Monthly Archives: June 2011

MANILA, Philippines –  Five communist rebels were killed last Monday by their comrades in Negros Occidental as the New People’s Army (NPA) steps up its campaign dubbed “Kampanyang Paghilamon” against suspected military spies within its ranks, the Army said yesterday.

DALI — If P-Noy thinks he has problems, he should consider the challenges of feeding and giving decent shelter to over a billion people and eliminating poverty in such a country.

All five governor and six city mayors in the Caraga Region (Region XIII) have posted 100 percent compliance with the government-initiated Full Disclosure Policy (FDP) which requires them to make public the source, use and disposition of their incomes and share from Internal Revenue Allotments (IRA).

MANILA, Philippines – Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile had agreed that for now, Congress will only act on proposed amendments to restrictive economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution.

KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti delegation comprising officials from the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor(MSAL) is participating in the International Labor Conference which is currently ongoing in Geneva and will conclude on June 17. A report entitled, ‘Decent Work for Domestic Workers’ will be adopted during one of the sessions, detailing the…

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The regional wage board in Central Luzon recently issued a wage order providing for an additional P14 cost of living allowance (Cola) for minimum wage earners in the private sector in the region.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has lifted the ban on the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Bahrain.

I recently got an email from a friend with the subject, “100 Ways to Uncomplicate Your Life.” Reading through it, I found the majority of the tips to be practical and plain common sense. But the person who came up with them seems to know that these are the very things we take for granted,…

House adjourns with no vote on RH bill MANILA, Philippines – Lawmakers expect President Aquino to make a strong statement of the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) Bill during his State of the Nation Address in July.

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – The Cordillera Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWBP) here decided to hold in abeyance the granting of a wage increase for daily wage earners in the region because of the absence of a supervening event that could warrant the same to come out with a new wage order even before…

COST management remains the primary driving force behind local businesses’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, according to a survey by Grant Thornton. In a statement, Punongbayan & Araullo (P&A), the local partner of Grant Thornton, said the latest International Business Report (IBR) asked 150 Filipino business leaders regarding their CSR activities for the second time…

(Second of two parts. Part 1 appeared last Thursday.) WHAT does the government have to show us after a decade of power industry privatization under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or EPIRA? Power rates have increased all over the country. More rate hikes loom for consumers from various recovery schemes legitimized under the law.…

Dear PAO, Good day! I just want to be enlightened about the single parent issue. Are there provisions regarding this subject? Does the Civil Service Commission prohibit employment and continuance in service of single pregnant women? Currently, I am employed in the government sector and my fear is that they will terminate me on the…

MANILA, Philippines –  The Aquino administration will still strive to attain the seven percent to eight percent economic growth target this year by accelerating state spending, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said yesterday.

DESPITE the uproar of student groups and lawmakers over alleged abuse in collection of miscellaneous fees, the Commission on Higher Education said there is no need for a law governing the collection of such fees.

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Maranon Jr. has called on President Aquino to intervene to prevent a looming crisis in the sugar industry. The governor said sugar trading in Negros Occidental has stopped because of overproduction, and the sugar planters and producers, especially the small ones, will greatly suffer very soon. “We…

In our December 30, 2010 column, we raised 16 major concerns the then six months old Aquino government must attend to. As President Aquino is about to complete one year of his term, let’s review his performance on the 16 major concerns.

Vienna — Indonesia, a country which used to below the Philippines in being a site for business, has made the most progress in terms of competitiveness in recent years, but major challenges remain, the World Economic Forum said yesterday.

Consumer confidence continues its downward spiral in the second quarter with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) periodic confidence index (CI) falling to negative 24.2 percent from negative 23.1 percent the previous quarter.

MANILA, Philippines –  The Department of Health (DOH) is now in a quandary on how to curb the growing number of cases of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) among injecting drug users due to conflicting laws on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and drug abuse.

MANILA, Philippines –  The House of Representatives approved on third and final reading yesterday a bill prohibiting the “no permit, no examination” policy in colleges, universities and vocational schools.

At least 186 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), including children who used to live under a bridge in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, arrived in Manila early yesterday morning after being repatriated by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

MANILA, Philippines –  Leaders of an indigenous people’s (IP) group from Palawan sought yesterday to stop the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) from issuing permits to mining companies encroaching on ancestral lands in the province.

The House of Representatives yesterday expanded the list of commodities that should be placed under price control to include instant noodles, bottled water, fruits and liquefied petroleum gas.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) yesterday belied findings by an international human rights watchdog of insufficient steps by the Aquino administration to address the culture of impunity in extra-judicial killings in the country.

In East Asia, the Philippines has the lowest level of foreign direct investments (FDIs). A major explanation is the very Constitution of the Philippines, which restricts or prohibits foreign investments in strategic sectors of the economy. Other reasons are our notoriety for corruption, the high cost of electricity and the generally poor state of infrastructures.

Northern Mindanao tree planters and wood processors are asking the Environment Department to return the one-year supply contract for “tree planted species” instead of the five-year supply contract mandated by Executive Order (EO) 23 or the moratorium on logging.

To boost the Philippines’ competitiveness and strengthen the country’s industries, the President has issued an executive order renaming and expanding the membership of the Public-Private Sector Task Force on Philippine Competitiveness.

Higher tablet demand and lower Netbook sales are likely to take a greater bite out of the PC market this year than expected, according to data released today by Gartner.

New labour attache vows to decongest FWRC KUWAIT CITY, June 7: A total of 131 distressed Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWS) were repatriated to the Philippines on two consecutive days as part of the series of mass repatriation of stranded OFWs in Kuwait. The first batch composed of 86 OFWs left on Monday evening while the…