MANILA, Philippines—While the sob stories usually make the headlines, the country’s efforts to help thousands of overseas Filipinos, especially those caught in wars and calamities, have not gone unnoticed in the United Nations.

CEBU, Philippines –   Individuals applying for health insurance coverage under PhilHealth’s Overseas Workers Program (OWP) must be able to show proof of active status as OFW both upon registration and upon renewal of coverage.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine economy may still grow by 5.5 percent this year, which is the upper end of the government’s official forecast of 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga Jr. said on Thursday.

MANILA, Philippines – New York-based Moody’s Investors Service sees the Philippine economy expanding by five percent next year from about 4.5 percent on the back of strong remittances from overseas Filipino workers as well as higher government spending arising from the Aquino administration’s public private partnership (PPP) program.

MANILA, Philippines – The country has received an upgrade in its credit rating outlook – to positive from stable – from the New York-based Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Ratings Services.

MANILA, Philippines – With more than P31-billion increase in its budget for 2012, the Department of Education (DepEd) is now ready to implement its ambitious K+12 basic education curriculum (BEC) plan.

Empowering the Filipino People “To achieve the Millennium Development Goals and keep temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius, all countries must ACT NOW.”   — UN SecGen Ban Ki-Moon, 01 November 2011

MANILA, Philippines – The Network to Stop AIDS in the Philippines (NSAP) expressed concern over the possible interruption of free treatment for HIV/AIDS patients after the cancellation of financial support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS.

15 December 2011, Manila–The Associated Labor Unions (ALU) appealed to the Labor department to intervene and save thousands of Philippine central bank employees from an ongoing improper removal and disposal of cancerous asbestos and asbestos-containing materials at the BSP building in Manila.

PHILHEALTH will tap its P90-billion reserve fund to increase its members’ health benefits by reducing their out-of-pocket expenses during hospitalization, chief executive Eduardo Banzon said Wednesday.

CLARK FREEPORT, Philippines – The Philippines ranked fourth in Asia in fishery product exports in an international fishery trade.

MANILA, Philippines – More Filipino workers were hired in various countries abroad despite the prevailing global financial crisis and hostilities in the Middle East region, the government said yesterday.

The World Bank on Wednesday said it has committed a multibillion-dollar loan assistance to the Philippines over the next three years to finance priority projects under the Philippine Development Plan for 2011 to 2016.

The country’s financial development ranking climbed six notches this year compared to last year but remained in the bottom rung of the region, according to Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF).

The worsening conflict among branches of the government underlined yesterday by a court holiday that was spontaneously made by members of the Judiciary and court employees had started to send jitters through the financial markets as investors see a brewing political instability with the Executive and the Legislative being pitted against the Judiciary.

Evidently unprepared and rattled by high court Chief Justice Renato Corona’s direct blasts at President Aquino yesterday and the popular support he has from the judges and justices nationwide, the Chief Executive, through his spokesman, Edwin Lacierda, said Corona had no right to call Aquino a looming dictator as he called for the chief justice…

CORONA BLASTS AQUINO; JUDGES CHEER The gloves are really off, with Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona giving President Aquino as good as the head of the Judiciary gets from the Chief Executive, with the CJ calling him a “looming dictator” who wants a puppet high court and CJ that dance to his strings.

I’ve been asked many times this question in the last few weeks: Where do I stand in the midst of all these frenzied efforts to exact judgment at whatever cost and through whatever means possible? The honest answer, which I have so far kept unarticulated until this writing, is that I view the whole sordid…

The government has released P61.28 billion or 85 percent of the stimulus package as it tries to catch up on its spending to spur economic growth in the fourth quarter, Budget chief Florencio Abad said on Tuesday.

At a time when we should be hearing Christmas carols and gearing up towards the yuletide celebrations, it seems that people’s lives have needlessly been “trespassed and infested” by life sucking politics, media sensationalism and the personal grudge matches of politicians and rich families.

MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Jejomar Binay is the most appreciated and trusted while Chief Justice Renato Corona has the lowest approval and trust rating among top government officials, according to Pulse Asia’s November 2011 Ulat ng Bayan survey released yesterday.

The New People’s Army is commemorating its 42nd founding anniversary a day after Christmas this year. Four decades is an astonishingly protracted campaign for a group that is considered as the biggest threat to Philippine security but, at the same time, dismissed as a ragtag band of 5,000 fighters whose preferred targets are isolated police…

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Mayor Celso Lobregat extends full support to the livelihood drive for 30,000 workers in the sardine fishing sector displaced by a three-month moratorium.

MANILA, Philippines – Filipinos are most critical of the performance of Chief Justice Renato Corona among the top officials in government, the latest Pulse Asia Survey showed.

MANILA, Philippines – Treasury bill (T-bill) rates rose yesterday, exceeding expectations and prompting the auction panel to reject all bids for the 364-day bills.

MANILA, Philippines – Multilateral lender International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday slashed anew the economic growth forecasts and the inflation projections for the Philippines this year.

The International Monetary Fund on Monday said the Philippine government should spend more next year to support the domestic economy amid the expected weakness in the global environment.

Underspending under the Aquino administration is the major thorn for growth as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cited the withholding of the state budget for its decision to reduce growth forecast for the Philippines by a full point to 3.7 percent for this year from an initial estimate of a 4.7 percent growth.

The vicious clash between the Executive and the Judiciary along with efforts to oust Chief Justice Renato Corona by President Aquino and his allies have the potential of rocking the markets which are already feeling the pinch of the European debt crisis, business executives said yesterday.

THE 2012 national budget, to be signed tomorrow by President Benigno S.C. Aquino III, is not the “people’s budget” promised by the government, civil society organizations yesterday said.