MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines have agreed to water down the Save the Industries Act bill lodged before the US Congress by reducing the garment categories to nine instead of 17.

MANILA, Philippines – The number of companies planning to expand their operations in the first quarter of next year remained steady amid the uncertainties brought about by the fragile economic recovery in advanced countries led by the US and the debt crisis in Europe, a Central Bank survey showed.

More than half of Filipinos travel for pleasure or vacation last year, according to the National Statistics Office (NSO).

Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) administrator Carmelita Dimzon reported that her office filed administrative cases against 24 officers and personnel for failure to remit collections and to liquidate their cash advances amounting to more than P50 million.

Filipino seafarers working in various international shipping vessels are expected to reach 400,000 at the end of the year, the Philippines’ envoy to London said but lamented of their continuous exposure to incessant kidnap-for-ransom activities by pirates off African waters, one of the world’ major trading routes.

LEFTIST lawmakers will today file a bill prohibiting the assignment of military or para-military forces to law-enforcement duties in areas under labor or agrarian dispute to avoid a repeat of the 2004 massacre in Hacienda Luisita, the sprawling plantation owned by the family of President Benigno Aquino III.

Senator notes European criticism of President Aquino’s vindictiveness in prosecuting his predecessor SENATOR Miriam Defensor Santiago on Sunday scolded Malacañang and its supporters for their arrogance toward the Supreme Court, saying they were damaging democracy in their rush to prosecute former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Over the past several years, a quiet revolution has been reshaping the call center business MANILA: Americans calling the customer service lines of their airlines, phone companies and banks are now more likely to speak to agents named Mark in Manila than people named Bharat in Bangalore.

MANILA, Philippines – As the Philippines prepares to mark World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, an administration lawmaker is urging regulators to check whether insurance firms doing business in the country have been complying with a law that bars them from excluding HIV-positive Filipinos from health, accident and life coverage services.

ANGELES CITY, Pampanga, Philippines – Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan is now pushing the City Council to enact a measure to protect and promote the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Angelenos.

BUTUAN CITY, Philippines  – Suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels burned heavy equipment including a backhoe loader at Madyaw Construction Development Corp. in Purok Sarabia, Barangay Tagcatong, Carmen, Agusan del Norte before midnight of Thursday, a police report said yesterday.

With international scrutiny on the arrest of his predecessor, former President Gloria Arroyo, turning critical after a Brussels-based think tank branded her recent arrest and treatment thereafter as a show of vindictiveness, President Aquino through his spokesman said the Department of Justice-Commission on Elections (DoJ-Comelec) panel that filed an electoral sabotage case against Arroyo will…

From Nov. 18 to 20, three teenage boys aspiring to be robotics engineers trekked to Abu Dhabi to compete in the World Robot Olympiad (WRO). It was a much-awaited trip for the boys, who put in hours upon hours of whatever spare time they had left after school, as well as on Saturdays and Sundays,…

Developing countries that can’t afford traditional CO2 mitigation measures can now embrace black-carbon reduction In 1997, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) adopted the Kyoto Protocol _ an agreement among signatory states to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Next year, however, the Clean Development Mechanism, a system of carbon credits in which each credit…

This time, it was the patients who gave the prescription. When pediatricians asked Filipino high school students what should be done to improve health and education, the answers were a revelation worthy of the attention of grownups.

MANILA, Philippines – A coalition of anti-child abuse groups and the Department of Social Welfare and Development launched yesterday an information campaign via social media sites in a bid to bring the battle against all forms of child abuse to cyberspace.

Inflation rate in November likely settled within a range of 4.5 percent to 5.4 percent, according to the estimate of the Bangko Sentral.

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CEBU CITY — A work standard for Filipino nurses and caregivers in Japan and the raising of tariff quotas for chicken and other agricultural items will be among the issues that the Philippines will raise when it reviews its bilateral agreement with Japan next month.

MANILA, Philippines – The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) admitted yesterday that some of its officers failed to remit millions of pesos collected from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

BRUSSELS – The Aquino administration is being vindictive in its treatment of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo which could result in a damaged democracy, according to an executive of a policy think tank.

MANILA, Philippines – A House of Representatives’ panel has endorsed for plenary debate a bill providing additional benefits to single parents.

BACOLOD CITY—Two persons were seriously wounded on Friday when firecrackers exploded inside a makeshift factory in Sitio Kahilwayan, Barangay Gargato, Hinigaran town, 60.3 kilometers south of here.

There are many ways of skinning the capitalist cat. Instead of the Marxist cry for workers to unite to destroy the free enterprise system and replace it with Socialism, there is the rising trend towards workers forming cooperatives to engage in all types of business. I am glad to see more workers’ cooperatives in the…

MELBOURNE was judged in August 2011 as the most livable city by the Economist Intelligence Unit considering availability of goods and services, low personal risk and an effective infrastructure.umagoya.net

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union, Nov. 23 (PIA) — Some 79 Human rights desk officers (HRDO) from the Police Regional Office 1 (PRO1) headquarters and the four police provincial offices underwent a 2-day seminar-workshop on human rights focusing on the practice of rights-based policing spearheaded by the Human Rights Affairs Office (HRAO) under Police Supt.…

MANILA, Philippines – Foreign direct investments approved by government agencies in the third quarter of the year rose by 32 percent compared to the same period last year, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) reported yesterday.

MALAYSIA-based computer whiz Arlene Teodoro packed his bags and flew home to the Philippines this year, going against the tide in an impoverished country that sends millions of workers abroad.

Business confidence showed an improvement for the final quarter of this year as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) periodic survey’s confidence index (CI) rose to 38.7 percent from 34.1 percent the previous quarter.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) yesterday blamed the communist New People’s Army (NPA) for 31 cases extra-judicial killings out of the total 32 recorded in Bicol region since January this year.