WASHINGTON – The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits slid last week to the lowest level in more than four and a half years, according to government data that may provide a boost to President Barack Obama a month before voters go to the polls.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Moro leader Nur Misuari on Thursday said the government’s offer to the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) of seats on the Transition Commission for the creation of Bangsamoro was an insult.

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front hopes a Bangsamoro government can be established and seal the end to four decades of struggle for self-determination before President Benigno Aquino III steps down in 2016.

LIPA CITY, Batangas – Not far from the world of regimented cubicles and headset-toting call center operators, a quiet revolution is stirring in its slippers. University librarian Sheila Ortencio, for example, was so poorly paid that half her salary went for childcare, and her meals amounted to dried fish and one fried egg per day.…

MANILA – The country enjoyed a near tripling of “hot money” inflows at the close of the third quarter, according to data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

The European Union (EU) is offering a total of P95-million grant for project proposals in the field of human rights. According to the European Union Delegation to the Philippines, civil society organizations (CSOs), both from the Philippines and EU, may now avail themselves of grants worth €200,000 to € 500,000–P10 million to P 26 million…

SUSTAINED infrastructure development can raise the Philippines’ annual economic growth rate “to well above 5% over the medium term”, senior officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a webcast on Friday from Tokyo, Japan which is hosting the annual IMF-World Bank meeting for this year.

BAGUIO CITY—Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz on Friday launched in Sagada, Mt. Province, an antichild labor crusade among upland farming communities as the government pushes programs aimed at reducing child labor in the Philippines before 2015.

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday disqualified 13 party-list groups, including the top performing organization in the 2010 elections.

AT least 5,000 Filipino children under the age of five die every year of diseases spread through dirty hands, according to an official of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). Worldwide, about 3.5 million children lose their lives because of these preventable diseases.

The Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2012 of the K-to-12 bill, which would add two more years to basic education cycle has hurdled the House Basic Education panel on Wednesday. Via an overwhelming vote of 25 to two, the House Committee on Basic Education voted for the approval of the still unnumbered Substitute Bill to…

The Philippine economy may have a full-year growth of 5.7 percent to 6 percent if domestic demand, remittances and exports will further increase in the remaining months of the year, according to the latest issue of The Market Call.

The Department of Trade and Industry has earmarked a total of P21 million—P8 million in 2012 and P13 million in 2013—for its Local and Regional Economic Development program to promote competitiveness in local government units in Luzon and Mindanao.

In a move which confirms existing laws are sufficient to go after cyber criminals even without the controversial Republic Act 10175 or Cybercrime Prevention Act, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima confirmed that her agency will be pursuing a case which would have been the first to be prosecuted under the said law.

NO LINK SEEN BETWEEN GROWTH, POVERTY REDUCTION The local economy may be growing but not enough jobs are being created “to link economic growth to poverty reduction,” the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in a report released yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Local car assemblers reported a six-percent rise in sales in the first nine months of the year, riding on the back of strong economic growth and launch of new models.

MANILA, Philippines – Foreign direct investments (FDI) breached the $1-billion mark in the first seven months of the year – nearing official forecast – on the back of the country’s good macroeconomic environment, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

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MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino signed an executive order that activates the practical guide to organized government response during emergencies for both national and local crisis management committees.

MANILA, Philippines – Filipinos are becoming healthier due to improved social conditions and health system boosted by modern technologies, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported yesterday. In its Philippine Health in Transition (HiT) report launched yesterday, WHO said the health of Filipinos has improved considerably during the second half of the 20th century, and these…

MANILA, Philippines – The United Nations has reported that an estimated six million Filipino children are malnourished, 60,000 of them are vulnerable to sexual exploitation, while at least 66 percent under the age of six do not have childcare

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has added two more party-list representatives to the growing membership of the House of Representatives. The Comelec qualified the two even as it tries to trim down the list of legitimate party-list groups that it would allow to participate in the May 2013 congressional-local elections.

MANILA, Philippines – A frontrunner in the 2010 party-list elections has been barred from taking part in next year’s polls by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), which ruled that it does not represent any marginalized sector.

The ILO Director-General says G20 countries should stand by their commitment to take new, urgent measures in the face of deteriorating global economic conditions. GENEVA (ILO News) ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder, has called on G20 nations to act on their pledge to take urgent action if the global economic crisis worsened.

THE PHILIPPINES must rationalize its fiscal incentives since many overlap, officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said. Kiyoshi Nakayama and Selcuk Caner of the IMF Fiscal Affairs Department last week warned of “double-dipping” since incentives are granted to investors depending on the law they invoke.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) head, Christine Lagarde, has warned the global economic crisis has started to hurt growth in emerging economies. She said that uncertainty surrounding the global economy was hampering policymakers’ ability to take measures to boost growth. Earlier this week, the IMF warned that the global economic recovery was getting weaker.

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) submitted to President Aquino on Thursday its 14-page wish list made up of policy recommendations that would address top concerns of businesses in the country today.

To readers who want to understand more comprehensively the Framework Agreement between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), I offer this initial textual analysis in two installments. This first installment covers the nature of the agreement, the concept of the Bangsamoro as the new autonomous political entity, its…

Free legal assistance for PWDs – NCDA QUEZON CITY, Oct 11 (PIA) — Persons with disabilities (PWDs) may now avail of free legal assistance through the Sub-Committee on Access to Justice and Anti-Discrimination for PWDs (SCAJA-PWDs) of the National Committee on Disability Affairs (NCDA).

The European Union continued to express its objection to the Philippines’ “unfair” sin tax bill, as it warned it would be forced to “retaliate” through the World Trade Organization (WTO) if both houses of Congress fail to amend the measure.