Monthly Archives: January 2016

MANILA, Philippines – Government representatives are going to Qatar to help some 12,000 Filipino engineers and architects who may be affected by Qatar’s new employment requirements for foreign workers, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said yesterday.

SAN ANTONIO, Quezon – Isang project engineer at isang construction worker ang namatay matapos na masagasaan ng isang transit cement mixer sa Barangay Callejon, this town.

Former Representative Edcel Lagman and Health Secretary Janette Garin’s efforts to promote family planning earn them international recognition BALI, Indonesia – Former Representative Edcel Lagman and Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Janette Garin were among the winners of the 2016 Excellence in Leadership for Family Planning Awards for their role in aiding the passage of…

Are Grade 10 private school completers who do not receive any kind of financial support from the government entitled to vouchers? The short answer is: it depends. Here is a really long answer:

THE EUROPEAN Commission has adopted its first monitoring report on the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) that included an assessment of the Philippines’ implementation of 27 international conventions.

MANILA, Philippines – The European Commission said on Thursday that the Philippines is making good progress on implementing 27 international conventions on human rights, labor rights, environment and governance.

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Three leading economists and academics at Davos agree: GDP is a poor way of assessing the health of our economies and we urgently need to find a new measure.

As it turns out reforming social security is a well studied topic. A Google search reveals studies and articles by PIDS, the government economic think tank. There is also a ten year old study by the World Bank.

PRESS STATEMENT (for immediate release) RUBEN D. TORRES 22 January 2016 President, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines CP No. 0908.851.3320 LEONIE Q. MONTEMAYOR President, Federation of Free Farmers CP No. 0908.240.9772 TUCP, ALLIED GROUPS SEEK EARLY ENACTMENT OF CREDIT SURETY FUND BILL The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) and allied farmers groups…

The Philippines ranked 56th out of 109 economies in the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) 2015-2016 released yesterday by the Adecco Group and the Human Capital Leadership Institute of Singapore, which measured a country’s ability to compete for talent.

                                    MANILA – Before the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) put a labor law compliance system in place in August 2013, labor inspectors would only inspect companies once every 16 years…

Of what use is a measure that proposes to do good if it destroys the very institution that produces the goodie? Don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg! President Benigno Aquino III did the right thing when he exercised a seldom used veto power to reject a “very popular” measure passed by Congress…

Last week, I gave the hypothetical example of Maria, a Grade 10 student now in a public high school who wants to pursue an engineering degree in college. Which Senior High School (SHS) may she go to in June of this year?

FIRST PAY HIKE IN THREE YEARS Filipino domestic helpers in Singapore are set to receive a SGD$50 increase in their monthly salary starting January, the Straits Times reported Thursday. Minimum wage for Filipino domestic helpers in Singapore was originally set by the Philippine government at $400.

An electrician died after he touched a live wire at a building undergoing construction in Quezon City, Monday.

If only SSS management had some moral authority, it should be easy to understand why P-Noy had to veto that proposal to increase SSS pensions. The math is pretty straightforward. But there are valid issues about SSS management, the record earnings of the trust fund notwithstanding.

MANILA – The Philippines made marginal gains in the United Nations Human Development Report (HDR) 2015 as deep structural issues prevent the country from making substantial improvements in improving access to knowledge, life expectancy, and the standard of living of Filipinos.

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LOS ANGELES – Social security is a hot topic here specially in the light of a disappearing middle class amidst growing income inequality. According to Forbes last week, 56 percent of Americans in a recent survey said they have less than $1,000 in their checking and savings accounts combined. About 25 percent have less than…

MANILA, Philippines – Improving collection efficiency will not solve the Social Security System (SSS)’ problem of not having the funds to cover the proposed increase in retirees’ pension. “Collection efficiency is not the solution,” Michael Victor Alimurong, representative of the general public to the SSS commission, said yesterday.

Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz yesterday called for a more enlightened, objective, and sober assessment of President Benigno S. Aquino III’s veto of House Bill 5842, the proposed law providing for a P2,000 across-the-board hike in Social Security System (SSS) pensioners’ benefits, saying it was a judicious move to uphold the greater welfare of…

Despite its optimism on the local economy’s dynamics, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised downward its Philippine growth outlook for this year, as the region’s sluggish performance and the global economy continued to drag the country’s potential growth going forward.

The Social Security System (SSS) fired back at critics of President Aquino’s unpopular decision to veto a bill seeking an across-the-board pension increase of P2,000, saying it was the “right move” that saved the fund from an early bankruptcy.

Mario Draghi may have to up the ante, and he has oil to blame. More than 60 percent of economists surveyed by Bloomberg predict the European Central Bank president will announce more stimulus this year, up from 40 percent in December, after a renewed oil-price slump depressed the outlook for euro-area inflation. Fifty-seven percent of…

MANILA — President Benigno Aquino, Senate President Franklin Drilon, and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte are among the country’s top executies that would benefit from the proposed Salary Standardization Law (SSL) 2015 pushed by the administration, a public workers’ group said Monday.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is interacting with other socio-economic and demographic factors to create a perfect storm of business model change in all industries, resulting in major disruptions to labour markets. New categories of jobs will emerge, partly or wholly displacing others. The skill sets required in both old and new occupations will change in…