Monthly Archives: July 2011

NEW HAVEN — The global economy is in the midst of its second growth scare in less than two years. Get used to it. In a post-crisis world, these are the footprints of a failed recovery.

FOUR YEARS into the deadline, some local government units (LGUs) are still sorely lacking awareness on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), hindering the achievement of the entire set of eight United Nations-sponsored MDG targets, experts yesterday said.

THE EXPORT Development Council (EDC) is keeping an annual growth target of 10% for the country’s merchandise shipments up to at least 2013, relying on added demand boost from neighbors like China, government and industry officials said separately yesterday.

A Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) official on Wednesday said the “Saudization” policy has no impact yet on the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to the oil-rich Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

DOLE Cavite conducted advocacy on child labor in Rosario, Cavite on June 23, 2011. The activity initiated by DOLE and Public Employment Service Office (PESO) was attended by barangay officials, representatives from MSWD, PNP , Municipal Business Permit and Licensing Office of Rosario.

QUEZON CITY, July 12 (PIA) — In line with President Benigno S. Aquino III’s call to a more effective promotion and protection of human rights, Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chair Loretta Ann ‘Etta’ Rosales on Tuesday appealed to members of media to be their agency’s watchdog in monitoring the human rights compliance of government…

CAGAYAN DE ORO — The business sector expressed mixed sentiment on a new wage order issued last week for Northern Mindanao. “We are for an increase but it should not have been that high,” said Antonio D. Uy, president of the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Oro Chamber).

THE COST of living in Metro Manila became relatively expensive for expatriate workers this year amid the strengthening peso and rising prices of commodities, a research and consultancy firm reported yesterday.

THE PHILIPPINES along with its Asian neighbors should address tax evasion to increase revenue collection, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said as part of its recommendations to reform tax administration.

THIS YEAR’S list of investment areas where businesses will be eligible for tax perks will come into effect within the month, after Malacañang finally published it in newspapers yesterday. This, as the implementing rules of the 2011 Investment Priorities Plan (IPP) should be out by next week, a Trade official said. The annual plan is…

THE PHILIPPINES may be known for its relatively young population, but the number of senior citizens will balloon to more than a tenth of the country’s residents by 2040, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) said in a commentary posted on its Web site yesterday.

Remittance flows from “professionals” and “technicians and associate professionals” plummeted sharply in calm 2010 after rising markedly in crisis-laden 2009, a government survey showed.

I could not believe my ears when a friend told me that she was opposed to having divorce in the Philippines. I was bewildered. After all, her husband had left her for a younger woman years ago. He had since lived with the woman and their common children as though his primary responsibility was to…

ONE of the reforms being proposed by a financial institution of the Armed Forces will reduce the pension benefits of retired servicemen but raise by two years the mandatory retirement age from 56 years old.

CATHOLIC bishops on Saturday voted as their leader a colleague who once likened the supporters of family planning to terrorists. The election of Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma to the presidency of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines came amid growing friction between the administration of President Benigno Aquino III and the prelates over family…

A plumber working for a contractor of a water concessionaire died of electrocution in a freak accident while working on a pipeline project in Pasay City before midnight on Monday.

MANILA, Philippines – Officials of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Agriculture (DA), National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), National Irrigation Administration (NIA), Department of Agriculture (DA), and the Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development (PCAMRD) met with media on Monday to address them on science helping agriculture.

BAHRAIN must create and implement tough legislation to punish people who abuse domestic workers, says a local human rights society. Authorities must also adequately punish employers who illegally withhold passports and pay salaries months and years late. These requests are among a list of recommendations Migrant Workers Protection Society (MWPS) has submitted to be discussed…

CEBU, Philippines – Cebu City will be formally declared ASEAN City of Culture this Friday because of its creative industry and strength in performing arts and culinary arts, among others. The formal declaration will be held at the Radisson Blu hotel.

MANILA, Philippines – Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chair Loretta Rosales today reported a decrease in human rights violations under the Aquino administration. Speaking after a workshop with military officers, Rosales said there are human rights violation cases under the Aquino administration but the number is at a lower level.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Embassy in Riyadh said there is no truth to allegations that returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are being barred from entering the Middle East country.

CEBU, Philippines – The management of a KTV bar earlier raided by the Cebu City Anti-Indecency Board for allegedly employing minors as guest relations officer has denied the allegation. Papillon Bar, through lawyer Vicente Fernandez II, denied that the alleged 11 minors rescued during the raid two weeks ago came from them.

In truth we have had more than 30 years to “prepare” for the avalanche of bad news emanating from the Middle East (specifically Saudi Arabia) and Northern Africa (specifically Libya). The bad news trickled first from Libya, where escalating conflict between local rebels and Nato forces and Libyan forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi have put…

Saudi Arabia is only the fourth major destination country for new-hire domestic workers in 2010, according to data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). Even before the Saudi government implemented its ban to hire Filipino and Indonesian domestic workers last July 2, Hong Kong, China, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates outpaced Saudi Arabia…

MANILA, Philippines – The government has waived P20 billion in income tax holiday (ITH) last year in exchange for P302 billion worth of Board of Investments (BOI) approved investments.

MANILA, Philippines – New York-based Moody’s Investors Service said the Philippines needs a more sustained improvement of credit fundamentals such as structural improvements in revenue generation requiring significant fiscal reform to get another credit rating upgrade.

MANILA, Philippines – The yield for the bellwether 91-day Treasury bills (T-bills) declined 37.9 basis points to 2.501 percent from the previous rate of 2.880 percent, the Bureau of the Treasury reported yesterday. The government sold P9 billion worth of T-bills on the back of strong demand for the debt papers.

(Reader Luis Olitoquit asked me on Twitter yesterday about a Postscript written some 10 years ago. Digging up my ManilaMail.com archive, I found the piece — “The Religion of Blame” which analyzes our penchant for blaming others for our own failures. I’m rerunning it below for its relevance to our present state. This item appeared…

MANILA, Philippines – A House bill seeks to expand the coverage of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to include 38 million poor Filipinos. House Bill 4150, principally authored by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., would be calendared for floor deliberation when Congress resumes session on July 25.

A total of 90 human rights violations were committed during the one year administration of President Aquino, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) revealed yesterday. In an interview after a human rights forum in Camp Aguinaldo, CHR Chairman Etta Rosales said that from the period July 1, 2010 to June 23, 2011, the CHR recorded…