Monthly Archives: February 2012

MANILA, Philippines – This is definitely not a love story. We all want our happy ever after, don’t we? When we were in high school, we would swoon over our celebrity crushes, dress up nice during soirees, feel good when our prom dates turn out to be handsome young men who treat us like princesses.…

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino has ordered the release of an additional P200 million as subsidy for 100,000 public utility drivers and approved the tax discounts for them from manufacturers and dealers of spare parts for public utility vehicles, Malacañang announced yesterday. Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the Department of Energy was directed to make…

THE Philippine Regulations Commission announced last week that 22,760 nurses passed the Nurse Licensure Examinations (NLE) given last December 2011. That’s thousands of new nurses added to the 297,809 unemployed ones as of September 2011. With the huge surplus of nurses fighting for limited employment opportunities, both local and foreign, it’s not surprising that many…

Whenever attending a job interview, it is important to be prepared and ready both physically, emotionally and intellectually. In the call center industry, job interviews are usually divided into two parts, the initial and final. The initial interview is basically an assessment of the applicant’s general skills and predisposition if one qualifies and fits the…

Most Americans know the drill: You call a company’s customer service line and often, you end up speaking with someone in another country. This can be an inconvenience because of languages and accents, but the matter is more serious than just that. Information to that effect from a Communications Workers of America (CWA) report is…

Call center companies often promote top performing agents to managerial positions, but is the practice of hiring from within a wise talent management decision?

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Finance wants to limit the incentives given to foreign and local investors by rationalizing the incentive-granting bodies of government such as the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and the Board of Investments (BOI).

MANILA, Philippines –  Fewer Filipinos are leaving the country as “illegal” workers. Data from the Commission on Filipino Overseas (CFO) showed a declining number of undocumented Filipinos abroad in the past decade.

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Ralph Recto over the weekend urged the administration to address the growing unemployment in the country.

MANILA, Philippines – The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) disclosed that Filipino seafarers on board foreign vessels have sent more money to their families than land-based workers abroad.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines is now categorized as a global “strong performer” after gaining a higher mark in environmental performance, besting Australia, the United States, Singapore and Bulgaria.

The Agriculture Department will take appropriate measures and convene the National Food Authority council to address the demand of peasant groups to increase the food agency’s buying price of palay from P17 to P20 a kilo.

The Finance Department plans to put an end to the “unlimited” fiscal incentives and other perks enjoyed by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority locators by putting in a so-called sunset provision in the pending fiscal incentives bill in the Senate.

American politicians are playing up a US anti-outsourcing bill because it offers them a good sound bite ahead of the November presidential and congressional elections there, a senior member of the House of Representatives said yesterday.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino sailors aboard foreign merchant ships sent home via bank wire a record $4.34 billion in remittances in 2011, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) announced in a statement Sunday.

TAIPEI — A Taiwanese official suspended from her post yesterday apologized for hurting Taiwan’s image after she was deported by the United States over a maid abuse case.

MANILA, Philippines—In hopes of averting a catastrophe in the education system, a former education secretary has charted what she calls “fault lines” in education policy, drawing from her experience working under five Philippine presidents.

Ask any coffee farmer in Amadeo, Cavite, about the going price of their coffee and they will answer with a frown. Josefa de la Peña, a 77-year-old coffee grower, grimaced when told that the price being offered for Amadeo coffee was P96 per kilogram as of Friday.

MANILA, Philippines – The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) is seeking the removal of the Philippines from the US piracy watchlist. IPOPHL has submitted its comment on the accomplishments of the government to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) as the USTR starts its Special 301 review process on the state of intellectual…

MANILA, Philippines – Some 300,000 Filipino fishery workers “toil like slaves” in aquaculture farms and on commercial fishing vessels for pay below minimum wage. This was revealed during a recent four-day consultation-workshop with the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (UN-FAO) in Angeles, Pampanga.

MANILA, Philippines – Two construction workers were injured after chunks of a wall they had been tearing down fell on them at a construction site in Barangay San Antonio, Makati City yesterday.

GUARDED OPTIMISM: The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas enters 2012 with guarded optimism even while other countries grapple with their own economic difficulties.

Compliance with safety standards and labor laws at Heavy Industries is the focus of the “Big Brother, Small Brother” program Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Philippines (HHICP) and the Department of Labor and Employment have forged.

MANILA, Philippines – Two construction workers were injured when a section of a wall they were tearing down at a construction site collapsed Saturday morning, the authorities said.

Singapore said it will increase aid to its poorest citizens and boost wages of older workers as the government seeks to defray rising living costs and reduce dependency on foreign labour, reported Bloomberg.

The Philippines should produce more extra-judicial killing convictions if it is to receive the $3-million defense assistance from the United States which it suspended three years ago due to Manila’s failure to account for the unexplained deaths, a senior State Department official said.

DARES NOYNOY TO DISCLOSE SALN, BANK ACCOUNTS, PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS Tit for tat. Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona came out swinging yesterday at President Aquino, a day after the chief executive called him a liar, demanding that now and not in “due time” should be the time for Corona to explain to the public how…

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Health (DOH) yesterday expressed alarm over reports that 50 women died from “maternal complications” in Metro Manila alone last month.