Monthly Archives: January 2015

MANILA – Millions of children in the Philippines continue to engage in the worst forms of labor despite a massive awareness of the problem and efforts to address it because root causes such as poverty remain unaddressed, various groups said Wednesday.

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MANILA, Philippines — Frail-looking and gaunt, one would not think that 14-year-old Jeraldine Macapaar Aboy or Pitang could lift tons of sugarcane and load them in a truck.

New report cites landlessness and ineffective govt measures in protecting children Geraldine Aboy, 14, lives in a makeshift hut of grass and plastic sheeting in the middle of a sugarcane plantation. She wakes at four o’clock in the morning to cook whatever available food there is and prepare for the trek to nearby fields.

ADMINISTRATION’S GOOD GOVERNANCE INITIATIVES CITED Key policy measures undertaken in the last year led to a significant improvement in Philippine society’s ability to allow its citizens to climb up the socioeconomic ladder on their own merits, a new international report showed.

‘Worse, child labor, especially in plantations and mines, provides no means by which the children and their families may escape the vicious cycle of generational poverty,’ the study says MANILA, Philippines – In tears, 14-year-old Jeraldine Macapar Aboy asks why indigenous children like her have become child laborers.

Aside from dealing with the disease itself, Filipinos with Hepatitis B also suffer from discrimination at the workplace or at home MANILA, Philippines – Despite efforts to increase public awareness on Hepatitis B, advocates fighting to eradicate the disease say discrimination against patients is “still rampant.”

Climate change is real, and it’s coming. But we’re all going to be affected in different ways. How will your country fare? The folks at Eco Experts put together a great infographic based on data from the Notre Dame Global Adaptation (ND-Gain) Index, an annual ranking of which countries are best poised to adapt to…

The sudden fall of oil prices since the middle of last year has turned the tables of economic calculus for better growth. “Cheap oil is with us for some time.” The sudden drop of oil prices from $115-$120 per barrel early in 2014 toward $80, then $70, and recently bottoming even to $45 per barrel,…

There are 5.5 million children engaged in labor in the Philippines, majority of them trapped in the “worst forms” of hard work, an European Union official said Wednesday.

One of my favorite books when I was growing up in Fiji was Margaret Mitchell’s, Gone With The Wind. Of course, this tale of American Civil War era life on a Southern plantation was about as far removed from my Pacific islands reality as it is possible to get. But no matter how politically incorrect…

If international governments are discouraging their nationals from using our inter-island fleets for local travel, should we just accept this sitting down?

Negotiators from the 12 countries working on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a deal to reduce tariffs on trade, meet in New York today. This is a meeting about a meeting: its purpose is to prepare the ground for ministers from the countries involved, who are expected to meet in March. There are stumbling blocks everywhere,…

AT least five (5) million less privileged families, whose health insurance coverage expired last December 31, 2011, can still avail themselves of health care benefits from facilities accredited by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) until March 31, 2012.

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang is supporting a proposal in Congress to investigate the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)’s reported use of funds from the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program to billet Metro Manila street dwellers in a resort in Nasugbu, Batangas during the five-day visit of Pope Francis last week.

That’s probably what Budget Secretary Florencio told congressmen in December to get them to stop delaying things and pass quickly the 2015 General Appropriations Act. image001With this new scheme of skirting the Supreme Court rulings declaring President Benigno Aquino’s pork-barrel fund system and Disbursement Acceleration Plan scheme unconstitutional, the 2015 budget is, in effect, a…

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About one million fewer families experienced hunger in the last quarter of 2014, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said in its latest survey. The survey found 17.2 percent of adult respondents (an estimated 3.8 million households) saying they have experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the fourth quarter of last year, lower than the…

A black market is emerging for Filipina household helpers in the United Arab Emirates with prospective employers being made to pay up to $4,600 (Dh17,000) for a helper, a UAE news site reported over the weekend.

The virtual stack of resumes in your inbox is winnowed and certain candidates have passed the phone screen. Next step: in-person interviews. How should you use the relatively brief time to get to know — and assess — a near stranger? How many people at your firm should be involved? How can you tell if…

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Philippine real estate will continue to register healthy growth especially outside Metro Manila (esp. Makati, BGC and Ortigas) in 2015 according to Colliers, although at a more measured, conservative pace. According to experts, this is akin to the market correcting itself after years of impressive growth. See the report here

MANILA, Philippines—Authorities have identified the fatalities in the collapsed wall of a warehouse in Bulacan, which have rose to 11 including another minor.

Rescuers extract a pregnant woman from the rubble after the wall of a warehouse collapsed in Barangay Ilang-Ilang in Guiguinto, Bulacan on Monday, January 19. The local mayor said that as of early Tuesday, 11 people were confirmed dead and at least four others were injured. He said local engineers have started inspecting the site.…

GUIGUINTO, Bulacan, Philippines – The wall of a warehouse being constructed in Barangay Ilang-ilang in this town collapsed yesterday afternoon, killing at least 12 people and injuring five others.

MANILA – The Philippine economic growth is expected to pick up its pace this year due to an increase in public spending, an analyst said Monday.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines is hoping to complete a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) within four to five years to be able to allow greater access for exports to the bloc even after it graduates as a beneficiary of Generalized System of Preferences Plus (GSP+), the Department of Trade and…