Monthly Archives: March 2014

A Philippine team led by Paul Agabin, founder and CEO of the outsourcing firm Essays.ph, recently won US$5,000 for placing second in the 2014 Internet Scavenging Hunt, a worldwide contest that drew 45,000 registrants.

LONDON – The harrowing stories of abused Filipino domestic workers came to light at a recent conference in London, where Filipino activists led a discussion on vulnerable women in Britain and the controversial debate on UK immigration policies.

A study in the Philippines has found the number of teenage girls who have become pregnant across the nation has more than doubled in ten years. Young people in the Philippines have limited access to sex education and sexual health services, especially if they are underage and unmarried. (Credit: AFP)

(Reuters) – Southeast Asia is unlikely to hit a target of integrating its 10 economies by 2015, but the group has much potential to be a trading hub for Asia once it fully creates an economic community, the Philippines’ finance chief said on Monday.

MANILA, Philippines – The economic integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will likely not be attained by 2015, economist of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said.

Globally, an estimated 500 million people have microinsurance, up from 78 million in 2008. Craig Churchill, head of the ILO’s Microinsurance Innovation Facility, discusses the growing value and viability of this insurance mechanism aimed at low-income people.

We can never stress it enough. Tens of thousands of families lost everything when history’s fiercest Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda struck the Visayas last Nov. Among the worst displaced were schoolchildren, traumatized by the loss of kin, playmates, and school provisions.

During these times when the issue on the validity of the RH law is already submitted for resolution in the Supreme Court (SC), using media in hurrying up and pressuring the SC Justices to rule in favor of its validity is a direct assault on their independence, integrity and even competency. It is an arrogant…

BUSINESSMEN expect the economy to sustain last year’s growth on the back of higher investments, exports, and imports, the Makati Business Club (MBC) yesterday said.

PHILIPPINE economic growth could slow to 5.8% this year, Moody’s Analytics yesterday said, in line with projected sluggishness in other Asia-Pacific countries as downside risks within and outside the region persist.

MANILA, Philippines – The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) says recent disasters that hit the country make it impossible to reduce poverty, based on targets set in the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.

AGRICULTURE Secretary Proceso J. Alcala announced on Thursday that rehabilitation of areas of Region 8 gravely hit by Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) is “under way.”

MANILA – Filipino workers remain popular with foreign employers, with the number of workers hired abroad reaching over 1.8 million last year.

The country, even the world, has so much more to learn when crafting laws that should govern the digital highway. So even if our lawmakers had passed an imperfect law in 2012, only after years of debates, it’s something to be thankful about.

MANILA, Philippines – The country’s retail industry may see a boost once the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regional economic integration begins next year.

“Para sa mga nagnanais makakita o makaipon ng extra income, ang part-time job ang alternatibong solusyon.” Para sa mga nagnanais makakita o makaipon ng extra income, ang part-time job ang alternatibong solusyon.

THE PHILIPPINES was one of the most aggressive in pushing for accelerating the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community from the original 2020 target year to 2015. But now that the start of the ASEAN integration is just around the corner, the Philippines would now appear to be least attractive investment destination in the ASEAN…

MANILA, Philippines – Less than half of the 100 biggest corporations in the country made it to the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) prestigious taxpayers list.

THE PHILIPPINES fell for the second time in a row in a World Bank ranking that tracks how efficiently goods can be traded across borders.

MANILA – Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) Deputy Director General Jay Yusingco on Wednesday said the truck ban being imposed in Manila will discourage foreign companies and investors from expanding their businesses in the country.

The graduates of 2014 will be marching soon. My focus today is on the private tertiary educational system. “Statistics.” About three million students are enrolled in the tertiary educational sector every year. The Philippine Yearbook of Statistics in 2011 states that for the academic year 2009-2010 a total of 2.7 million students were enrolled at…

More or Less, the BBC team that investigates numbers and statistics, is often asked to check out claims that readers or listeners to the radio programme find hard to believe.

THE Asia News Network website posted this headline on March 11: “Asean [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations] displays solidarity as region suffers.” The commentary accompanying it noted that Malaysia’s neighbors responded without hesitation to the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, saying this “is testing relations and cooperation among Asean friends and partners.”

The government has rolled out programs to create more jobs for Filipinos so that seeking employment abroad will be unnecessary, a Malacañang official said Tuesday.

MANILA – The Philippines will have to downgrade its target to reduce poverty, officials warned Tuesday, a move which would leave an additional four million people virtually destitute in 2016.

How is that for a headline? P-Noy is always urging columnists to be positive about the country. At long last we landed among the top 10 in a list prepared by the prestigious magazine, The Economist. And we are ahead of Thailand and Indonesia too.

MANILA, Philippines – Nine out of 10 Filipino Internet users fell victim to cybercrime due to lack of awareness on security features of social networks, the Philippine National Police (PNP) bared yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Credit Suisse has warned the Philippines’ trade data may be under-recorded due to smuggling and this may mean current account surplus is actually smaller than what is officially reported.

MANILA, Philippines – Remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) went up 6.8 percent in January from a year ago, driven largely by sustained demand for skilled and professional manpower overseas, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The World Bank (WB) has revised its economic growth targets for the Philippines this year from 6.7 percent to a slightly slower 6.6 percent.