Monthly Archives: January 2017

BY THE MANILA TIMES, January 11, 2017 GENEVA: Rising income inequality is seen as the top risk for the global economy in 2017, with reforms to market capitalism increasingly viewed as necessary to ward off a populist backlash, the World Economic Forum said Wednesday.

By The Nation, January 11, 2017 The US Agency for International Development (USAID) Thursday launched a US$21.5-million-worth programme to counter human trafficking in Asia by awarding a contract a US development organisation.

Are the communists no longer a security threat? BY FRANCISCO TATAD, JANUARY 11, 2017 In his first joint command conference of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police in Malacañang last week, President Rodrigo Duterte declared he wanted the notorious Abu Sayyaf Group “crushed.” This should have been said on the…

By Philippines News Agency, JANUARY 10, 2017 President Duterte has approved a pension hike for Social Security System (SSS) members, along with a corresponding increase in contributions, Palace and SSS officials said on Tuesday. In a press briefing in Malacañang, Presidential Spokesman Ernesto C. Abella said the President has approved a P1,000 increase for SSS…

By Catherine Pillas, Businessmirror, JANUARY 10, 2017 PHILIPPINES auto assemblers grew by 24.6 percent in 2016, outpacing its growth in 2015 and its modest target of a 10-percent growth for last year.

By Cai Ordinario, Businessmirror, JANUARY 10, 2017 The Duterte administration has set a more modest production target for the agriculture and fisheries sector as indicated in the draft Philippine Development Plan (PDP) chapter of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

As a confluence of new apps and devices steadily flow into the enterprise, they’re encountering a growing sense that the digital workplace has become too complex and fragmented to be properly effective. What can organizations do? By Dion Hinchcliffe for Enterprise, January 10, 2017 With so much of our business work being done today within…

by Olivia Enos, Forbes, January 10, 2017 January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month – a month that recognizes the need to combat this evil, which victimizes as many as 45.8 million people worldwide. This is a human rights issue with implications for national security. Trafficking generates an estimated $150 billion annually in…

BY GILBERT BAYORAN, Visayan Daily Star, January 10, 2017 The sugar industry loses about P10.5 billion due to the importation and use of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) by beverage and food producers in the country, the Confederation of Sugar Producers Inc. said. Records of the Bureau of Customs for 2016 showed that HFCS imports…

By Christopher Lloyd T. Caliwan (philstar.com), January 10, 2017 MANILA, Philippines (Philippines News Agency) — Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Tuesday said that persons especially Indians engaged in the lending business more commonly known as “5-6” would be arrested even without a warrant of arrest.

By: Ben O. de Vera – @inquirerdotnetPhilippine Daily Inquirer, January 10, 2017 Government personnel will get the second tranche of their salary increase this year as the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) continues the implementation of the executive order signed by then President Benigno Aquino III last year.

BY MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO, Manila Times, JANUARY 10, 2017 BUSINESS Depreciation seen ranging from P50:$1 Private financial institutions forecast the peso to weaken to a range of P50:$1 to P52:$1 toward the end of the year, with the most pessimistic view seeing a scenario of worsening risk sentiment in case of a hardline trade stance…

BY RAADEE S. SAUSA, Manila Times, JANUARY 10, 2017 THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) is positive investments will triple or even quadruple this year as new economic zones open throughout the country after it recorded a 20 percent drop in approved investments in 2016 due to election-related uncertainties.

By Maria Eloisa I. Calderon, Businessworld, January 10, 2017 “THIS MORNING, I formally told them, there is no signed department order yet,” Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said in a Jan. 5 interview at his office, emerging from a meeting with labor leaders.

Rey Galupo (The Philippine Star), Jan. 9, 2017 MANILA, Philippines – A construction worker died of electrocution while his fellow worker was severely injured when a steel pipe they were carrying got entangled with a live wire in Tondo, Manila on Saturday.

by —JULIE M. AURELIO, Philippine Daily Inquirer The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) cautioned aspiring overseas Filipino workers against fake job offers in Canada which are being circulated on the Internet.

By Roy Stephen C. Canivel, Businessworld, January 09, 2017 THE COUNTRY will just have to “take” the fallout from President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s bloody war on crime, even if it means losing a perk that grants zero tariff on over 6,000 Philippine products sold to European Union (EU) markets, the heads of the Trade department…

Windows is still No. 1, but as the PC market continues to decline, it only has less than half of the market. By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for Between the Lines, Jan. 9, 2017 The real reason Windows has sunk below the 50-percent mark is that smartphones and tablets are continuing to grow while the desktop…

By Susie Bugante, Businessmirror, January 9, 2017 IN the midst of the discussions concerning the proposal to increase the Social Security System (SSS) pensions by P2,000 is the issue on the agency’s operating expenses (opex). Allegedly, the pension fund’s operating expenses are high due to excessive salaries and benefits. But are the compensation and benefits…

Cupertino is a victim of its own success and is fully responsible for creating the Chinese Android monster. By Jason Perlow for Tech Broiler, January 9, 2017 Anniversaries are opportunities to reflect on what has come before, and to imagine what may transpire in the future. For some, an anniversary is a time for reconfirmation…

Posted by: Tempo Online, January 9, 2017 Isang lalaki na umano’y lango sa droga ang nabaril at napatay ng mga pulis matapos niyang pagsasaksakin ang kaniyang live-in partner sa Las Piñas City noong Sabado ng hapon.

by DAVID RYAN POLGAR, Jan 8, 2017 34 workers at a Japanese insurance company are being laid off and replaced with an artificial intelligence (AI) system. Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance, seeking greater efficiency in calculating their payouts to policyholders, will soon replace many of its office workers with an AI system based on IBM’s Watson…

By Richmond Mercurio (The Philippine Star), December 8, 2016 The issue on labor contracting made waves in recent months, with workers calling not only for the eradication of illegal practices such as “endo” and “5-5-5” but also the total abolition of contractualization in all forms. File photo MANILA, Philippines – Old habits die hard.

Romina Cabrera (The Philippine Star), Jan. 7, 2017 MANILA, Philippines – One woman was killed while six others were injured in an air tank explosion at a plastics factory in Quezon City before dawn Thursday.

By Armida D. Rico, Noel Abuel, Abante, January 7, 2017 Muling binalaan kahapon ng Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) ang publiko laban sa mga pekeng trabaho na iniaalok sa internet, sa pamamagitan ng email at social media.

AT GROUND LEVEL By Satur C. Ocampo (The Philippine Star), Jan. 7, 2017 President Duterte enters the second half of his first year in office unrelentingly pursuing his bloody war on illegal drugs, which during the electoral campaign he had promised to complete in six months. The fulfillment of another campaign promise has now been…

By: Ben O. de Vera – @inquirerdotnet, Philippine Daily Inquirer / January 06, 2017 Pushing through with proposals to slap a two-year ban on farm land conversion as well as hiking the Social Security System’s (SSS) pension benefits without raising members’ contributions will “undermine” the economic growth momentum that the country currently enjoys, a high-ranking…

INQUIRER.net / January 06, 2017 One of the fears revolving around the development of artificial intelligence rises from the possibility that it may eventually replace humans as a workforce. This fear has now become a reality for a number of employees working for a Japanese company.

BY RIGOBERTO D. TIGLAO, Manila Times, JANUARY 6, 2017 SINCE the communist insurgency started in the 1950s led by a Soviet-influenced Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas, President Duterte is the first president to have appointed not only former communist leaders but probably even active communist cadres as members of his Cabinet and as lower-ranking officials.

Written by Kris De Meyer, Jan 6, 2017 Finally a new year is here after the most politically divisive 12 months in a very long time. In the UK, Brexit shattered dreams and friendships. In the US, the polarisation was already huge, but a bitter election campaign made the divisions even deeper. Political rhetoric doesn’t persuade…