Monthly Archives: March 2012

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources has lifted the three-month ban on sardine fishing in a conservation area in Mindanao. BFAR director Asis Perez said the fishing grounds of East Sulu Sea, Basilan Strait and Sibuguey Bay were now open to commercial fishermen effective March 2, three months after a sardine fishing ban was…

Inside this room are hundreds of rape kits that would likely find their way to the hospital’s medical waste a few years from now. But the boxes lie idle, subjected to heat and exposed to bugs and rats, their contents ignored and later disposed of without accomplishing their purpose.

Double talk. Bayan Muna president Satur Ocampo accuses President Benigno Aquino of endangering the peace talks. A LEFTIST leader accused President Benigno Aquino III on Sunday of “hallucinating” on the whereabouts, ideology and political plans of Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison and said the “double-talk” would damage the peace process.

The recurring power shortage problem in Mindanao can be blamed on Min-danao politicians. Their focus on the short term self interest had been at the root of the recurring crisis for years. I remember from my stint in the energy ministry 30 years ago that they have opposed plans to interconnect Mindanao with Luzon and…

Development of the country’s renewable energy (RE) resources have hit a road block since the bulk of investors have found that their service contract (SC) areas not viable for power generation.

MANILA, Philippines – Close to three million young Filipinos opted to take up nursing courses while nearly 400,000 passed the licensure examination for the past 10 years, the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) reported yesterday.

THE Department of Education’s Kindergarten to 12 program (K-12) will only bear losses for private schools and colleges nationwide amounting to P128 billion, as the number of enrollees are expected to decline, the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA) said over the weekend.

We may have forgotten that drug companies use many ingredients that we ma also have in our kitchen, in our gardens, the leaves and fruits from the nearby forest and most especially, the roots from ordinary and/or rare plants.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario admitted that pushing for the passage in the United States Congress of a garments legislation that is favorable to the Philippines is a tough crusade but vowed to continue the fight for it relentlessly to ensure job generation and help revive the ailing textile sector in the country.

Businessmen are alarmed over daily two to four hour power outages in the Visayas and Mindanao and yet Malacañang has offered no immediate solution to the problem.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines has achieved impressive gains in expanding access to higher education among Filipinos but there remains a need for suitable skills that will enable the nation’s workforce to become more competitive and help bolster economic growth, according to World Bank Lead Economist Emanuela di Gropello.

With the K to 12 program soon in place, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) is gearing up a massive review and updating of its courses to be offered to the students to boost their chances of employment after graduation.

Filipinos are getting more anxious about the economy and how it affects them, according to a Laylo Research Strategies survey. The Jan. 28-Feb. 6 poll, which covered 1,500 respondents, showed 65 percent of Filipinos are anxious about where the country is headed. They consist of the 25 percent who feel the nation is headed in…

BACOLOD CITY, March 4 (PIA) — A peaceful environmental ensures progress and understanding. Labor and industry leaders in Negros vowed to unite and maintain industrial peace in the province during the conference of the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (TIPC) held recently.

Four people died while four others were in critical condition when a nine-meter high wall collapsed in an ongoing construction building in Clark, Pampanga on Friday afternoon.

MANILA, Philippines—Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz is now advising some 100,000 unemployed Filipino nurses in the country to try their luck in the booming business process outsourcing  industry or call centers which she said had “non-traditional” health-related aspects.

Four of ten fresh graduates and young jobseekers who apply for vacancies are not hired because they lack three key qualities—critical thinking, initiative and effective communication skills—which the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP) informed hundreds at a job fair in a mall in Makati on Friday.

Points out unequal access to higher learning Philippine college students stand off with police officers during a rally in in Quezon City, east of Manila on December 1, 2010. The students demanded that the administration should not cut the budget for state universities and colleges. According to the World Bank, inequality in terms of access…

ZAMBOANGA CITY: Dozens of people were rushed to hospital after an ammonia pipe explosion at an ice plant factory in the southern port city of Zamboanga, police said.

MANILA, Philippines – The World Bank (WB) has called on the national government to push the grant of scholarships to deserving but poor students of public schools. It also called for the introduction of student loans and a review of the tuition fee structure in the public school system.

THE Philippines is full of ironies. Imagine an archipelago with more than 7,100 islands and a coastline longer than 36,000 kilometers not having enough fish for people to eat. But that just might be our future. Earlier this week, Agriculture Sec. Proceso Alcala warned that it was “inevitable” for the Philippines to import fish in…

The Bangko Sentral on Thursday cut the borrowing and lending rates by 25 basis points for the second time this year in a bid to boost the domestic economy amid prospects of an anemic global growth.

Dear PAO, When is a separation pay paid by an employer to his employee? Can a resigned employee get a separation pay? My brother who has just resigned from work was promised a separation pay. However, when the time came to collect it, his employer did not pay him. Can he file a case to…

Talk of the proposed increase in Social Security System’s contribution rate from 10.4 percent to 11 percent begins to gather steam, with mounting objection from members and businesses; and amid soaring prices of basic commodities and rising unemployment.

THE Philippines would be able to achieve 5-percent growth this year once its exports picked up, the Asian Development Bank said on Thursday.

The improved performance of the labor market in 2011 bolsters the optimism for a better economy this year, according to Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga Jr. “Last year, the country generated more employment from the previous year. Employment level rose by 3.2 percent or 1.156 million, largely on the strength of the continued growth in…

The oldest call centers in the Philippines apparently are the local call centers of major business companies that provided service to local customers such as call center of credit card institutions (BPI, Citibank), utility companies like Meralco as well as telecommunications companies like PLDT, Smart and Globe. However over the last decade, the Philippines had…

To save youths from human traffickers and illegal recruiters, an international group set up a youth migrant center with the help of the local government in Agusan del Sur in southern Philippines. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the local government launched the One-Stop Resource Center (OSRC), a youth employment and migrant center last…

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano W. Paderanga Jr. on Thursday said the labor sector’s upbeat performance last year helped boost the economic outlook for 2012. “The improved performance of the labor market in 2011 bolsters the optimism for a better economy this year,” National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director-general said in a statement.

MANILA, Philippines – Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano W. Paderanga, Jr. said more jobs are needed in the formal sector in spite of improved labor figures last year, a statement released Thursday by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) noted.