Long queues of overseas Filipino workers waiting to have their overseas employment certificates processed may soon be gone, with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration’s new Balik Manggagawa online program letting OFWs complete transactions via the Internet.

Some 3.9 million Filipino families experienced hunger in the last quarter of 2013, though hunger was “generally steady” as the year ended, according to a poll taken by Social Weather Stations.

(Updated 12:06 p.m.) Majority of Filipinos think the quality of life in the Philippines deteriorated in the past year after natural disasters, including super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), hit parts of the country during the past few months, a Pulse Asia survey revealed Monday.

The Philippines needs to sustain reforms toward competitiveness and in governance to reach a higher growth trajectory, a World Bank economist said.

MANILA – The group EcoWaste Coalition is urging the Philippine government to ban the use of Bisphenol A (BPA) in producing baby feeding bottles, sippy cups and other food and beverage containers for kids under the age of three.

MANILA, Philippines – One in two Filipinos believe the state of the national economy has worsened in the past 12 months, according to Pulse Asia Research’s Survey on Quality of Life and State of the National Economy.

‘Love” is a not word you often hear uttered in office hallways or conference rooms. And yet it has a strong influence on workplace outcomes. The more love co-workers feel at work, the more engaged they are. (Note: Here we’re talking about “companionate love,” which is far less intense than romantic love. Companionate love is…

Quezon City now has a comprehensive sexual healthcare clinic specifically for the treatment and referral of men infected with a sexually transmissible disease (STD) and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

More overseas job opportunities await Filipinos this year especially in the sectors of tourism, healthcare, and construction, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said.

Don’t worry, Philippine economic managers are saying if the dollar turns stronger in tandem with the US economic recovery. There is an ample supply of the greenback to absorb external shocks while the peso’s weakness – eventually – bodes well for the economy.

THE UNITED Nations’ Millennium Development Goals are very specific targets agreed on by countries, including the Philippines. Most of these goals have a deadline by 2015 using 1990 as the baseline against which progress is gauged. These goals are:

The more things change, the more they stay the same. More than 20 years after we found ourselves hobbled by acute electric power shortages, and after various policy and investment interventions, power remains among the foremost drags on the nation’s development. Meralco’s announced P4.15 per kilowatt-hour rate increase in early December last year raised a…

Malacañang on Monday said that small-scale mining operations in Mindanao were to blame for the death toll of Tropical Depression Agaton. The number of fatalities from the first calamity to hit the country this year increased to 40 as of Sunday, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported.

IN just 60 days, more than four million Filipinos were displaced by a series of calamities that struck the country, according to an international relief agency.

The International Labour Organisation has identified a rapid growth of ‘the developing middle class’ – a group earning between $4 and $13 a day When a million people swarmed on to the streets of Brazil last June there was consensus that the protest was a phenomenon of the “new middle class” – squeezed by corruption…

MANILA — The House of Representatives has cited 24 universities and colleges due to the exceptional performances of their graduates in the last two licensure exams for elementary and high school instructors.

The country’s chief economist said the recent weakening of the peso should be viewed positively, adding that this augured well for the local manufacturing sector and would help generate badly needed jobs.

MANILA, Philippines – Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said there are many job vacancies in the Philippines, but not enough qualified applicants.

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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Delaying action on global warming will only increase the costs and reduce the options for dealing with the worst effects of climate change, according to a draft report by U.N. experts.

MANILA, Philippines—The Supreme Court has narrowed down to eight the issues that would be tackled in next week’s oral arguments regarding the power rate increase imposed by the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

Less than three months after the Saudi government started cracking down on illegal workers, many of these expatriates, including Filipinos, have returned to Jeddah to resume their trade in the streets, a Saudi news site reported Thursday.

MANILA, Philippines – With 23 million students and only 600 health personnel in public schools, how will the Department of Education (DepEd) make sure students are fit for school?

MANILA, Philippines – Sustained high economic growth, investment upgrades, and healthy macroeconomic fundamentals attracted a large amount of portfolio investments in 2013, bringing annual inflows to US$28.4 billion, the highest in 14 years.

Philhealth sits on top of the list of GOCCs that gave fat bonuses to their officials … The Palace defended bonuses granted in 2012 to employees of government-owned and controlled corporations after the Commission on Audit (COA) found that the P2-billion incentives released lacked basis.

Malacañang clarified on Thursday that a proposal to hire foreigners for certain job vacancies in the country is still being studied.

MANILA, Philippines – “Betrayal of trust and confidence…grave abuse of authority.” This, according to state auditors, is what Philippine Health Insurance Corporation committed against its members when its officials and employees paid themselves a total of P87.79 million in bonuses, allowances, and reimbursements in 2003 and 2004.

THE NUMBER GAME. What makes the Filipina shine? Photo from AFPTHE NUMBER GAME. What makes the Filipina shine? Photo from AFP MANILA, Philippines – In anything that they do, women could show greater strength in numbers. But what if the numbers are oddly against them sometimes?

MANILA – The economy is expected to be robust at above 6-percent growth until President Aquino steps down in 2016, according to the latest report released by the World Bank.

MANILA – More business executives in the country said they saw “a lot” of corruption in the government last year, more than in 2012, a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey revealed yesterday.