Monthly Archives: July 2014

THE World Health Organization (WHO) has lamented the continued absence of adequate services to people who have high chances of getting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

MANILA – Amid widespread consumer complaints of slow “high-speed” Internet access as well as recurring blocked or dropped mobile phone voice calls, House Deputy Minority Leader and LPG-MA Rep. Arnel Ty is batting for an administrative fine of up to P50 million for telecommunications companies that fail to comply with directives to improve their services.

GOVERNMENT incentives under the planned automotive road map will be limited to vehicle assemblers engaged in export of completely built units (CBUs) to other Southeast Asian countries, a Cabinet official said.

OTTAWA/TOKYO: Pacific trade talks have reached broad agreement on labour issues and sanitary and phytosanitary standards but some difficult aspects remain to be tackled, Japan’s chief negotiator said on Saturday.

WHILE next year’s economic integration of the 10 member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is expected to affect small and medium enterprises (SMEs), they, in turn, have also a significant impact on the coming regional transition to a single economic block.

A new study that addresses jobs expansion and development strategy was recently completed at the government think tank, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS ).

MANILA, Philippines – Age and diploma matter, but are looks also essential in finding a job? Though no employer will admit it, good looks and confidence really do matter when one is applying for employment. A video of a social experiment that has gone viral indicated that searching for a job is like a beauty…

MANILA, Philippines – Congress is being asked offline and online to pass a law banning age discrimination in workplaces. Quezon City Councilor Lena Marie Juico has filed a resolution asking her colleagues in the city council to support a bill of Sen. Pia Cayetano seeking to penalize an employer, labor contractor or labor organization for…

MANILA, Philippines – Ten underage workers were rescued by National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents from their Chinese employers at the 168 mall in Binondo, Manila yesterday.

GENEVA/LONDON – Five key groups, including gay men, prostitutes and prisoners, have stubbornly high rates of HIV that are threatening progress in the global AIDS battle, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday.

TOKYO – Japan’s labor shortage is nearing crisis in some key industries as it spreads from construction to services, curbing companies’ operations, pushing up wages and potentially crimping a tentative recovery in the world’s third-largest economy. Airlines, retailers, truckers and restaurant chains are being forced to rethink expansion plans and, in extreme cases, shut up…

THE Supreme Court’s justices become richer in 2013 as shown by their Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth, which the 15-member bench had agreed to release last month following the petitions by several media outfits.

(Reuters Health) – With less sleep, normal aging-related structural changes in the brain progress slightly faster in middle-aged and older people, according to a new brain imaging study. Sleep troubles are more common with age, and shrinkage of certain brain structures is normal. But for the over-55 study participants, those changes could be seen accelerating…

Want to spot the unproductive employees? Listen to the excuses they make. They moan. They wail. They shuffle around the office looking for free candy. Unproductive employees have an excuse for everything. Here are a few of the phrases they use to explain away the problem. Listen for them, then correct the action to get…

MANILA, Philippines — The state of the media in Asia and the Pacific is grim, according to the Communication and Information Sector of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), which released a regional overview of its report, World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development.

DUBAI – The Philippine Consulate is urging overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) victimized by unscrupulous immigration officers in Philippine airports to file a complaint, vowing support and willingness to seek help from the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against these erring state employees.

The truck ban imposed in the city of Manila and a slowing world economy will likely dampen the country’s exports growth in the second half of 2014, thus, diminishing the export sector’s contribution to economic expansion for the year, local economists said.

Reader reaction to my piece last week (July 2, 2014) on Balamban, Cebu chronicling the town’s economic success as host to foreign direct investment (FDI) has been viral and approving. It reflects the nation’s thirst for good examples of development.

Public satisfaction with the government’s performance in the first quarter of 2014 fell to its lowest since May 2012, a new survey by pollster Social Weather Stations showed. SWS, which posted the results on its media partner BusinessWorld Tuesday night, said this was the lowest since the +44 net satisfaction score it got in May…

Republic Act 7916 (PEZA Law), otherwise known as the “The Special Economic Zone Act of 1995” was enacted as a means of attracting investors in the Philippines. Among its provisions is a tax incentive which grants to business establishments registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), a five-percent preferential gross income tax (GIT) rate…

MANILA, Philippines – At least 787 Filipinos are facing drug-related cases worldwide, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday. Most of the cases are in Asia at 343, including 220 (59 males, 161 females) in China. There are 116 cases in the Americas, 104 in Europe and 244 in the Middle East and Africa.

THE CLOCK is ticking for a landmark global move to cut poverty and improve the lot of the world’s poorest, and while some targets have been achieved, much remains to be done until the concerted effort formally ends next year, according to the latest assessment the United Nations (UN) released on Monday.

The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) has expressed dismay over that the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) is going ahead with proposed tax hikes “without taking into consideration comments and observations by authoritative third parties.”

UNLESS President Aquino intervenes, a crisis involving empty container vans could reach its tipping point very soon, and this could hurt the Philippine economy. This fear was raised after the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) issued a circular stating that it would no longer accept “empty containers for export, due to yard utilization reaching 100…

Filipinos tend to be conservative when it comes to investing, as most still prefer to keep their income in cash rather than take risks in different investment instruments.

MANILA, Philippines – Japanese businessmen in the Philippines are opposing a circular issued by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) which provides the rules for filing of tax refunds as well as moves of local governments to impose additional taxes citing that such may deter foreign investments.

MANILA, Philippines – No matter how prosperous the Philippine economy becomes, the country will still experience the “jobless growth” phenomenon of high unemployment and poverty levels, unless the full potential of the manufacturing sector is developed.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines can expect a “tsunami” (tidal wave) invasion of foreign brands that will come with the formal integration of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) into a single common market or Economic Community of 600 million consumers later next year.

MORE THAN 70% of smartphone users in the country last year are from the youth segment, driving the uptake of Internet browsing, social networking and short message service (SMS), data from communications technology and services provider Ericsson showed.

For some students of the University of the Philippines, the unexpected long vacation was the biggest boon resulting from the sudden change in the school calendar, from June to March of previous years, to this schoolyear’s August to May time frame.