Monthly Archives: March 2014

MANILA, Philippines – A group of education reform advocates called on the government to close down weak-performing teacher education institutions (TEIs) following the low-passing rates in the licensure examination for teachers (LET) in the past five years.

MANILA – If you’re an engineer or a doctor, then your profession is among the list of highest paying jobs abroad. According to JobStreet.com’s Salary Report for Overseas Jobs, oil and gas engineers in the managerial level are the highest paid workers abroad, earning an average of P186,000 per month.

Of the 1.4 million Filipinos with disabilities identified in the 2010 National Census, 14 percent – or over 200,000 people – had mental disability. But, once shunned by their own families and communities, largely because of ignorance and prejudice, who will take care of them? What legal and financial resources does the state have to…

The Philippine government should intensify its job creation efforts, particularly in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors, to alleviate poverty and make economic growth more inclusive, according to a World Bank report released Monday.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

MANILA – A lawmaker on Sunday said 4,034 nurses took the US National Licensure Examination (NCLEX) in 2013 in hopes of obtaining gainful employment in America.

BACOLOD CITY , Philippines – At least 18 private and public colleges and universities in Region 6 (Western Visayas) have applied for tuition hike for academic year 2014-2015.

MANILA, Philippines – The government will hold a second nationwide survey this summer to identify the poorest of the poor families.

Come on, ERC… when you guys blame the unusually high Meralco rate increases last December on market failure, you really mean regulatory failure. If you ERC guys were more alert in defense of the public interest, you would have seen market failure about to happen and would have taken steps to stop it from happening.

ENVIRONMENT Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje on Sunday underscored the need to conserve water and electricity, both being precious economic resources, which remain inaccessible to millions of Filipinos.

A GROUP of power generators welcomed last week’s ruling of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) which ordered the recalculation of the rates on the spot market.

The Philippines is already fully prepared for the ASEAN Economic Community integration 2015 although there are areas that need to be improved on, a Department of Trade and Industry senior trade specialist said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines—A key political ally of President Aquino on Thursday blamed him and Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla for the country’s power supply woes, calling both officials “awful managers.”

Around 700,000 college graduates will enter the labor force starting next week, thus raising the spectre of more and more people going jobless, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said on Thursday.

MANILA, Philippines—Three construction laborers were killed while one more was hurt when they fell from the fourth floor of the building they were working on in Novaliches, Quezon City, on Wednesday.

NEW YORK – US workers accused fast-food giant McDonald’s Thursday of systematically stealing wages through illicit practices like forcing them to work off-the-clock and failing to pay overtime.

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima is seeking to reduce the level of restrictions to foreign investments saying that the liberalization tack will result in additional economic activities in the country and help it attain inclusive growth.

March is Women’s Month, a good time to reflect on some of the statistics that came out of the 2013 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study (YAFS) conducted by the University of the Philippines Population Institute (UPPI). The survey involved more than 19,000 Filipinos aged 15 to 24, from throughout the Philippines, and some preliminary…

ELECTRONICS remain the country’s top export product, binding national export performance to demand by foreign buyers. As 2013 demonstrated, low demand by importers in developing countries, which continued to grapple with the aftereffects of the 2008 crisis, pushed down export growth to 3.6% from 7.6% in the year before.

MANILA, Philippines—By the last quarter of 2014, the Philippines will be a mobile-first country—meaning people will likely use their mobile phones to access the Internet rather than the traditional desktop computers, Google said.

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) – The Department of Health (DOH) launched today a massive campaign to distribute condoms in leisure business establishments in Metro Manila, in a move to prevent HIV/AIDS in the country as the confirmed cases of the disease rapidly increased in January.

March 10 (Economist Intelligence Unit) — On March 3rd a committee of the House of Representatives (the lower house) voted overwhelmingly to amend the constitution and give Congress (the legislature) the power to reduce or remove restrictions on foreign participation in certain economic activities. If ratified, the proposal will make it possible to amend the…

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is continuing its shame campaign against doctors.

I had intended to write about some important world international economic issues at this time. However, an event that happened some weeks ago lingered in my mind. The subject deserves commentary. It demonstrates an aspect of nation-building.

MANILA, Philippines – Two students from the University of the Philippines who looked into the apparent conflict of interest in the alliance between Akbayan party-list and the Liberal Party bagged the top award in the recently held Chit Estella Journalism Research Awards.

MANILA, Philippines – The number of jobless Filipinos grew in January compared to a year ago despite the country’s strong economic performance.

MANILA, Philippines – Power industry regulators voided yesterday the sharp hikes in electricity rates in December 2013 and in January this year, saying “market failure” in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) had pushed rates by more than half of what was justified during the period.

Manila, 08 February 2014. –Over a hundred trade union leaders and activists called on DOLE to prioritize closing the gap between law and practice on workers’ freedom of association and collective bargaining in special economic zones (SEZs) in the Philippines. TUCP also called on the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and zone locators to respect…

At the start of the National People’s Congress, the Chinese government announced a substantial increase in their military spending and now, officials have declared war – that is, against pollution. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang himself has acknowledged that pollution has become a very big problem in his country and is threatening GDP growth, not to…

As we get closer to the April 15 deadline, taxpayers should be wary of changes in the preparation and filing of annual income tax returns (ITR). On Jan. 24, 2014, the BIR issued Revenue Regulations (RR) No. 2-2014 which revamped the forms to be used by individual taxpayers for the filing of ITR for taxable…