President Gloria Arroyo has ordered Cabinet members to take the lead in the government’s anti-corruption campaign by setting up agency-specific Moral Renewal Programs to ensure “zero tolerance for corruption.”

Malacañang admitted that the country could see massive job losses this year, but said that the administration is working hard to counter the problem by creating jobs locally despite the current economic crisis.

The government will forego roughly P20 billion in potential revenues this year from the full-year implementation of the tax relief law, which increased the personal exemptions of taxpayers and waived the withholding tax on minimum wage earners.

Lito Vargas surveys the day’s catch of yellowfin tuna as they slide down the steel gutting table at the bustling port at General Santos city in the southern Philippines.

The generally accepted norm in the workplace when it comes to matters of the heart is that romantic relationships are not the company’s business.

Low-paid Asian workers who toil long days to build the skyscrapers of Dubai have become the latest victims of the global financial crisis as companies run short of business and money.

Around 3.7 million students are expected to benefit from a no-tuition hike policy adopted by the Commission on Higher Education for the school year 2009-2010, according to Chairman Emmanuel Angeles.

TRANSIENTS are trooping to Bayani Fernando’s inn on Bonifacio Drive near Rizal Park in Manila each time they can’t make it home, and for a good reason: They pay only P25 to stay 10 hours and have an eight-minute shower—or P50 to stay 24 hours and have two eight-minute showers.

AS THE controversy over the alleged rigging of foreign-funded road contracts worsens, World Bank country president Bert Hofman has made an admission that the bank lacks evidence to prove that local and foreign contractors have colluded with one another during the bidding for these infrastructure projects.

MANILA, Philippines – The Romanian government is in need of Filipino workers to maintain their railway network, considered the fourth largest railway system in Europe.

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) will set aside P7 billion to help its members cope with the impact of the global economic crisis.

MANILA, Philippines – Admitting government’s limited powers to address problems faced by consumers with the country’s oil industry, Malacañang warned it might move to review the oil deregulation law.

MANILA, Philippines – The Arroyo administration will not lay off government workers but instead hire tens of thousands of new employees to help stem unemployment in the country triggered by the global economic crisis, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. said.

MANILA, Philippines – The European Union (EU) will not rush negotiations for a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with the Philippines as it is bent on reaching a “quality” agreement.

MANILA, Philippines – The country’s economic managers are sticking to the 3.7-4.7 percent growth target for the gross domestic product (GDP), saying the growth momentum would continue in 2009.

Global climate is undeniably getting warmer, but the term “climate change” itself is natural and gradual. We are now in the warming phase of the earth before another ice age hits again.

Gen. Edgar Aglipay hasn’t lost the bearing of a police general—he’s ramrod-straight and has the demeanor of an officer and a gentleman. The former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Aglipay is now on his fourth year as chairman of the Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA). “The PRA,” he explains, “is a government-owned and -controlled…

The Department of Education (DepEd) recently started conducting a massive search for these out of school youths (OSYs) by means of the Project Reaching All Children (REACH), aimed at bringing back young Filipinos to school.

An official of the National Economic and Development Authority said unemployment rate in the Philippines will not hit a double-digit rate this year, despite the global economic slowdown that forced electronics companies to shed jobs.

The rise in consumer prices is expected to slow down to its lowest quarterly pace this year in September but it would gradually pick up as credit becomes tighter, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Friday.

The Palace said the allocation for the economic stimulus package is not an old measure contrary to the statements of the independent think tank Ibon Foundation.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY: Global warming and the economic crisis are not far-fetched stories for people here. Tuna industry players in this southern Philippine city have in fact already felt the pinch from the twin problems.

But government looking to hire 60,500 in 2009   The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) on Friday predicted that between 40,000 and 200,000 Filipinos would be laid off from work this year because of the global economic crisis.

Workers who have been displaced by the global financial crisis may avail themselves of free health services courtesy of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.

MANILA, Philippines – It all boils down to semantics. It’s not a cartel, but simply a supply arrangement.

MANILA, Philippines – Local companies have been affected by the downturn in the world economy as an estimated 30 percent of domestic firms have outstanding liabilities to utilities firms, the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) said.

MANILA, Philippines – President Arroyo has directed government agencies to set aside a portion of their maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) budget to fund the hiring of about 180,000 contractual workers nationwide to help reduce unemployment caused by the global economic crisis, officials said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Economists see the country’s growth slowing down to 2.5 percent this year, despite the surprisingly strong performance in 2008, weighed down by declining remittances that has consistently funded domestic consumption.

THE American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines has joined the clamor for amendments to the 1987 Constitution, pressing for the scrapping of a provision that bans foreign ownership of land in the Philippines.

PRESIDENT Arroyo has ordered all government agencies to allocate 1.5 percent of their budget, or close to P7 billion, to hire 180,000 workers temporarily in the face of the global economic slowdown.