Manila, Philippines – During the launching of the Food Staple Sufficiency Program (FSSP) at the World Trade Center in Pasay City last July 5, President Aquino took pride in the accomplishments of his administration towards national rice self-sufficiency.

“No one is indispensable.” This is the chant of managers and bosses, as they wield their job-position baton and “whip” their people into submission. This is absolutely untrue. Business owners don’t share the mantra. They know their businesses rely heavily on people who run and grow it successfully, and the moment those people leave, they’d…

Manila, Philippines – Less than 50 percent of persons with disabilities (PWDs) who cast their votes in the May 2010 elections received assistance, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed.

MALES-having-sex-with-males (MSM) causing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has outgrown heterosexual contact over the last five years in the Philippines, a report by the Department of Health (DOH) showed Sunday.

MANILA, Philippines—After years working on sugarcane farms in Iloilo, several child laborers are going back to school. Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the government has provided 52 parents in San Enrique, Iloilo, with almost P400,000 in livelihood grants so they won’t have to send their children to work in sugar fields anymore.

MANILA, Philippines – Halfway through 2012 and the number of HIV/AIDS cases recorded by the Department of Health (DOH) for the year has surpassed the statistics in 2010, an official of the agency said Friday. DOH Assistant Secretary Eric Tayag said that for June 2012, the Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry had recorded 295 new…

Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth) has moved the implementation of the increase in premium rate for individually paying members (IPM) from July to October. Philhealth announced late last year that its IPM premium will increase from P1,200 per year to P2,400. However, to provide more opportunity for consultation with various sectors and to give members…

Legislators sponsoring the RH bill and their foreign-backed supporters including some members of media, are now jumping up and down urging Congress to put said bill into a vote, obviously emboldened by P-Noy’s alleged endorsement of the proposed law in his latest SONA. But did P-Noy really endorse the RH bill or even mentioned it…

Manila, Philippines – Select pensioners of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) will receive no less than P5,000 in allowance beginning next year, the state pension fund said in a statement.

Manila, Philippines – The government incurred a budget deficit of P11.696 billion in June, wider than the P7.691 billion recorded a year ago, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima reported yesterday.

Manila, Philippines – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) cut interest rates by 25 basis points to a new low yesterday, taking advantage of benign inflation to protect domestic growth amid worries over the worsening euro zone debt crisis and slowing global economic activity.

The public satisfaction rating on the Aquino administration continued its downtrend based on the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey that showed a net 44 rating, the lowest ever in the survey since President Aquino started his term in July 2010.

MANILA, Philippines – The number of HIV/AIDS cases recorded by the Department of Health (DOH) for the first half of the year already surpassed the number of cases for the entire year of 2010, the health department said Friday, July 27. Health Assistant Secretary Eric Tayag said that as of June 2012, the Philippine HIV…

The Code of Conduct concerning the Repression of Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in the Western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden (Djibouti Code of Conduct) was today (6 July 2012) signed on behalf of Mozambique by His Excellency Carlos dos Santos, High Commissioner of the Republic of Mozambique in the United Kingdom.

The Hong Kong Immigration Department said foreign domestic helpers who are not provided proper accommodation by their employers may file a complaint with the Hong Kong government.

It is not true, as some have been saying, that all the subjects in the first two years of college will be moved to the last two years of basic education. The subjects in the first two years of college belong to what is known as the General Education Curriculum (GEC). All Higher Education Institutions…

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Education (DepEd) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will undertake a review on computer accessibility in public schools achieved by past and ongoing information communications technology (ICT) programs.

(Part I) What brought about the declaration of the UN Millennium Development Goals? In 1990 at Jomtien, Thailand, UNESCO launched Education for All (EFA) global program to eradicate illiteracy, the major cause of poverty in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. By 2000, the decade after, UNESCO DG Matsuura had the EFA global efforts evaluated at…

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine economy, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), could grow anywhere from 4.8 percent to 5.9 percent this year, the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD) said yesterday.

A toxics watchdog has revealed that toys containing health-damaging chemicals are being sold to public school children right at their doorstep.

Scientists in the United States said Wednesday they had used a cancer drug to flush out the AIDS virus lurking dormant in trial patients’ white blood cells — a tentative step towards a cure. The ability of the HIV genome, or reproductive code, to hide out in cells and be revived after decades poses a…

Investigators are looking into two main paths toward a cure for AIDS, based on the stunning stories of a small group of people around the world who have been able to overcome the disease. Despite progress in treating millions of people globally with antiretroviral drugs, experts say a cure is more crucial than ever because…

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Large-scale mining operations are the only way to solve the alarming child labor problems in illegal small-scale mining activities in the country, according to the Junior Chamber International (JCI) Philippines during a gathering of business groups held here last week.

A new ILO-backed report launched by the Global Network of People living with HIV at the International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC. shows that HIV-related stigma and discrimination is still widespread in the world of work. WASHINGTON, DC (ILO News) – Over 30 million people living with HIV old enough to work still face a…

There is great concern about China’s real-estate and infrastructure bubbles. But these are just short-term challenges that China may be able to spend its way out of. The real threat to China’s economy is bigger and longer term: its manufacturing bubble. By offering subsidies, cheap labor, and lax regulations and rigging its currency, China was…

The role of public-private partnerships in response to HIV and AIDS and the relevance of action at the workplace are being highlighted at the 19th International AIDS Conference. WASHINGTON, DC (ILO News) – The Head of the ILO Programme on HIV/ AIDS and the world of work has called for “more involvement from the private…

The last two years have been deadly for government forestry workers and environmental advocates. According to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), 20 of its employees, contractual workers and civil society partners have been killed since 2010. The latest figures added to the death toll were recorded on Friday in Surigao del Sur…

Appointed only two months ago by President Aquino as the chief of the National Economic and Development Authority, former UP School of Economics dean Arsenio Balisacan seems to have fast caught the yellow I-hate-Arroyo bug that afflicts this administration.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines exceeded its sugar production target for the current crop year at the end of the million season, according to the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA). The SRA said that domestic sugar production reached 2.243 million metric tons (MT) as of July 8, slightly higher than the target production of 2.242 million…

MANILA, Philippines – Ayala-led Manila Water Co. Inc. has lined up wastewater facilities covering the environs of the Pasig, Marikina and San Juan rivers among its projects for implementation in its next five-year business cycle.