The future of the contact center, the very near future, is all about integrated technology. We have a lot of things going on now, a lot of separate channels where consumers want to interact with companies, and a lot of separate systems trying to handle it all. The future is about tying it all together,…

Manila, Philippines – Two Filipino seafarers were injured in a sea vessel explosion in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) reported yesterday.

“There is no crime wave in Metro Manila.” So declared the National Police last March, amid reports of brazen robberies, including inside a shopping mall where a security guard was killed. It was very wrong. Two more mall heists were pulled off since then. Not only that. Thieves also tunneled their way into banks, money…

Manila, Philippines – Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada has expressed alarm that children between five and 17 are already working. The Senate Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development chairman is concerned over the National Statistics Office (NSO) 2011 survey showing working Filipino children aged 5 to 17 now number 5.59 million.

Manila, Philippines – Some 250,000 Filipino workers abroad have been deprived of their Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) benefits due to the agency’s unreliable encoding procedure, a recruitment industry leader said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The E-tricycles project of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Department of Energy (DOE) will generate a P20-billion business in the Philippines, industry players said.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) has identified the initial 80 barangays in the country’s 16 regions that it plans to declare child labor-free this year with the help of other government agencies and private sector partners.

Filipinos who consider themselves poor remain in the majority despite the claims of President Aquino and his allies that the economy is taking off and is catching up with the country’s more developed neighbors, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey on self-rated poverty for the second quarter showed.

NO SINGLE HR OFFENDER CHARGED — HRW The dismal performance of the two-year Aquino administration in upholding human rights became the focus of the latest report of the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) which noted that President Aquino failed to fulfill his promises to hold accountable security forces responsible for serious abuses since taking…

BUDGET Secretary Florencio Abad said on Wednesday that they are going to trim the government’s budget deficit to 2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013, lower than 2.6 percent ceiling for 2012.

MANILA, Philippines – Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada on Thursday likened child labor to modern day slavery and urged the Department of Labor and Employment and the Philippine National Police to shut down companies who employ child workers for hazardous work.

MANILA, Philippines – At least half of Filipino families in the country believe they are poor, according to the latest self-rated poverty survey of independent pollster Social Weather Stations (SWS).

The objections to President Noynoy Aquino’s K+12 program continue to be aired by a few, despite the clear finding by SWS that majority of Filipinos support the reform.

MANILA, Philippines – Former education secretary Mona Dumlao Valisno said that letting private higher education institutions (HEIs) and tech-voc training centers to set up the additional two-year senior high school (SHS), will spare DepEd and private high school owners the financial burden of building the additional infrastructure and procuring the necessary resources, such as hiring…

This bit of data should jolt the female sector of our society, particularly those whose focus is on equal rights, equal opportunities for those who comprise approximately 51 percent of our country’s population: in its 96 years of existence, the Senate has had only 17 women who have graced its halls as elected senators. Rather…

MANILA, Philippines – Six of the 23 senators have received pork barrel funds since the Senate impeachment court overwhelmingly voted on May 29 to convict and remove from office former chief justice Renato Corona. Two of the six voted to acquit Corona. They are Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

MANILA, Philippines – Ford Philippines, a unit of US-based automaker Ford Motor Co., is halting its assembly operations in its plant in Sta. Rosa, Laguna by the end of this year. The shutdown is expected to affect about 250 employees.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines is pushing for the retention of its status as Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) beneficiary as the country gave assurances it is stepping up efforts in promoting human and labor rights.

Workers want a say in the proposed legislation being pursued by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) governing the takeover, liquidation and winding up operations of banks that are closed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

MANILA, Philippines – The number of HIV/AIDS cases in the country rose to 9,669 after 273 new cases were recorded in May, the Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry of the Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday.

A lawyer believes the government can be sued by foreign investors before an international tribunal for espousing inconsistent investment rules. Addressing the Supreme Court on Tuesday, lawyer E.M. Lombos, a lawyer of Manuel V. Pangilinan, CEO and managing director of the First Pacific Group, said the constitutional provision capping at 40 percent the equity of…

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) has vowed to deliver higher benefit payments and improved services to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and their dependents, in return for a contribution of less than P3.50 per day, or P1,200 yearly.

Senate President Pro-Tempore Jinggoy Estrada said on Wednesday that he expects Congress to fine tune the provisions of the proposed Kasambahay Act to make it congruent to the standards of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 189.

Contrary to President Aquino’s claim that businesses are rushing to invest in the Philippines, the local unit of US auto giant Ford Motors announced yesterday it will close its local vehicle assembly plant in the Philippines by the end of the year, with the loss of 360 jobs, as part of an ongoing restructuring across…

FEWER COUPLES are getting married and those who choose to tie the knot are doing so at a later age, government data showed, as weddings become more and more expensive. Web site gives new twist to ‘arranged’ marriages

THE Philippine government has vowed to step up efforts to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on basic education and maternal health by 2015.

A June 28, 2012 press release from the Department of Labor and Employment Secretary of Labor and Employment Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz yesterday identified the initial 80 barangays in the country’s 16 regions that the DOLE is working with, in convergence with other government agencies and private sector partners, to declare child-labor free barangays this year.

MANILA, Philippines – Stigma and discrimination are major barriers to the treatment of drug dependence, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

THE Philippines is not ready to absorb the next “investment wave” coming its way, a power and water resource expert said. Nevertheless, the Aquino administration, with four years left before the end of its term, could start enhancing the country’s “absorptive capacity” that will push forward industrialization, according to Alan Ortiz, president and chief operating…

The January-May 2012 actual fiscal numbers suggest that the kinks that bug project implementation in the Aquino administration remain. Using the most likely case, spending for public infrastructure and other capital outlays, will be off by about 30% during the first half of the year. A pickup in the third quarter is unlikely because of…