MANILA, Philippines – Foreign direct investments continued to rise in November last year amid the country’s rosy economic prospects, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The number of jobless Filipinos went up by 2.5 million in the last quarter of 2013, according to the latest survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

Some 12.1 million Filipinos were jobless at the end of 2013, as unemployment rose to 27.5 percent in the last quarter of the year, according to a Social Weather Stations poll.

Filipino and Indonesian migrant workers staged a protest in Taipei Sunday, seeking mandatory days off and salaries equal to those of their Taiwanese counterparts.

UK firm warns of major setback in 2016 leadership change MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine economy is expected to continue expanding between 6.5 and seven percent in the next decade but London-based Capital Economics warned that the change in leadership in 2016 could be a major setback for the country.

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – The number of registered Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) has reached 6.3 million, said President Benigno Aquino III.

Malacanang on Monday said it is not surprised with the increase in unemployment shown in the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey. Based on the latest SWS survey, the unemployment rate increased to 27.5 percent in December 2013 compared to 21.7 percent in September 2013. It was also the highest rate of unemployement for 2013.

Sustaining President Aquino’s reform initiatives will be key to keeping the Philippine economy growing above-trend. MANILA – The Philippine economy can sustain its above-trend growth in the next 10 years provided that government reform continues, according to Capital Economics.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz clarified on Monday that the government does not plan on signing any agreement that will in effect “rent out” overseas Filipino workers (OFW).

MANILA, Philippines – Fourteen Chinese nationals were arrested in a raid on an alleged illegal black sand mining site in Camarines Norte on Thursday, which also resulted in the seizure of at least P12 million worth of minerals, heavy equipment and motor vehicles, officials reported yesterday.

THE MONETARY BOARD kept key interest rates steady during its first policy meeting for the year but adjusted its 2014 and 2015 inflation forecasts. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) overnight borrowing and lending rates were maintained 3.5% and 5.5%, respectively, for a 10th straight meeting, with monetary authorities contending that inflation remained manageable.

The real estate sector doesn’t seem to show any signs of slowing down this year, according to property analysts. The year 2013, for Enrique M. Soriano III, Ateneo program director for real estate, was relatively stable. “The sector weathered local and regional challenges,” said Soriano, who is also a senior adviser for Wong+Bernstein Business Advisory.

More than anyone else, it’s farmers who are caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the debate over genetically-modified foods or organisms (GMOs). In any discussion of biotechnology, there is much opposition and controversy. On one side are the scientists and researchers who put forth the lab tests and field…

MANILA, Philippines – Work on easing the restrictive economic provisions of the Constitution is now officially among the top priorities of the 16th Congress, with Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. expecting to see everything completed within the first half of the year.

MANILA — Young Filipinos are becoming more sexually adventurous as the traditionally powerful Roman Catholic Church loses its influence to the Internet and smart phones, according to a study released on Thursday.

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—A non-governmental organization focused on the development of human resource as a primary driver of business and national economic growth, is wary of the seeming unpreparedness of the Philippines once the integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), as one economic community, commence in 2015.

MANILA, Philippines – In terms of primary education and health, the Philippines is the 3rd least competitive among 10 Southeast Asian countries, according to the 2013-2014 World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness report.

Is teen pregnancy trending in the Philippines? According to the recently released 2013 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study (YAFS4), the number of young mothers in the country has more than doubled over the past decade.

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Labor officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) announced on Thursday an P18-daily wage increase for minimum wage earners that would take effect this month.

MANILA – Construction workers are in high demand in Singapore amid a construction boom in the city state. A Singapore-based building and construction company has already set up a training center in the Philippines to help fill the 200 construction jobs needed every month.

MANILA – The shift in the academic calendar of the University of the Philippines (UP) System (except UP Diliman) from June-March to August-May paves the way for its “internationalization.”

As Hong Kong’s policy to scrap visa-free travel privileges for Philippine diplomatic and official passport holders took effect Wednesday, the Department of Labor and Employment assured overseas Filipino workers there of government protection.

MANILA, Philippines – Investments approved by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) surged by 250 percent in January from a year ago amid increased interest from companies to do business here.

We continue today with the second and final part of the letter sent by a reader, lawyer Deo G. Contreras, Jr., about the state of Philippine mining. The letter which appeared in the column last Tuesday ended with the need for mineral and metal processing plants or refineries, and particularly mentioned the fate of the…

Tokyo: Seaborne radiation from Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant will wash up on the West Coast of the US this year. That’s raising concerns among some Americans including the residents of the San Francisco Bay Area city of Fairfax, California, which passed a resolution on December 6 calling for more testing of coastal seafood.

WASHINGTON – More than $410 billion in illicit money crossed the borders of the Philippines from 1960 to 2011, with customs fraud related to imported goods surging in recent years, according to a study by a US-based anti-graft watchdog group released on Monday.

MANILA, Philippines — Bottoms up! After ranking 15th in the world’s top porn-watchers according to an adult website, Filipinos are now involved in another kind of bottom, shot glass bottoms.

MANILA, Philippines – There’s nothing wrong with breastfeeding in the workplace. In fact, it boosts morale, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said.

MANILA, Philippines – The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) reported yesterday a 22 percent drop in net income last year due to a surge in the number of retiring members.

MANILA, Philippines – The rapid outflow of foreign portfolio investments or hot money in the first three weeks of January may slow down soon as investors start looking again into the country’s strong macroeconomic fundamentals, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said yesterday.