MANILA, Philippines—A key political ally of President Aquino on Thursday blamed him and Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla for the country’s power supply woes, calling both officials “awful managers.”

Around 700,000 college graduates will enter the labor force starting next week, thus raising the spectre of more and more people going jobless, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said on Thursday.

MANILA, Philippines—Three construction laborers were killed while one more was hurt when they fell from the fourth floor of the building they were working on in Novaliches, Quezon City, on Wednesday.

NEW YORK – US workers accused fast-food giant McDonald’s Thursday of systematically stealing wages through illicit practices like forcing them to work off-the-clock and failing to pay overtime.

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima is seeking to reduce the level of restrictions to foreign investments saying that the liberalization tack will result in additional economic activities in the country and help it attain inclusive growth.

March is Women’s Month, a good time to reflect on some of the statistics that came out of the 2013 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study (YAFS) conducted by the University of the Philippines Population Institute (UPPI). The survey involved more than 19,000 Filipinos aged 15 to 24, from throughout the Philippines, and some preliminary…

ELECTRONICS remain the country’s top export product, binding national export performance to demand by foreign buyers. As 2013 demonstrated, low demand by importers in developing countries, which continued to grapple with the aftereffects of the 2008 crisis, pushed down export growth to 3.6% from 7.6% in the year before.

MANILA, Philippines—By the last quarter of 2014, the Philippines will be a mobile-first country—meaning people will likely use their mobile phones to access the Internet rather than the traditional desktop computers, Google said.

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) – The Department of Health (DOH) launched today a massive campaign to distribute condoms in leisure business establishments in Metro Manila, in a move to prevent HIV/AIDS in the country as the confirmed cases of the disease rapidly increased in January.

March 10 (Economist Intelligence Unit) — On March 3rd a committee of the House of Representatives (the lower house) voted overwhelmingly to amend the constitution and give Congress (the legislature) the power to reduce or remove restrictions on foreign participation in certain economic activities. If ratified, the proposal will make it possible to amend the…

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is continuing its shame campaign against doctors.

I had intended to write about some important world international economic issues at this time. However, an event that happened some weeks ago lingered in my mind. The subject deserves commentary. It demonstrates an aspect of nation-building.

MANILA, Philippines – Two students from the University of the Philippines who looked into the apparent conflict of interest in the alliance between Akbayan party-list and the Liberal Party bagged the top award in the recently held Chit Estella Journalism Research Awards.

MANILA, Philippines – The number of jobless Filipinos grew in January compared to a year ago despite the country’s strong economic performance.

MANILA, Philippines – Power industry regulators voided yesterday the sharp hikes in electricity rates in December 2013 and in January this year, saying “market failure” in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) had pushed rates by more than half of what was justified during the period.

At the start of the National People’s Congress, the Chinese government announced a substantial increase in their military spending and now, officials have declared war – that is, against pollution. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang himself has acknowledged that pollution has become a very big problem in his country and is threatening GDP growth, not to…

As we get closer to the April 15 deadline, taxpayers should be wary of changes in the preparation and filing of annual income tax returns (ITR). On Jan. 24, 2014, the BIR issued Revenue Regulations (RR) No. 2-2014 which revamped the forms to be used by individual taxpayers for the filing of ITR for taxable…

Recently, Senate President Franklin Drilon met with a group of businessmen mostly from the domestic shipping industry which included Edgardo Lacson, president of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP).

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is the disease that results from damage to one’s immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. The disease begins as HIV infection, wherein the person still feels healthy. However, as symptoms occur, the disease may be called AIDS.

Providing training, health-care and childcare to female workers has an impact that stretches beyond the factory floor. The world’s clothes are mostly made by female workers. Typically, they are young, with limited education, and live in developing countries. It has been well documented that working conditions across garment industries are in much need of improvement.…

All of a sudden, the erratic Department of Transportation and Communications was changing its plan to build the common station for light rail transits MRT 3 (Edsa line) and LRT 1 (Taft-Rizal-Edsa line) at the mall called SM City North.

MANILA, Philippines – Graduates of the University of the Philippines, Central Mindanao University and Xavier University topped the licensure examination for teachers, the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) announced yesterday.

HUNDREDS of thousands of residents in four Mindanao provinces continued to suffer from rolling blackouts over the weekend, but the Energy Department was still in the dark about the major systemwide outage that crippled almost the entire island on Feb. 27.

Vice President Jejomar C. Binay’s decision to leave the PDP-Laban and form his own party in preparation for his presidential run in 2016 has prompted a few others to announce their own electoral plans but to declare at the same time that it is much too early for them to take the plunge. I speak…

Foreign investments hit $3.86B; net ‘hot money’ inflow topped $4B MANILA, Philippines — Long-term foreign investments in the Philippines surged in 2013 amid the confidence toward the booming domestic economy, allowing the country to gain some ground from its richer neighbors.

From the time President Benigno Aquino 3rd was sworn into office on June 30, 2010, and for nearly four years running, the Aquino administration has been implementing a political program and strategy that is called in Washington DC, as “the Permanent Campaign.”

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – Six crewmembers of a cargo ship suffered second and third degree burns after a minor explosion hit the vessel while docked at the Bredco port here yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Alarmed over the increasing number of hospital admissions due to abortion, Health Secretary Enrique Ona yesterday pressed again for the immediate implementation of the Reproductive Health (RH) Law.

Ignored and forgotten by legislators, government officials, workers, and its beneficiaries, the Employees’ Compensation Commission is a lost national social insurance institution that is now seldom mentioned despite its growing and very liquid assets of P45 billion.

OFW FAMILY PARTY-LIST PRESS RELEASE March 5, 2014 CLARIFICATIONS REGARDING HOUSE BILL NO. 3576 This is to clarify some information regarding House Bill No. 3576: AN ACT AUTHORIZING AMBASSADORS, CONSUL GENERALS, CHIEFS OF MISSIONS OR CHARGE D’ AFFAIRS TO ORDER AND DIRECT AN OVERSEAS FILIPINO WORKER (OFW) TO SEND SUPPORT TO HIS OR HER LEGAL…