By: Karl R. Ocampo, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 25 May 2021 MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is fast-tracking the establishment of Minahang Bayan areas all over the country amid the growing number of unemployed Filipinos.

by Louella Desiderio (The Philippine Star), 25 May 2021 MANILA, Philippines — Foreign business groups want Congress to immediately approve the bill seeking to update the 85-year-old Public Service Act to encourage more investments from overseas.

by Lawrence Agcaoili (The Philippine Star), 25 May 2021 MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines may return to pre-pandemic level of economic output only by the end of next year, making it the laggard in the region as the country continues to grapple with the COVID-19 outbreak, according to Moody’s Analytics.

(Philstar.com), 25 May 2021 MANILA, Philippines — “Six more years” – this is the collective cry of the Duterte Parin Movement as they push for the election of Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte, who is believed to effectively continue and further innovate on the legacy of her father, President Duterte, in the upcoming 2022…

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by Prinz Magtulis (Philstar.com), 21 May 2021 MANILA, Philippines — On April 21, Idelle Kristiana Ison, who took a break from college this year, invited her older sisters to join an unfolding bandwagon: put up a community pantry, gather donations and help the needy.

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by Elijah Felice Rosales (The Philippine Star), 22 May 2021 MANILA, Philippines — The government has distributed more than P240 million in cash subsidies to tourism workers in Metro Manila who were displaced by the cycles of lockdowns.

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by Eva Visperas (The Philippine Star), 21 May 2021 SAN NICOLAS, Pangasinan, Philippines — A man was arrested for allegedly killing his wife in Barangay Calanutian in this town on Wednesday.

by Rainier Allan Ronda (The Philippine Star), 21 May 2021 MANILA, Philippines — The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic saw a 75-percent drop in the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), an impact assessment report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) revealed yesterday.

(Philstar.com), 21 May 2021 MANILA, Philippines — People working in the informal economy, especially women, were most dependent on cash assistance from the government but these were barely enough for their day-to-day necessities during the pandemic, a study found.

by Gaea Katreena Cabico (Philstar.com), 21 May 2021 MANILA, Philippines — Only half of Filipinos expressed confidence in the government’s evaluation of coronavirus vaccines, a Social Weather Stations survey showed.

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by Alexandria Dennise San Juan, Manila Bulletin, 19 May 2021 Over 20 million young Filipino women struggle to enforce their rights to bodily autonomy as practices of child marriage, instances of gender-based violence, and lack of services for reproductive health persist in the country.

by Elijah Felice Rosales (The Philippine Star), 19 May 2021 MANILA, Philippines — Nearly 6,000 rooms in 13 rated hotels across Metro Manila were reopened for leisure bookings by the Department of Tourism (DOT) to restart the accommodation industry in the region.

by Czeriza Valencia (The Philippine Star), 19 May 2021 MANILA, Philippines — Economic managers lowered economic growth expectations for this year, taking into account the emergence of new COVID-19 variants and the reimposition of strict lockdown in the National Capital Region and four nearby provinces or NCR Plus in the second quarter of the year.

by Lawrence Agcaoili (The Philippine Star), 19 May 2021 MANILA, Philippines — Japanese investment bank Nomura expects a 5.1 percent increase in remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) this year with the reopening of economies in host countries amid the continued rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.

By Kris Crismundo, 18 May 2021 MANILA – An official of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) said the agency remains optimistic on investments from Japanese companies despite the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

(Philstar.com), 18 May 2021 MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Immigration uncovered a new human trafficking scheme that involves fake itineraries for aspiring overseas Filipino workers, only to be later illegally transported to United Arab Emirates.

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By Ian Nicolas Cigaral (Philstar.com), 17 May 2021 Remittances are important to the consumption-reliant Philippines because they traditionally boost Filipinos’ purchasing power. MANILA, Philippines — Money sent home by Filipinos abroad posted another month of growth in March, but mainly due to benefits of a low base that hardly tell a convincing recovery.

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by Lawrence Agcaoili (The Philippine Star), 17 May 2021 MANILA, Philippines — A continued increase in bad loans from the real estate sector and household consumption contributed mainly to the growth of the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of Philippine banks, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

by Czeriza Valencia (The Philippine Star), 17 May 2021 MANILA, Philippines — Even as more sections of the economy adapt to a more challenging environment, gains in employment cannot be sustained with the repeated imposition of strict lockdowns, according to the Department of Finance (DOF).

by Arra Perez, ABS-CBN News, 17 May 2021 MANILA — The government extended aid to over 2 million college students during the COVID-19 pandemic, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman Prospero de Vera III said Monday.

By Raymond Carl Dela Cruz, 17 May 2021 MANILA – A total of PHP322.4 million have been distributed to drivers and conductors of public utility vehicles (PUV) as part of the Department of Transportation’s (DOTr) and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board’s (LTFRB) Service Contracting Program.

By Ferdinand Patinio, 17 May 2021 MANILA – The government has committed funds worth PHP5.2 billion for the continuing repatriation of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) displaced by coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

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by Lawrence Agcaoili (The Philippine Star), 16 May 2021 MANILA, Philippines — The credit card unit of Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) said consumers are shifting to more essential spending through e-commerce platforms due to the impact of the pandemic.