Monthly Archives: July 2012

Manila, Philippines – Filipino workers might be deployed to Iraq and Libya soon. In a statement, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said yesterday the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) might amend the previous non-certification of the two countries.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) announced the release of P1.166 billion to the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) with regards to the extension of its memorandum of agreement (MoA) with the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

Buyers are being warned of the toxic contents of silver jewelry, the Ecowaste Coalition said. Many are unaware that cyanide-laced cleaning solutions are openly sold in jewelry shops and malls in Makati City, Mandaluyong, Pasay, Manila, and Quezon City, according to Thony Dizon, coordinator of EcoWaste’s Project Protect.

Developers, brokers, and contractors are now required to obtain permits from the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board before they could sell housing units. Vice President Jejomar Binay said that the rules are intended to deter pre-selling fraud.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz has listed 32 foreign countries as compliant to international requirements for the protection of foreign workers, thus assuring overseas Filipino workers of good work conditions and safety from possible abuses.

ABHA — Negotiations between the Saudi Ministry of Labor and its counterpart in the Philippines to lift the months-long recruitment ban of domestic helpers have reached a deadlock due to new requirements from the Philippines.

In March this year, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) claimed that it had been reinvigorated by the addition of several new affiliates, some of which had previously been ideologically opposed to it. The following month came the news that some 40 unions and federations, including a new center named Sentro, had formed…

Manila, Philippines – Rep. Arnel Ty of the party-list group Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers Association yesterday urged sexually active Filipino sailors to test for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to safeguard their partners here at home.

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Acting Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Mujiv Hataman signed Tuesday the ARMM’s Human Rights Act, a regional law meant to complement the humanitarian components of the national government’s Southern peace process.

Bon Secours Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. The hospital has agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to four Filipino employees who accused to hospital for discriminating against them for speaking Tagalog at the workplace.

Ford Motor Co. recently announced that it will close its manufacturing plant in Sta. Rosa, Laguna at the end of the year. This comes at a time when signs are looking up for the Philippine economy’s near term future.

The growth of the local real estate sector over the past few years was likely the fastest pace the country has ever experienced. “This has raised concerns for both optimists and skeptics as to where this growth is eventually headed,” real estate consultant Pinnacle Real Estate Consulting Services Inc. said in its latest report.

SENATE President Juan Ponce Enrile gives the two-year-old Aquino administration a passing grade, saying the economy is performing well based on the stability of the exchange rate, inflation and interest rates. He says that while employment generation has been sluggish, that is due in part to the economic problems of industrialized countries, including some members…

Construction accounts for about 9% of total economic output. It is two-thirds private and one-third public. Hence, robust growing public construction coupled with an anemic (falling) private construction would likely result in a zero (negative) growth industry. In the first quarter of 2012, public construction zoomed 62.2% while private construction contracted 9.9% — overall construction…

THE PHILIPPINES’ 2012 growth forecast could be raised by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), with its country chief noting improved investor sentiment, recent ratings developments and fiscal gains.

SEOUL – Companies in Asia’s leading economies have “strikingly” few women in senior jobs, missing out on a vital pool of talent to fuel the region’s growth, consultancy firm McKinsey & Company said Sunday. In a survey covering 744 firms of 10 major stock markets in the Asia-Pacific, McKinsey said women on average account for…

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) said combined net income grew by 24 percent to P134.66 billion in the first three months of 2012 from P108.60 billion in the same period last year due to better performances showed by financials, industrial, property and holding firms sectors.

Labor groups expressed alarm at the growing anti-labor position of many of the country’s national leaders. The labor sector is the most abused sector in the Philippine economic equation, bowing to the influences of money sources or investors, the object of government’s wooing and cajoling, offering them everything, from tax holidays to guarantees against labor…

Congressmen representing marginalized sectors have merged into a formidable bloc at the House of Representatives. Now, the 56-member bloc appears bent on taking measures to gain one of the 24 Senate seats.

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels torched six trucks Saturday night in Quezon, Bukidnon, the military said. Officials of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division said several armed men on board five vans flagged down the trucks at around 10 p.m. Saturday in Barangay Puntian, Quezon town.

2 July 2012 – With three important targets on poverty, slums and water having been met, a new United Nations report stresses the need for a true global partnership to achieve the remaining Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the 2015 deadline.

Three Philippine universities have been listed as among the world’s best in teaching English, according to London-based research and ratings firm Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). QS’ World University Rankings by Subject included Ateneo de Manila University, University of the Philippines, and De La Salle University on the Top 50 in its English list.

MANILA, Philippines – The government is looking to develop the country’s rubber industry to take advantage of an expected increase in the production of tires of its major market, a trade official said.

According to one study I had just recently come across, about 21 percent of the remittance of a migrant worker is already “lost” even before the intended recipient could receive the transmitted amount. This puts a different side on one of my favorite mantras, i.e., the need for Filipinos migrant workers to put their remittances…

MANILA, Philippines – The Export–Import Bank of Korea sees an influx of Korean companies relocating their operations from China to emerging market economies led by the Philippines due to rising costs.

For the first time ever since I could remember, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) sent their monthly electric billing to their consumer households with a leaflet to explain where and why they charge higher rates. The leaflet is enclosed in the Meralco bill envelope for the month of June that I got recently.

MANILA, Philippines – A 35-year old electrician died yesterday afternoon after he accidentally touched a live wire while trying to install a power line in Quiapo, Manila.

MANILA, Philippines – The government has allowed the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to 188 countries that complied with Republic Act 10022 or the amended Migrant Workers Act.

MANILA, Philippines – The rising incidence of child labor in the country was not only due to poor enforcement of labor laws but also caused by the failure to enact the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – From modern-day hero to heel: that’s effectively how a legislator describes reckless seafarers who access commercial sex abroad and pass on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to their family back home.