By Czeriza Valencia (The Philippine Star), October 4, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – The World Bank has retained its three-year economic growth forecasts for the Philippines, but stressed these projections can be exceeded if the government can ramp up its infrastructure spending as planned and provide clarity on its economic policies.

By Mayen Jaymalin and Richmond Mercurio (The Philippine Star), October 4, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will start shutting down this week firms engaging in “endo” – short for end-of-contract or labor contractualization.

By ATTY. DODO DULAY, Manila Times, October 4, 2016 It used to be that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) problem was only something you read in the newspapers or watched on TV. But when it started hitting close to home, you knew that HIV has become a major public health issue for ordinary Filipinos.

By Joyce Ilas, CNN Philippines, October 4, 2016 Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Karlo Salazar and Kenji Nuñez have been together for almost 10 years and they plan to stay together ’till death do they part. The couple is planning to tie the knot in 2018 in California or in New Zealand, where same-sex marriage…

by Stéphanie Thomson, Editor, World Economic Forum, 4 October 2016 Google regularly appears towards the top of the “best places to work” lists, and with good reason. The company perks are legendary: free meals and snacks, dog-friendly offices, pods for taking a nap, generous vacation and parental leave, and highly competitive salaries.

By Richmond Mercurio (The Philippine Star), October 3, 2016 – 12:00am MANILA, Philippines – Exporters are opposing the proposed nationwide P125 minimum wage increase as it would affect economic growth and the country’s trade competitiveness.

By Delon Porcalla (The Philippine Star), October 3, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – A lawmaker wants red tape at the Social Security System (SSS) reduced drastically by cutting the usual six-month processing and release of members’ benefits to a maximum of just 30 days.

By Jarius Bondoc (The Philippine Star), October 3, 2016 The MRT-3 commuter railway broke down every two to three days in the first half of 2016. Now it’s worse, bogging down two to three times a day. Disobeyed is President Rody Duterte’s order to transport officials to cut the long waiting lines of passengers under…

By Richmond Mercurio (The Philippine Star), October 3, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – Investment pledges approved by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) continued to increase in the first nine months despite a slowdown prior to the elections and growing foreign investor concerns in the country’s political landscape.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

By Ghio Ong (The Philippine Star), October 2, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – A barangay watchman died and 12 others were hurt during a cleanup drive of an estero or waterway in Ermita, Manila yesterday.

By Francis J. Kong (The Philippine Star), October 2, 2016 For 30 years, Johnson had arrived at work at 9 a.m. on the dot. He had never missed a day and had never been late. Consequently, on one particular day, 9 a.m. had passed without Johnson’s arrival and that caused a different sensation. All work…

By Jess Diaz (The Philippine Star), October 2, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – Workers, corporate executives and other individual taxpayers may no longer enjoy tax exemption on their annual bonuses.

BY PAUL JAYSENT FOS , ROMBLON NEWS, 02 OCTOBER 2016 Patay ang isang electrician sa bayan ng Looc, Romblon matapos na makuryente habang ito ay nag-aayos ng mga wirings ng isang tindahan sa nasabing bayan nitong October 01 ng umaga.

Tempo, Oct 2, 2016 Isa ang patay habang sugatan ang iba pa nang bumagsak ang isang improvised platform na ginamit sa dredging at cleanup drive sa Balete Pumping Station malapit sa Romualdez Bridge sa Ermita, Manila kahapon.

Philippine Daily Inquirer, http://opinion.inquirer.net/97831/getting-old/amp When did they turn the corner into the sunset of their lives? One moment they were in their prime, and the next they had become frail, softer in their voice, a bit tentative in their step. And yet they loom large—still pillars of home and society, suns around which moons revolve.

By David Reyes, October 1, 2016, http://www.sportsrageous.com/others/call-center-jobs-philippines-become-obsolete-soon/49031/ In the Philippines, the Business Processing (BPO) industry, which is commonly called the call center industry, generated around $22 billion, last year, creating close 1.1 million jobs in the country. But all this may change soon, as Newsweek recently reported an increasing number of companies across the globe…

By Danessa Rivera (The Philippine Star), October 1, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – There would be no need for feed-in tariff (FIT) incentives for solar when prices of solar panels have gone down and the country would need to import more gas by 2022, making it competitive with other sources of power, the Philippine Solar Power…

By Czeriza Valencia (The Philippine Star), October 1, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – The Community Mortgage Program (CMP), a government financing scheme that enables organized informal settler families to purchase land, is no longer meeting the needs of its target beneficiaries mainly because of the high equity requirements for acquisition, the Philippine Institute of Development Studies…

By Richmond Mercurio (The Philippine Star), October 1, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – President Duterte’s war against end-of-contract or “endo” schemes could also lead to several casualties should employers and labor groups reject the government’s win-win proposal.

By Alex Magno (The Philippine Star), October 1, 2016 Two weeks ago, several senators visited the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP). They went there to assess the viability of finally activating this facility.

BY THE MANILA TIMES, OCTOBER 1, 2016 Dear PAO, My aunt has taken care of me since I was nine years old because my parents have been working in Manila. Since I am now 18 years old and in college, she decided to try her luck in Manila and find work as a household helper.…

Read the statement here.

Read the statement here.

By Richmond Mercurio (The Philippine Star), September 29, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – The National Competitiveness Council (NCC) is calling for further reforms in the country’s bureaucracy, infrastructure, technology and innovation as the Philippines took a step backwards in its plan of reaching the top third in global competitiveness ranking.

By Patricia Esteves (The Philippine Star), September 29, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – The tech sector is no longer a man’s world. Just think of Yahoo’s Marisa Mayer, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and others who made a mark and excelled in the IT industry. A career in the IT industry is both lucrative and a rewarding experience.…

BY MIRREN GIDDA, 9/29/16, http://www.newsweek.com/how-new-technology-automation-ai-take-away-millions-jobs-call-centers-503726 You need help with your bank account or advice about your mortgage. You call the help line. And then, after a lengthy wait, tapping more information into your phone and being transferred to the right department, you reach a call center worker, an actual human being. By that point, however, you…

By Gerardo P. Sicat (The Philippine Star), September 28, 2016 The main elements of Package I of the comprehensive tax reform program deals with personal income taxation, the value-added tax (VAT) and gasoline taxes.

By Giovanni Nilles and Prinz Magtulis (The Philippine Star), September 28, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – Global market forces, not President Duterte’s anti-drug war policy nor his verbal attacks against western leaders, caused the weakening of the peso against the dollar and the extended losses in the Philippine stock market, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diok­no said yesterday.

By Prinz Magtulis (The Philippine Star), September 28, 2016 MANILA, Philippines – The government is the No.1 violator of President Duterte’s promise to eradicate “endo” and a bill that aims to “resize” the bureaucracy will address that, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said yesterday.