Monthly Archives: December 2013

MANILA, Philippines – There are plenty of vacancies to greet job seekers in the New Year, with the number of openings on the government’s official job portal Phil-JobNet hitting an all-time high.

MANILA, Philippines—Almost 400 new cases of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which could lead to the fatal Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), were reported in November, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

Reconstruction activities covering the destruction caused by Typhoon Yolanda in Central Philippines and strong consumer spending on the back of remittances and the boom in business process outsourcing (BPO) sector will fuel the Philippine economy to keep growing in 2014.

Tomorrow is 2014, and living up to tradition would mean making a wish list. Before I rattle off the 14 most important items, I would like to call the attention of the Manila International Airport Authority general manager Jose Manuel Honrado on another security breach happening under his term.

MANILA, Philippines – The president of a tricycle driver’s group in Valenzuela City was shot dead Saturday morning.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine financial system had remained resilient from all external shocks in 2013, thanks to the country’s strong economic fundamentals.

Lowering the price cap for electricity traded on the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) is “not the answer” to the sudden spike in power prices, but the Energy Regulatory Commission’s asserting its mandate to regulate electricity rates, according to petitioners against the P4.15 kilowatt-hour (kWh) increase in the Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) electricity rate.

MANILA – A group of students from the Philippines emerged as overall champions in the recently concluded Asia Inter-Cities Teenagers Mathematics Olympiad (AITMO) in Indonesia.

MANILA, Philippines – A new trend has been set in the country’s tourism industry this year, despite a number of natural calamities that caused tourism authorities to doubt if they could meet the five million foreign tourists arrival target for 2013.

Price ceiling on spot market cut by half Amid the growing public anger over the record rise in electricity rates, government regulators on Saturday decided to set a lower price cap for electricity being traded on the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) while authorities are studying how to prevent power rates increases in the future.

MANILA, Philippines — Here’s good news for the nearly 500,000 public school teachers nationwide who served as inspectors in the October barangay (village) election.

MANILA, Philippines – The past year was generally a good one for the Philippine economy. Growth continued to be among the fastest in the region. And the country won investment grade status for the first time – a vote of confidence in a nation once dubbed as the sick man of Asia.

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Overall the Philippines can compete under the integrated trading regime of the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015, the Department of Trade and Industry said. But some domestic sectors, particularly agriculture, may lose out to competitors.

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—A miner of Philex Mining Corp. died in an accidental discharge of mud beneath the Padcal mine in Tuba town, Benguet, three days before Christmas, prompting company officials to review safety protocols.

The year 2013 had been a busy year for the energy sector as it had to deal with the perennial problem of tight energy supply. Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla, indeed, had quite a hectic year with the Mindanao power crisis, the spiraling oil prices, the tight supply in liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), the power…

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health registered 384 new cases of HIV/AIDS in November, bringing the year’s total thus far to 4,456, predominantly young males — not necessarily gay — having sex with other males

UNEMPLOYMENT likely worsened this year, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said in Friday, with strong economic growth apparently not having led to more job opportunities.

NEW YORK — Children who were breastfed for more than six months scored the highest on cognitive, language and motor development tests as toddlers, in a new study from Greece. Earlier research tied breastfeeding to better thinking and memory skills. But how it’s related to language skills and movement and coordination had been less clear.…

Also on the increase is the amount of yelling and swearing customers are willing to unleash on company employees. Money Talks News on MSN MoneyIf you’ve ever yelled at a customer service representative when reporting a problem with a product or service, you’re not the only one.

MANILA, Philippines–Four people were injured when a liquefied petroleum tank exploded inside a bakery in Caloocan City before dawn Thursday, a National Capital Region-Bureau of Fire Protection officer said.

MANILA, Philippines – More than 20,000 workers who lost their livelihoods following Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) are now working in emergency employment programs (EEP), according to the International Labor Organization (ILO). This will speed up recovery of typhoon-hit communities and boost their local economies.

In the past few years, Pfizer has encountered globalization’s new phase. As part of the Indian government’s efforts to make medicine accessible to as many people as possible, in February 2013 India’s Patent Office revoked Pfizer’s patent for the cancer drug Sutent and granted a domestic manufacturer, Cipla, the right to produce a cheaper generic…

Protesting predictions UKRAINE, Bulgaria, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey are all countries in which protests have erupted in the past twelve months. Even places traditionally more muted, such as Japan and Singapore, have seen demonstrators in the streets. Social inequalities and political discontent have spurred citizens to gather. Resistance can be co-ordinated with…

A 21-PERCENT slump in Philippine stocks that’s turned them from the world’s best performers into the biggest losers isn’t enough to lure back Macquarie Investment Management Ltd. and Bank Julius Baer & Co.

Even in countries with strongly performing, business-friendly economies, a positive relationship between education and training rates and employment outccomes is not automatic. We can clearly see this in Asia. Our region has experienced substantial economic and jobs growth, and sharp improvements in standards of education. Yet skills shortages, skills gaps, and skills mismatches, persist, particularly…

The labor market is about to be transformed by machine intelligence, the combination of ubiquitous data and the algorithms that make sense of them. That’s according to economist Tyler Cowen, in an argument spelled out in his recent book Average is Over. As Cowen sees it, your job prospects are directly tied to your ability…

OFW Guide Filipinos leaving for abroad to work as domestic workers should be aware of their rights to a minimum salary of $400 a month, regular days off, and decent treatment from employers.

MANILA, Philippines – Fireworks factories hiring children “will be dealt with the full force of law” as child labor violates rights and exposes the youth to hazardous chemicals, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Thursday.

Like many first-time moms of girls, I fell in love with the tiny dresses and embroidered frocks that I began to bring home even before my daughter was born.