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) held in Los Angeles, California in the US earlier this month.

cxA retraction does not necessarily negate an earlier declaration. Retractions are looked upon with disfavor and do not automatically exclude the original statement or declaration. This is the general principle applied in this case of a labor union (SMMSC).

The issue on the fiercely-debated Reproductive Health (RH) bill took a different turn in the Senate yesterday with the filing of a citizen’s petition seeking an inquiry by the upper chamber, in aid of legislation, on some contraceptives supposedly included for public use in the proposed measure as abortifacient.

Authorities of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) have blamed “overloading” for the frequent malfunctioning of their trains.

A ranking member of the House opposition said the minority in the chamber may seek an inves-tigation into the alleged additional P2 billion infused into the contro-versial conditional cash transfer (CCT) program being implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS RANKING SLIDES 2 NOTCHES Despite the frequent breast-beating of President Aquino about the economic gains under his administration and the reforms it supposedly introduced in the business sector, the Philippines was ranked the least competitive country in Asia-Pacific with its global ranking this year falling two notches to 41st place from last year’s…

Philippine fish invasion MANILA, Philippines -When the law was passed in 1998 by Philippine Congress, then the administration of former military general President Fidel V. RamosFidel V. Ramos promised the fisherfolk that social justice would soon reign in troubled waters.

Domestic workers may need to work harder to secure a $400-minimum salary as a Filipino community leader in Kuala Lumpur cites the Philippine government’s impotence in enforcing such wage policy.

URBAN poor protested the government’s program of relocating informal settlers or squatters to sites in the provinces.

OIL prices fell to near $97 a barrel Tuesday in Asia, extending a two-week fall amid investor concern slowing US economic growth could undermine demand for crude.

HOUSE leaders on Tuesday urged President Benigno Aquino III to certify the reproductive health bill as urgent after they learned that 34 of the 38 lawmakers who had signed up to oppose the measure were from the administration camp.

BEIJING—Watermelons have been bursting by the score in eastern China after farmers gave them overdoses of growth chemicals during wet weather, creating what state media called fields of “land mines.”

social networking sites, Filipinos have more “brand friends” than peers around the world, according to an international market research firm.