CHA-AM (AP) – Southeast Asian officials on Friday hailed the creation of a regional human rights body as a historic first step toward confronting abuses in the region, but the body will lack the power to investigate or punish violators of human rights like military-ruled Myanmar.

Balanga City – Six officials and security officers of Petron oil refinery in Limay, Bataan were charged yesterday before the provincial prosecutor’s office with alleged obstruction of justice in connection with the death of a 24-year old techniciam who was exposed to hydrogen sulfide gas at the plant’s sour water treating facility six months ago.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Education (DepEd) warned private schools yesterday that the agency would use its regulatory powers against schools that will not practice self-restraint in imposing tuition hikes for school year 2009-10.

MANILA, Philippines – A US State Department report said corruption and inefficiency in the judicial system have undermined human rights in the Philippines and caused “widespread skepticism” of due process.

MANILA, Philippines – Despite calls from lawmakers to activate the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) to prevent severe power shortage in the future, Malacañang said it would still have to check on the safety aspect of the facility.

WASHINGTON: US authorities launched a new phase of their bank rescue plan on Wednesday including a requirement for so-called stress tests on the “capital adequacy” of troubled major commercial banks.

MANILA, Philippines – Overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in Taiwan may heave a sigh of relief as Taiwan’s economic stimulus package may reduce the risk of further OFW retrenchments, the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) said.

(Second of a series) The 1992 Torres report While he was still at Phivolcs, Dr. Ronnie Torres, a foremost expert regarding pyroclastic flows who is now at the University of Hawaii, warned of volcanism and faulting at the site in a 1992 report, “The vulnerability of PNPP site to the hazards of Natib volcano” (Phivolcs…

MANILA, Philippines – World Bank officials led by country director Bert Hofman told lawmakers yesterday that it was up to authorities to prosecute contractors the bank had banned for collusion in bidding for road projects.

MANILA, Philippines – Groups opposing the proposal to revive the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) formed yesterday a “human banner” to express their protest against the plan and they urged lawmakers to reject the bill that favors the opening of the nuclear plant.

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – A radio broadcaster was shot dead on his way to his radio program in Oroquieta City, Misamis Occidental yesterday.

LEXINGTON, Kentucky – A recruiting trip to the Philippines turned into a success when officials from a public school system ventured there in late 2007 looking for teachers.

MANILA, Philippines – About 11 million Filipino adults or 27.9 percent of the adult labor force are unemployed, a recent survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

MANILA, Philippines – Education Secretary Jesli Lapus is confident that private schools will not raise tuition fees too much and cause the exodus of students from private schools to already congested public schools.

Officials allot P7B to create180,000 jobs   At least 39,000 Filipinos have lost their jobs since October, as factories and companies lay off workers amid the deepening global financial crisis, an official said Monday.

Nay, this is not about the 1998 action thriller Mercury Rising where Bruce Willis plays an undercover agent out to protect a nine-year-old autistic boy targeted by assassins after cracking a top secret government code. And this is not about Mercury retrograde, which is said to bog us down as it creates computer screw-ups and…

MANILA, Philippines – The government is set to revise downward the economic growth forecast for the year given the global economic recession, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto said yesterday.

DUBAI(AP) — The world’s economic shadows caught up with Employee No. 861 at the lip of a construction site on Dubai’s desert outskirts.

MANILA, Philippines – Groups opposing the proposal to revive the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) formed yesterday a “human banner” to express their protest against the plan and they urged lawmakers to reject the bill that favors the opening of the

“You will know what you love by the things that you hate”. By coincidence or by divine design, I seem to have heard about Domestic Violence so much in the past two weeks that I simply could not ignore the “topic”. I believe that such things happen for a purpose so I now find myself…

Amazing! The Puno Court did it again. Access to justice by our marginalized sectors has been institutionalized in the judicial branch through the Rule on Mandatory Legal Aid Service. The Supreme Court now requires “practicing lawyers” of the country to render 60 hours of free legal aid yearly, effective July 1. Sharing five hours of…

No Filipino is anti women. So a “Magna Carta for Women” would have been an acceptable piece of legislation. The versions of the bill simultaneously passed by the Senate (S.B. 2396) and the Lower House (H.B. 4273) admittedly has some provisions recognizing the dignity and worth of Filipinas and promote all their human rights and…

MANILA, Philippines – The government has started the program to train and create more polite and efficient workers to curb unemployment caused by the global economic crisis.

MANILA, Philippines – The American Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (AmCham) urged the government to consider revising its local holiday schemes especially for business process outsourcing (BPO) firms or call centers to help companies save money amidst the global economic crisis.

MANILA, Philippines – A couple was freed from 13 years of conflict after the Supreme Court (SC) relaxed the guidelines for annulling marriages and declared their union void.

MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives warned private schools, colleges and universities yesterday that it will freeze tuition for three years if they increase their fees this year.

MANILA, Philippines – The P1-billion fund allotted by the government for various anti-corruption projects has registered financial and economic gains.

MANILA, Philippines – Congressman Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, chairman of the House committee on energy, believes that the development of nuclear energy should be left in private sector hands.

MANILA, Philippines – The government needs to put in place measures that would boost the local economy to lessen the country’s dependence on dollar remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

MANILA, Philippines -The fiscal deficit would increase beyond the government’s original target for this year, but economic managers said the budget gap would be widened by lower revenues and not increased spending for pump-priming.