The government will push state agencies to spend more on various infrastructure projects as part of efforts to pump-prime the economy amid a global financial turmoil, a Cabinet official said.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) yesterday ruled out the possibility of an increase in minimum wage rates next year.

The Philippines has adopted the “zero-tolerance” policy against sexual abuse and other misconduct involving Filipino peacekeepers in United Nations mission areas.

The military sees the defeat of the communist rebellion in 2010 as rebel leaders in the Philippines are defying their superiors living in exile in the Netherlands.

Peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front (NDF), stalled since 2004, showed no encouraging signs of being revived in 2008.

Eight industrial companies have been identified as among the “major polluters” of the Marilao-Meycauayan-Obando river system, which has been named as one of the world’s 10 dirtiest rivers.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Retailers’ sales fell as much as 4 percent during the holiday season, as the weak economy and bad weather created one of the worst holiday shopping climates in modern times, according to data released on Thursday by SpendingPulse.

As global markets reel from the impact of the financial crisis that has claimed among its victims corporate giants from the US to Europe, Philippine banks have, thus far, emerged largely unscathed, the country’s top central banker points out.

MANILA, Philippines – Claiming another historic milestone, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said 2008 had the lowest strike rate in seven decades.

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) forged an agreement with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) for a moratorium on the establishment of new universities and colleges by local government units.

From oil prices to asset sales, headline-grabbing issues dominated the energy sector in 2008.

The year 2008 provided a great challenge for the country’s telecommunications and information technology sector.

The country’s outstanding foreign debt dropped $1.3 billion to $53.5 billion at the end of the third quarter, from $54.8 billion at the end of June, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Wednesday.

In what may be another historic milestone for the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the year 2008 saw the lowest strike rate in seven decades of the Departments’ colorful existence.

Filipinos disagree with the view that the Philippines is a hopeless country and 54 percent would not migrate to other nations even if given the opportunity, a recent Pulse Asia survey showed.

BAGUIO CITY – The Philippines has been tagged among “the deadliest nations for the press.”

MANILA, Philippines (AP) U.S. microchip maker Texas Instruments Inc. is slashing 400 jobs in the Philippines to cope with falling orders amid the global economic crunch, labor officials said Friday.

Despite the prevailing global economic crisis, jobless Filipinos are now fewer, preliminary data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed.

Washington maintained yesterday that the Philippines must pass the indicator criteria on corruption before the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) will sign a compact program.

Economic managers unveiled yesterday a P300 billion Economic Sustainability Plan for next year that will shield the country from the global economic crisis by boosting consumer spending, government and private investments and extending more direct cash assistance to the poor.

Despite the lingering global economic crisis, major Philippine business process outsourcing (BPO) providers, mostly contact center operators, are still aggressively recruiting new staff.

Investment commitments have reached P391 billion, as businessmen remain upbeat on the country’s economy, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said.

Republic of the Philippines Congress of the Philippines Metro Manila Fourteenth Congress Second Regular Session   Begun and held in Metro Manila, on Monday, the twenty-eight day of July, two thousand eight. Republic Act No. 9513             December 16, 2008 AN ACT PROMOTING THE DEVELOPMENT, UTILIZATION AND COMMERCIALIZATION OF RENEWABLE…

“It is wrong to say that an economic storm is coming,” University of the Philippines economics professor Benjamin Diok-no said at the Kapihan sa Sulo media forum Saturday. “The truth is that the storm is already here.”

CARMEN, Cotabato: The Philippines should move quickly to fill in the shortage of fresh bananas in Japan, where the “Banana Morning Diet” has become a huge craze, Rep. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza of Cotabato said Sunday.

A militant teachers group over the weekend asked Malacañang to ensure the distribution of the full amount of the P10,000 year-end performance bonus granted to all government employees, including thousands of public school teachers.

Telecommunication companies will suspend next week their promotional offerings because of the expected surge in text and call traffic, as well as to prevent network abuse during Christmas and New Year’s, the government said.

Taiwan to lay off 5,000 next year   The Philippine government said it projects a minimal displacement of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) despite the sweeping global financial crisis, because Arab countries could absorb a large number of Filipino workers.

The hiring of Filipino workers overseas has gone up despite the global economic slowdown, according to the government.

I am a self-confessed fan of Malcolm Gladwell, author of the international bestsellers The Tipping Point and Blink. He is an exceptional journalist who writes for The New Yorker, and was formerly a business and science reporter at the The Washington Post. His celebrity status pushed Fast Company to label him “a rock star, a…