Monthly Archives: April 2013

PEP TALK: The main function of the Commission on Elections is to manage Philippine polls so they will be fair, clean and orderly.

MANILA, Philippines – Re-electionist Sen. Francis Escudero yesterday lashed out at the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and the Department of Energy (DOE) for granting excessive perks to their personnel.

MANILA, Philippines – Filipinos abroad were urged to go out and vote as Hong Kong reported the highest voter turnout at more than 2,500 on the second day of overseas absentee voting (OAV) yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Some 150 government offices failed a test for red tape conducted by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) last year. Among the offices that flunked in the Report Card Survey (RCS) published in The STAR yesterday were the Government Service Insurance System (27 branches), Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Butuan City branch),…

MANILA, Philippines – Talk show host Kris Aquino emerged as the country’s top individual taxpayer in 2011, outdoing the big names in the local corporate world, according to data released by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) yesterday.

Did you know that April 7 was World Health Day (to celebrate the founding of the World Health Organization in 1948)? Frankly, I was too sick because of the oppressive heat to bother. I wasn’t really feeling healthy on World Health Day.

To sustain the upward momentum of the country’s economy, the World Bank has urged the Philippines to increase its infrastructure spending.

THE WORLD BANK yesterday maintained its 2013 Philippine growth forecast of 6.2% even as it trimmed projections for the East Asia and the Pacific region, noting continuing risks tied to global weaknesses and also the possibility of overheating.

The Philippines will receive €3.5 million (roughly P189 million) in grants from the European Union (EU) in support of a cleaner, more energy-efficient industrial production.

The Philippines experiencing an asset bubble might be remote now but it is possible that it eventually would, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Tuesday.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said in a press release yesterday that it welcomes the move by the Social Security System to change its guidelines on educational assistance program.

Growth in remittances slows to 5.99% REMITTANCE GROWTH remained healthy in February despite a seasonal slump, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday, as demand for Filipino workers remained strong.

Remittances up 6% on year, slowest in 5 months MANILA, Philippines – Remittances growth slowed to a 5-month low in February, amid a strong peso and the weak recovery of the jobs market abroad.

Urges PH, other countries to start containing inflation The World Bank has warned that the Philippines and a few other Asian countries were facing threats of overheating and suggested that policymakers start shifting focus from boosting economies to containing the buildup of inflationary pressures.

Philippine export earnings in February fell by a hefty 15.6 percent from last year, the National Statistics Office reported last week. The fall largely traces to an even heftier drop during the same period (-36.5 percent) in our electronics exports, which still comprise our single largest export product category. Global demand for personal computers has…

After the euphoria-inducing investment-grade rating given to the Philippines during the Lenten break, a string of not-so-good news has hit the economic front. Foreign direct investments—or money that goes into productive undertakings like tourism, agriculture, or industrial projects—registered a net inflow of $576 million in January, down by nearly half from $1.05 billion posted in…

China’s new leaders in Beijing China’s new leaders have vowed to boost growth and make it more inclusive China’s economy, the world’s second-largest, has slowed and performed worse than many analysts expected in the first three months of the year.

(Financial Times) — The global economy is stuck in a rut, unable to sustain a decent recovery and susceptible to a sudden stall, according to the latest Brookings Institution-Financial Times tracking index of recovery.

LISBON – After a bungled bailout of Cyprus, the recession-stricken euro zone will stand out for the wrong reasons when finance ministers meet in Washington this week to run the rule over the global economy.

MANILA, Philippines – Transcom Philippines, a unit of Luxemburg-based Transcom Worldwide S.A., is bullish about the prospects of the local information technology-business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry and is set to increase its workforce by 35 percent.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Tourism secured a $7.1 million grant from the Canadian International Development Agency to improve the competitiveness of the local tourism industry from 2013-2016, the state agency reported on Wednesday.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine government is pushing for certain amendments to the Labor Code in the next Congress as the country’s labor practices are being reviewed by the US to determine if the country should continue to enjoy trade benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program.

MANILA, Philippines – The government is keeping its 15 percent export growth target for this year as it sees the electronic sector’s recovery in the coming months and expects the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry to remain strong.

MANILA, Philippines – Filipinos employed by foreign governments, embassies, diplomatic missions and several international organizations are not exempted from paying income taxes, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said in a memorandum circular.

MANILA, Philippines – Strong economies in the Asian region are slowly losing their luster as the low interest environment here and abroad is beginning to cause some problems, an investment bank said.

MANILA, Philippines – The World Bank has maintained its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecasts for the Philippines at 6.2 percent and 6.4 percent for 2013 and 2014, respectively, as the country continues to show signs of sustained growth.

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Amid increasing tensions in the Korean peninsula, Filipino workers continue to seek jobs in Seoul, South Korea’s capital, but the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said there are no takers for female workers so far. POEA Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac said on Monday that the government has temporarily stopped accepting female workers for registration for…

If I approached the Supreme Court’s recent decision on the party-list system by way merely of a mechanical exercise in statutory construction, I might conclude that the Court has stripped the party-list system of its soul. The party-list system is not merely a restructuring of the membership of the House of Representatives. It is a…

MANILA, Philippines – Workers in the agriculture sector are among the lowest paid in the country, the National Statistical Coordination Board said, making poverty widespread in the industry as it employs a third of the labor force.