Monthly Archives: July 2011

Decision to ban Indons, Filipinos seen as pique after criticism of beheading of Indonesian maid The decision last week by the Saudi Arabian government to stop hiring maids from the Philippines and Indonesia as of Aug.1 has created chaos in the overseas labor markets of the two countries, with the fate uncertain for tens of…

MANILA, Philippines—Thousands of women from Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines, as well as China and India were trafficked to Malaysia for forced labor and prostitution, according to an unclassified 2006 cable from the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur released by WikiLeaks, the online whistle-blower.

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Labor and Employment’s (DoLE’s) National Skills Registry System (SRS) has gained ground in Pangasinan with the municipality of Malasiqui as its next target for a databank of manpower supply.

THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) has maintained its 2011 Philippine growth outlook of 5% but the risk that this could be missed has increased, a senior official said. “The staff’s growth outlook for the Philippines for 2011 is unchanged at 5%,” IMF Resident Representative Dennis Botman told BusinessWorld in a e-mail when asked if estimates…

The Management Association of the Philippines is urging the government to allow the private sector to spearhead tourism promotion in the country to enable the Philippines to get a bigger chunk of tourist arrivals from all over the world. In a statement issued Monday, the business group suggested the establishment of a privately run Tourism…

THE GOVERNMENT Service Insurance System (GSIS) has finished repatriating its overseas investments back to the Philippines, an official said. “By and large, I would say that the whole amount has been remitted,” GSIS Executive Vice- President for Finance Benedicto Jose R. Arcinas told BusinessWorld in a phone interview last Friday.

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MANILA, Philippines – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has downplayed the impact of Saudi Arabia’s decision to stop granting work permits to domestic workers from the Philippines on the total amount of money sent home by Filipinos working abroad.

First of two parts Nagpapasalamat na lamang po ako sa pag-amin ni Ginang Arroyo na ‘di umano’y kabaliktaran raw niya ako. Sa wakas, magkasundo rin po kami. Talagang magkabaliktad po kami. (I can only be thankful for Mrs. Arroyo’s admission that I am her exact opposite. Finally, we can agree. It is really true that…

Economic suicide were the words used by PLDT chairman Manny Pangilinan to describe the impact of the Supreme Court (SC) ruling ordering the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to use only common shares and exclude preferred shares in assessing the capital stock of a company. A financial meltdown will occur in the stock market if…

REPUBLIC Act 8042, also known as The Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act, was enacted in response to the tragedy that befell Flor Contemplacion, a housemaid in Singapore who was executed after she was found guilty of murder.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Education’s (DepEd) timetable in implementing the K (Kindergarten) +12 Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) plan, which seeks to add two years to the current 10-year BEC, was described as too slow, with the additional two years of senior high school to be set up only by 2016.

MANILA, Philippines – Most Filipino workers still prefer to go abroad rather than stay in the country and become entrepreneurs, the Overseas Workers Employment Administration (OWWA) reported yesterday.

More than 50,000 jobs are available now and up for grabs for jobseekers in the official job portal of the government, the Phil-Jobnet, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said. According to the report by the Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) Director Ma. Criselda Sy, majority of the jobs posted in the portal are for local employment.…

The Aquino administration was accused yesterday of “misleading” the public of alternative jobsites in other countries for thousands of Filipino domestic helpers who will be displaced by a new Saudi stop-hiring policy for maids from the Philippines due to an unresolved wage row.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) yesterday asked employers to have clear policies on sexual harassment in their workplaces to prevent this “from disrupting workers’ efficiency and productivity.”

Philippine Foreign affairs secretary Albert Del Rosario renewed decades call for release of all remaining 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar (Burma). Also, Del Rosario said last year’s release of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi by Myanmar’s ruling military junta was simply not enough to fulfill the country’s commitment to the Association of Southeast Asian…

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang said yesterday the government has contingency measures for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in case Saudi Arabia imposes its new policy halting the grant of working permits to domestic helpers coming from Asian countries.

MANILA, Philippines — Jobseekers, particularly those who feel they might be affected by Saudi Arabia’s ban on household workers from the Philippines, could check out the job vacancies posted in the Phil-JobNet.

Debate rages over’ reproductive health’ bill. Corazon Aquino supported ‘people power’ in 1986; now her son, the country’s new president, suggests that the poor might not know what’s best for them. MANILA — When Philippine lawmakers return on July 25 for the second session of the 15th Congress, they will continue debates on two reproductive-health…

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine government must study and prepare for the implications of Nitaqat, a new classification system imposed by the Ministry of Labor to boost the number of employed Saudi nationals on more than a million overseas Filipino workers in the Kingdom. This was the prevailing sentiment shared by recruitment agency owners, civil…

MANILA, Philippines — A group of local technology companies has called on the government to reconsider its plan to abolish the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) and transfer its functions to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

THE PROPOSED increase in the contributions of members of the Social Security System (SSS) scheduled this month has been deferred until stakeholders agree on when to implement the hike. Due to the delay, there is a possibility that the proposed increase by the pension fund may grow higher.

MANILA, Philippines – The International Finance Corp. (IFC) has implemented a new transparency process prior to investing in projects, making it the first development finance institution to require a systematic corporate-governance analysis of every investment transaction as part of its due diligence process.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) yesterday said that overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who are interested to start or expand an existing business enterprise may avail of loan assistance under the P2-billion reintegration program without collateral as long as the business they want to put up or expand remains viable and profitable.

The estimated 150,000 overseas domestic workers who are in danger of losing their jobs in Saudi Arabia should not expect any immediate help from the Aquino administration as Malacañang yesterday failed to offer any concrete alternative reemployment plan for them.

Saying there is a need for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to be represented in the crafting of major economic policies, the National Economic Protectionism Association (NEPA) called on the government to have a proactive stance for their development and growth.

HONG KONG – For more than two decades, the Catholic Church in the Philippines, Asia’s only predominantly Catholic country, has opposed a Reproductive Health Bill that seeks to give poor people access to free contraceptives. The issue, Archbishop Socrates Villegas said in a statement, should be decided by “faith not opinions”.

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MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines has lost one of its labor markets as Saudi Arabia implemented a freeze-hire order Saturday. Starting July 2, Saudi Arabia will no longer issue work permits for domestic workers from the Philippines and Indonesia due to new hiring guidelines set by the two nations.