Malacañang unveiled yester-day a program to double its cash handout program in the runup to next year’s national elections with 5 million Filipinos who supposedly belong to the poorest families to receive cash or health insurance benefits.

President Arroyo said some 5,000 new jobs will be available for Filipinos in Singapore with the expansion of the Resort World at Sentosa Island.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Unemployment zoomed to 8.5 percent last month, the highest in a quarter-century, as employers axed 663,000 more workers and pushed the nation’s jobless ranks past 13 million. The hard times were only expected to get harder – a painful 10 percent jobless rate before long.

PARIS – The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Thursday named those tax havens it said had not made any commitment to respecting international standards on exchanging tax information.

It may prove wise for the government to heed the call of Japanese shipowners to establish a shipbreaking industry in the country. After all, the Japanese themselves are already assuring the government of a steady stream of clientele in the midterm given that the global financial crisis is reportedly pushing many of their shipping firms…

The top officials and labor lawyers of the Asian Institute of Management need to take summer classes on labor laws and labor-management relations.

THE family of Ramos-era Finance Secretary Ramon del Rosario Jr. has emerged from out of nowhere and with minimal advertising to become the country’s biggest condominium builder, eclipsing even the mid-range, heavily-marketed Megaworld or the pioneering low-cost condominium builder, Cityland.

MOST companies are laying off workers, but consumer products giant Procter & Gamble is still hiring, buoyed by steady sales even in the midst of a slowing economy.

Brussels, (ITUC OnLine): A call for a ‘Global New Deal’ was launched today in Brussels by a unique coalition of progressive politicians, trade unions and NGOs from over forty countries. ITUC affiliates from every region took part in the event.

FEW funds will be available for spending on infrastructure and social services as the debt service costs of the private and public sectors are likely to rise on a weaker exchange rate and inadequate credit for productive purposes, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) warned Thursday.

President Gloria Arroyo unveiled Thursday an ambitious P38-billion road project of the Metro Manila Tollways Corp. that would boost the government’s infrastructure development program and create more than 100,000 jobs during the five-year construction period.

LONDON (AP) – Leaders from around the globe made headway on Thursday on tackling the world’s worst financial crisis since the 1930s, with early signs of agreements to give more money to the International Monetary Fund and to take a closer look at regulating hedge funds.

MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court (SC) has declared the Cityhood Laws passed during the 11th Congress as unconstitutional.

One morning last December the headlines shocked the nation. Sixteen persons had been killed the night before in a shootout in Parañaque City.

MANILA, Philippines – Vice President and presidential adviser on overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) Noli De Castro yesterday said the government would maintain the ban on the deployment of Overseas Filipino Workers(OFWs) to Nigeria to protect workers from possible harm.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A new survey Wednesday showed a surprise surge in job losses in the US private sector in March, suggesting the recession in the world’s largest economy may push unemployment past 25-year highs.

Global Slowdown Damages Progress in Low-Income Countries. Slowdown will compound earlier problems caused by high food, energy prices. Local food prices remain high, hitting the poor the hardest IMF, World Bank, labor unions share goal of strengthening social safety nets Low-income countries, already weakened by the high food and energy prices observed during 2008, are…

During the week of January 12, 2009 the World Bank Group (WBG) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) hosted a week-long series of meetings with global unions to discuss the global financial crisis, governance reform, and gender equality.   Some 80 leaders from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and 10 Global Union Confederations were present representing…

WASHINGTON – Employers are laying off workers at a faster pace despite a few hopeful signs recently that the recession — now the longest since World War II — could be easing.

The Canadian government of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, with the acquiescence of the opposition Liberals, has played a major, if not the pivotal, role in keeping chrysotile asbestos off a United Nations list of dangerous substances—the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade

As a report reveals deadly asbestos is still being used in many  Japanese household items, the fibres of legal insulation look to be unravelling.

Australia – Working collaboratively with Deakin University, Alcoa’s Anglesea power station in Australia has developed a technique that increases the protection and comfort of people working to remove asbestos in the facility while also reducing costs and accelerating the rate of removal by almost 90%.

“Our collective strength will be more effective in pushing legislators and government agencies to take action,” opened Brother Gerard Seno, National Vice President of the Associated Labor Unions (ALU).

HONG KONG — Job openings for executives in Asia have decreased, particularly in Japan, and are at their lowest level in Ho ng Kong since the Asian financial crisis as employers see little prospect of a quick rebound in business, a survey showed on Thursday.

SEOUL – THREE South Korean manufacturers said on Thursday they are recalling baby powder products after health authorities announced that they contain cancer-causing asbestos.

MANILA, Philippines – The militant transport group Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston) condemned yesterday the latest increase in the prices of diesel and unleaded gasoline, branding it as a cruel “April Fools Day joke” played by oil firms on motorists and consumers.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Education (DepEd) and Microsoft Philippines recently bolstered a partnership to enhance the Philippine educational system through ICT-enabled teaching and learning.

At the midpoint of the UN Millennium Development Goal 2000-2015, the Department of Education (DepEd) joined the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare & Development) to inject quality Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in preschool, especially to avert dropouts in primary school.

MANILA, Philippines – President Arroyo has approved a recommendation to lift the ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Jordan and Lebanon but left it up to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to decide when to put it into effect, officials said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino teachers are needed for high-paying jobs in public elementary and primary schools in the United States.