Threats to retirement security are everywhere. The list is topped by the recession-fueled impact on retirement confidence: People haven’t set aside nearly enough money to fund their retirements. Next on the list is the regular drumbeat from critics that the Social Security system is running out of money and won’t be able to honor its…

DAVAO CITY ,Philippines  – Local officials in Mindanao have accused the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) of creating an artificial power shortage by scheduling daily blackouts of up to 12 hours.

he Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) recently issued Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 03-2012 (RMC 03-12) to remind BIR officials and taxpayers alike of the proper tax treatment of income payments made to General Professional Partnerships (GPP), as well as the distributive shares of net profits received by the partners from such GPPs.

MANILA, Philippines – The National Youth Commission (NYC) launched yesterday a desk to address students’ complaints. High school and college students, as well as those taking up technical and vocational courses, may file their complaints with the Students’ Rights And Welfare Desk, through the website www.strawdesk.com.

For those who may not be aware of the major health issues facing the country, I have made a quick overview of the challenges facing the government and the Department of Health. Due to space constraints, I have summarized each issue so everyone can have an initial understanding on them:

CHURCH-RUN educational institutions may also increase tuition fees next school year as a nationwide group of Catholic schools backed its members’ assertion that a hike would be inevitable because “quality education is expensive.”

THE country’s largest labor group on Monday criticized a House bill that would fix nurses’ starting salaries at P14,000 a month, saying it was degrading.

MANILA, Philippines – Total foreign direct investments (FDI) totaled P256.1 billion last year, the highest amount of investment pledges recorded since 1996, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) reported yesterday.

Different media groups condemned the brutal attack on The Daily Tribune Malacaang beat reporter Fernan Angeles who was mauled and shot seven times in different parts of the body by still unidentified assailants with the National Press Club (NPC) putting up a P100,000 reward for the identification of the suspects.

MANILA, Philippines – The Senate today approved on third and final reading a bill seeking an end to discrimination against women in the workplace.

The Hyperion machine robotically places wafers into this proton induced exfoliation machine which creates thin solar cells from standard-thickness silicon wafers.

For those who may not be aware of the major health issues facing the country, I have made a quick overview of the challenges facing the government and the Department of Health.

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) – The government is exerting all-out efforts in waging a campaign against child labor, a senior government official said today.

[Editor’s note: This Stratfor article is the third in a set of special reports on terrorism, the first two of which—“The myth of the end of terrorism” and “Detection points in the terrorist attack cycle”—we published yesterday.] As we noted in the article “Detection points in the terrorist attack cycle,” terrorist attacks do not materialize…

Dear PAO, Our parents died in an accident last year. As the eldest child, I took over the responsibility of taking care of my two siblings aged 15 and 10. I am now providing for their daily needs from food to clothing as well as their school expenses. I work in a private company and…

Take a quick look around you, whether you are at home, in the office or at school. There will always be some people who are more sensitive than others. Some people easily shed tears while others are seemingly unaffected. But just how sensitive are you? Are your feelings easily hurt or are you so callous…

THE Philippine Medical Association slammed the “lukewarm attitude” of Transportation and Communications Secretary Manuel Roxas II to efforts to address air pollution in Metro Manila.

PHILHEALTH has deferred the increase in the premium contributions of Filipino workers abroad as a result of the global economic crisis and the political instability in the Middle East, an official said on Saturday.

The government remains vigilant and mindful of the renewed volatility in the prices of petroleum products even as the country’s headline inflation rate in February 2012 slowed down to 2.7 percent, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

The Philippine Association of Water District (PAWD) is opposing the proposed bills in the Senate and House of Representatives aiming to privatize the Water Districts in the country and the establishment of Water and Sanitation Regulatory Authority. According to PAWD national president Gilbert Camaligan, there is no reason to privatize the water districts as proposed…

The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) is seeking a congressional inquiry on the rotating daily power outages in the island, which “should not be that (bad) because there is an untapped 65 megawatts from state-owned hydropower plants,” an official said.

A Filipino scholar in the United Kingdom has been chosen the 2012 Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum. A statement from the British Embassy in Manila said Benedict Carandang, 30, was one of the youngest selected for the prestigious honor from thousands of nominees across the world and joins the 191 other…

Mining sector workers got high pay hikes The annual increase in the average pay of workers in major industries slowed down in the third quarter of 2011 to 3.5 percent, according to the National Statistical Coordination Board.

THE head of the International Labor Organization (ILO) called for decent work for rural women workers—who comprise 43 percent of the agriculture labor force in developing countries—to address lingering global poverty and poverty.

Open Letter to his Majesty King Abdullah

A power-hungry world needs clean, reliable energy sources, but the cost of nuclear, and heightened safety concerns from Fukushima, have stalled nuclear’s expansion. The modular reactor proposed by Babcock & Wilcox, one of a new generation of designs meant to address safety and cost. The slideshow below shows how it would be placed vertically and…

Anticipating American firms that are benefiting from outsourcing to oppose the proposed US Call Center Work and Consumer Protection Act pending in the US Congress, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said the business process outsourcing industry will continue to create jobs for Filipinos.

A TOTAL of 2,087 Filipinos living with the human immunodeficiency virus are now on anti-retroviral therapy, an official said Friday. Rep. Arnel Ty of the sectoral party LPG Marketers’ Association says the number does not include those who have died, left the country or decided to stop taking therapy.

THE NUMBER of Filipinos who are under medication for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have risen by 39% compared to the same time last year, data from the Health department show.

Key performance indicators (KPI) are all the rage these days for contact centers, but they aren’t all created equally. It’s always a good idea to collect metrics, of course, but are you collecting the right ones? And what are you doing with them once you’ve got the data?