Manila, Philippines – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) sees the Senate’s ratification of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention as a milestone for over two million Filipino domestic workers here and abroad as they join the ranks of formal workers.

MANILA, Philippines – A Protestant Church leader in Davao City said Monday the highly contested Reproductive Health Bill is “not evil” because it offers Filipinos, especially the poor, freedom to plan their families, but stressed that his group respects the position of the Catholic Church.

Human life is a gift. It is a gift because nothing and nobody can give it to itself and oneself, respectively. In fact, even a dear little plant laying fast sleep in the heart of a seed needs the rain and the sun to wake it up to life.

Twenty five companies are still unable to meet the minimum public ownership requirement of the Philippine Stock Exchange.

3511k agrarian workers affected; pullout due to peace problem Lawmakers on Sunday denounced the government’s plan to fire some 11,000 agrarian reform employees by October as its rice self-sufficiency program suffered a serious blow from Japan’s decision to yank $159 million in funding for irrigation projects in Mindanao due to peace and order problems.

Three high school students from different schools in the country won the championship of the 5th Association of the Southeast Asian Nations Quiz Bee in Phonm Penh, Cambodia.

The Philippines Senate on Monday concurred with the ratification of International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers. Philippine labor secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said that the Senate’s ratification was “historic” as it placed the Philippines at the forefront of the global efforts to promote decent and productive work for household service…

THE GOVERNMENT is considering a transition period for beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program once it ends in 2015. “We are currently looking at ways to ease beneficiaries out of the CCT program because some of them will not be out of poverty by 2015,” Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said on Monday…

In grabbing control of the global business process outsourcing (BPO) industry from India, the Philippines may have finally found the key to long-term, sustainable economic growth that will lift the country out of Third World status. Up until two years ago, India had been the world’s biggest BPO provider. While BPO includes service support, sales…

The Human Development and Poverty Reduction (HDPR) Cabinet Cluster has issued a paper strongly endorsing the President’s position on ‘responsible parenthood’. Below is the cluster’s statement in full.

OUT OF CONTEXT. This reference to the research of 2001 Nobel winner George Akerlof was posted on CBCP’s site to oppose the Reproductive Health bill. Editor’s Note: The CBCP reacted to this story on August 6, Monday, and published a piece on its CBCP for Life website. The piece is entitled, “Akerlof contradicted what?”

UN, 20 government agencies back RH bill MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) — The United Nations and 20 Philippine government agencies voiced their support for the passage of a reproductive health (RH) bill that would supposedly promote responsible parenthood. The support came after Catholics staged a protest rally against the bill on Saturday.

IMMEDIATE passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill was urged yesterday by business groups, ahead of a House of Representatives vote tomorrow on ending protracted debates on the controversial priority measure.

In grabbing control of the global business process outsourcing (BPO) industry from India, the Philippines may have finally found the key to long-term, sustainable economic growth that will lift the country out of Third World status. Up until two years ago, India had been the world’s biggest BPO provider. While BPO includes service support, sales…

MANILA, Philippines—Labor officials rescued three child laborers from a construction site in Negros Occidental recently. In a report to Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, DOLE Region 6 Director Ponciano Ligutom Jr. said the minors, aged 16-17 years old, were found working at an excavation site along the highway at Brgy. Calumangan, Bago City.

MANILA – Almost half of all the cities and municipalities in the Philippines are poor, according to the National Statistical Coordination Board.

(PR-201206-SS2-01, Posted 03 August 2012) Based on the 2009 small area estimates (SAE) of poverty, almost half or 795 of the 1,643 cities/municipalities in the Philippines have poverty incidences ranging from 32.1 to 60.0 %, while 67 municipalities have poverty incidences higher than 60.0%. On the average, the municipal and city level poverty incidence estimates…

Many of the materials used in construction, including welding, pipefitting, and millwright work, contained, or in some cases still contain asbestos. By the mid-20th century asbestos was being used in fire retardant coatings, concrete, bricks, pipes and fireplace cement, heat, fire, and acid resistant gaskets, pipe insulation, ceiling insulation, fireproof drywall, flooring, roofing, lawn furniture,…

Stress has many causes but no matter what its source is, there are ways to reduce it. For this article, the term “stress” refers only to a stress with significant negative consequences, or “distress” in the terminology advocated by Hans Selye.

MANILA, Philippines – Employers are seeking reconsideration of the wage board order granting a P30 wage hike for workers in Metro Manila.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines remains in a sweet spot with a lot of room for investment and economic activities, the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) said in its latest report.

MANILA, Philippines – A foreign business group is pushing for consultations to be conducted by the government with the private sector regarding a plan to remove incentives to new mining projects which may affect investments to the sector.

A week before the House of Representatives decides on the fate of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, members of the minority bloc in the lower chamber are withdrawing sponsorship from the controversial measure while the Catholic Church is calling on its followers to bring the campaign against a proposed birth control measure to the streets.

The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday affirmed the legality of the P21 billion the Aquino administration appropriated under the 2011 budget to the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program thereby also validating the controversial dole out program of President Aquino in yet another likely show of pandering to Malacañang.

MANILA, Philippines – Good news to Filipino seafarers aspiring to work in foreign vessels. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has affirmed the Philippines’ compliance with global seafaring standards for the third time this decade through its “white list,” Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said yesterday.

AN INCREASE in the basic compensation of minimum wage earners in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has been approved by the regional wage board though the amount has yet to be set, an official said.

The Dragon Warrior Po, the Panda, in the animated movie Kung Fu Panda, had it right…. “inner peace”…beginning with the inward gazing, deep breathing and silence of the mind. But can we all achieve what the Kung Fu Panda did in the movie… every day? Yes, we can — but only if we constantly try…

Manila, Philippines – Inside the blue-carpeted session hall of the Senate, on a rainy Tuesday afternoon, a man named Renato Corona was convicted for betrayal of public trust.

Credit-card company’s outsourcing leaves a lot to be desired at point of (attempted) purchase Where Is Baltimore? I did something so unusual last week as to trigger the “fraud” section at my credit-card company to freeze my account. No, I didn’t walk into a Tiffany’s somewhere and try to buy a bauble for thousands of…

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines has seen renewed investor confidence over the past few months largely due to the Aquino administration’s good governance thrust.