Money sent home by up to 10 million overseas Filipinos exceeded expectations in February by growing 5.8 percent to $1.6 billion instead of 5.2 percent as forecast by experts at Barclays in Hong Kong, for instance.

AN increasing number of multinational companies are now abiding by the government’s implementation of protecting rights of workers to decent working condition, security of tenure through a labor rule that stops contractual work terms of six months less.

THE Department of Justice (DOJ) has endorsed a bill in the House of Representatives that seeks to amend Republic Act 8504, otherwise known as the Philippines AIDS Prevention Control Act of 1998, to strengthen the country’s comprehensive policy on the prevention and control of the disease.

MANILA, Philippines – Minimum wage earners in Central Mindanao are getting a much-awaited pay increase, the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – It’s a story you hear every day. May it be in the concrete jungles of Manila, or in an impoverished far-flung area, the Pearl of the Orient has a few left opportunities for the struggling Filipino family to earn just enough for a daily decent meal.

The Philippines is on track in achieving the Millennium Development Goals particularly in education, health, women and children, President Benigno S. Aquino III told visiting Governor General of the Commonwealth of Australia Quentin Bryce on Thursday.

Young people from Maguindanao often leave their hometown to work in Manila, urban areas, or overseas due to limited opportunities. Maguindanao, a province in South Central Mindanao was the 6th poorest province in the Philippines in 2011 based on findings of the National Statistical Coordination Board. The unemployment rate of youth belonging to 20-24 year…

President Benigno Aquino III has signed Proclamation No. 362 declaring the 2010 Census of Population and Housing as official. As released by the National Statistics Office (NSO), the country’s population is now 92,337,852. The count was based on the NSO census conducted from May to June 2010 which shows that the population increased by 15.83…

With more foreign companies looking at cutting costs for their business operations through offshoring, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) disclosed that the business-process outsourcing (BPO) sector may see a growth of not below 15 percent every year.

MANILA, Philippines – Unless the government supports policies that promote a more robust manufacturing sector, the Philippines has a long way to go to achieve inclusive growth, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in a recent report.  

MANILA, Philippines – If only the Philippines can tap all of its vast gold resources and reserves, poverty would be completely eradicated, according to the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB).

MANILA, Philippines – After a lackluster 3.7% economic growth in 2011, the Philippines would bounce back this 2012 with a 4.8% growth, the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) projected.

MANILA, Philippines – Developing Asia’s rapid growth in recent years has given rise to a widening rich-poor divide that threatens to undermine the region’s growth and stability, but governments can address the problem via shifts in spending priorities, the Asian Development Bank said.

If the Philippine government is serious in pursuing inclusive growth, relying on business-process outsourcing (BPO)-based growth alone will not help generate enough jobs and improve the lives of poor Filipinos, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

THE PHILIPPINES will likely recover from last year’s sluggish growth amid increased public spending, investments and private consumption but “longstanding structural weaknesses” remain hurdles to achieving inclusive growth, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday said.

MANILA (Updated) — Fifteen million people have been added to the country’s population over the last 10 years, with the National Statistics Office (NSO) recording more than 92 million people as of May 1, 2010.

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino nurses should not to expect to get jobs in the United States until 2020, an administration lawmaker said yesterday.

A prominent lawyer has hit the recent statement of the International Planned Parenthood Federation that practically seeks to give the youth a right to reproductive health services.

Looks like the Liberal Party (LP) still tries to project a holier-than-thou image, which is quite hypocritical, besides which, the cleaner than clean image they tried to project in 2010 no longer works, considering the even greater corruption in the Aquino government today.

Outside of the monoliths, Liberal Party (LP) and Nacionalista Party (NP), few other political parties had made a lasting impression in terms of fielding reliable bets for the periodic polls and those political groups that mount a challenge against such parties were parties usually formed by the incumbent.

President Aquino’s convening of the Mindanao Power Summit this Friday will only be for show as agreements to jack up power rates in Mindanao and put up environmentally-hazardous coal plants were already sealed during a pre-summit meeting organized by the Department of Energy last week, Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño said.

The Philippines must strengthen overall competitiveness through enhancing competition including reducing the cost of doing business, and addressing infrastructure and service delivery bottlenecks.

The Philippine peso remains competitive as its volatility and movement remains in the middle of the range in the region on account of the weakness of the US’s economy and the Euro debt crisis.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has hailed Solaire Manila, the world-class fully-integrated resort and gaming complex in Parañaque City, citing the more than 4,600 new jobs the project would create.

A research firm shows a big concern on the employment of Filipinos, particularly the youth, which are the most affected segment of the population by the global financial crisis and availability of jobs.

Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano yesterday threw his support to a union leader sacked by the management of banking giant Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC), a month before Labor Day.

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has the fourth “most optimistic” community of business leaders in the world as strides taken in easing the cost of doing business likely negated other concerns like the tension between the Executive and Judicial branches of government.

Electricity users in power-strapped Mindanao are up in arms against government plans to build more coal-fired plants to relieve the critical energy shortage, warning that these would lock the island into a polluting source of power. The warning was sounded ahead of the energy summit in Davao City at the weekend by the environmentalist foundation,…

Mindanao is now experiencing frequent power failures. Given the nature of the problem, the situation is expected to get worse before it gets better. That should not come as a surprise. As early as two years ago, energy experts have been predicting such power outages in Mindanao and the Visayas. Yet, the government has failed…