Monthly Archives: October 2016

The survey shows optimism of Philippine businesses stood at 84% in the 3rd quarter of the year, way above the average of 42% By Rappler.com, Oct 31, 2016 9:00 PM MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines emerged as the 3rd most optimistic economy among 37 countries driven by strong prospects in revenues, exports, and the Association…

(The Philippine Star), October 31, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Association of Legitimate Service Contractors (Palscon), has linked up with other groups to end the illegal employment practice of “contractualization” or “end of contract,” more popularly known as “endo” and “5-5-5.”

By Richmond Mercurio (The Philippine Star), October 31, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – Proposed labor policies, which include wage adjustments and the termination of the end-of-contract (endo) work arrangement, are seen to drag down the country’s already slumping export growth, the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) said.

By: Rolando T. Dy /@inquirerdotnet, October 31, 2016 Some 60 companies/groups (an incomplete list) have invested more than P1 billion each in the region. About 26 have focus in agribusiness; others are into diversified businesses (11); property and retailing (11); and mining, power, manufacturing and services (12).

By Edith Regalado (The Philippine Star), October 29, 2016 DAVAO CITY, Philippines – On President Duterte’s orders, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) will conduct lifestyle check on ranking officials and other government workers. Duterte made the announcement upon his arrival at the Davao International Airport Thursday night from a three-day state visit to Japan.

By Helen Flores (The Philippine Star), October 29, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – The Cabinet’s net satisfaction rating in the first three months of President Duterte’s government surpassed the rating of the Cabinets of past administrations during the same period, according to the latest survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

By Prinz Magtulis (The Philippine Star), October 29, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – The Social Security System (SSS) presented yesterday six options on how to pursue the planned pension hike of P2,000, none of which involved increasing contributions, hence risking fund depletion just after a decade.

By Prinz P. Magtulis (The Philippine Star), October 29, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – Toll roads should source at least a quarter of their funding from pension funds like the Social Security System (SSS) for a sustained stream of revenues, the agency’s new chair said.

By Louella Desiderio (The Philippine Star), October 29, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines has ratified the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) which seeks to make trading of goods easier through lower costs and streamlined procedures.

By Jess Diaz (The Philippine Star), October 29, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives Committee on Women and Gender Equality has endorsed for plenary approval a bill seeking to increase the maternity leave period to 130 days.

By Noel Abuel, October 28, 2016, Abante Naharang ng mga tauhan ng Bureau of Immigration (BI) sa Ninoy Aquino International­ ­Airport (NAIA) ang isang Filipina na biktima ng ­human trafficking na nagtangkang umalis ng ­bansa gamit ang pekeng ­dokumento.

By Ian Sayson, Bloomberg, 2016-10-28 Philippine stocks headed for their worst month in more than a year as investors flee a market that was flying high three months ago.

By Alexis Romero (The Philippine Star), October 28, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – President Duterte has ordered the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) to craft the country’s development plan for his term and to make sure the marginalized sectors are consulted.

by Jimbo Owen B. Gulle, Oct 28, 2016 Have you ever maxed out a credit card, or multiple cards? And if you have, have you ever hoped that you could get back in the good graces of credit card companies and enjoy using plastic money again?

MESSAGE TUCP Vice President and Federation of Free Farmers President LEONARDO Q. MONTEMAYOR “National Productivity Conference: Creating Value for Workers and Enterprise” 27 October 2016, Jen Hotel, Pasay City (Greetings!) TUCP President Ruben Torres extends his apologies for not being able to join us today. He is out of the country for an equally important…

(Report on the National Conference on Constructive Industrial Relations held on 17-18 May 2016, Manila) 5.18.2016, Manila. –Some 1,000 trade union leaders (41% women) reiterated workers’ call for passage of stronger, better, and workable labor law to ensure security of tenure and constructive industrial relations in the country amidst pervasive use of contractual and precarious…

Read the article here.

Oct. 26, 2016 – Unpaid hours are another aggravation for Philippine workers. Sales and fast food workers are required to report for work early (even over an hour before paid time) to prepare for work or to prepare items, materials or food for sale or display.  Then they are required to stay longer after paid…

Written by Tom Szaky, 27 October 2016, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/10/we-can-recycle-everything-we-use-so-why-don-t-we?utm_content=buffer6b1a6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer Within the broad range of sustainability concepts and activities, recycling is without doubt the most easily understood and accessible: individuals and groups, old and young, communities and institutions can participate.

By: Jun Ebias, InterAksyon.com, October 27, 2016 MANILA – The country’s booming IT-BPO industry is confident growth would still be at more than 9 percent a year until 2022 despite recent pronouncements from President Rodrigo Duterte that his administration will “separate” from the United States, and forge strong ties with China, Japan, and other countries…

By Richmond Mercurio (The Philippine Star), October 27, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – Reforms made by the previous administration have propelled the Philippines higher in the rankings of the World Bank Group’s annual ease of doing business report.

By: Jun Ebias, InterAksyon.com, October 27, 2016 MANILA – The country’s booming IT-BPO industry is confident growth would still be at more than 9 percent a year until 2022 despite recent pronouncements from President Rodrigo Duterte that his administration will “separate” from the United States, and forge strong ties with China, Japan, and other countries…

By Lawrence Agcaoili (The Philippine Star), October 27, 2016 Based on preliminary estimates, BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said the higher excise tax on petroleum products, the corresponding rise in transport fares, and higher electricity rates would stoke inflation by 0.47 percent next year and by 0.43 percent in 2018.

By Christina Mendez (The Philippine Star), October 27, 2016 TOKYO – Japanese business groups urged the Philippines yesterday to speed up the lifting of constitutional restrictions in doing business in the country, describing it as a major obstacle in increasing foreign direct investments (FDI).

BY R.A. | WASHINGTON, Oct 26th 2016, http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2016/10/glut-punch?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/glutpunchglobalimbalancesaprecrisisscourgeareback BRAD SETSER, an economist at the Council on Foreign Relations, is the author of a new discussion paper looking at “the return of the East Asian savings glut”. A summary of his paper begins in arresting fashion:

Read more here.

By Richmond Mercurio (The Philippine Star), October 26, 2016 The World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Global Gender Gap Report 2016 showed the Philippines closing nearly 79 percent of its gender gap.

By Patricia Lourdes Viray (philstar.com), October 26, 2016 MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ gender gap on the subindex of health and survival remains fully closed while it has re-closed the educational attainment subindex, according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2016 published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Tuesday.

By: InterAksyon.com, October 25, 2016 MANILA, Philippines — Domestic workers in the Ilocos region should now be earning a minimum monthly wage of P2,500-3,500 after the latest order of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board.