MANILA, Philippines – Months after an international human rights group slammed them for allegedly fabricating stories of child recruits in the New People’s Army rebel group, the Armed Forces of the Philippines claimed that they have proof disproving these accusations.

JOAN was only 10 when she came to Davao City. That was the time when her parents got separated. Her father left the family for another woman. Joan is the youngest of four siblings so she was brought to the city to live with her grandmother. Her mother decided to work abroad to support the…

BALI — The Philippines on Thursday called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to sit down and finally tackle the adoption of a legally-binding agreement on the protection of migrant workers.

The controversial reproductive health (RH) bill has already received funding under the proposed P1.816-trillion national budget for next year amounting to P7.7 billion.

The weaknesses of the Philippines could prove to be a strength as the crises in Europe and the US escalate. Exports as a percentage of GDP have already fallen from 51 percent in 2000 to just 35 percent last year. And only 50 percent of that is susceptible to a global downturn so what happens…

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) Administrator Carlos Cao said total remittances by Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) is likely to exceed the P20.1-billion target for 2011.

The Philippines manning industry on Thursday said it is projecting to deploy a record 400,000 seafarers worldwide by the end of this year despite the crisis in Europe.

MANILA, Philippines – The inflow of foreign portfolio investments or “hot money” plunged 78.2 percent to $237.44 million in October from $1.088 billion in the same month last year as investors remained jittery due to the lingering debt crisis in Europe and the economic uncertainty in the US, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.

IT used to be that a good education meant a ticket out of poverty. For a lot of people that hope still rings true, but unfortunately those who need a good education the most are the ones who can’t afford it.

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) and its tripartite partners in the bus transport industry have pledged to implement measures in promoting public transport safety.

TACLOBAN — Some 40% of establishments in Eastern Visayas were found violating Occupational Safety and Health Standards (OSHS), an official of the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) said, citing preliminary inspection reports.

THE GAP between the highest and lowest wages within the same occupation group was widest among professionals and narrowest among service workers last year, the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics (BLES) reported.

TUBA, Benguet—Rep. Raymond Democrito Mendoza, of the Trade Union of the Philippines Partylist, said the mineral sector not only gives jobs to the corporate social advocacies of mining companies.

MANILA, Philippines – The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) is looking at reviving its global investment program next year, its top official said.

“GUARDED optimism” was the reply of Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory Domingo when asked by reporters about his sentiment on Asean integration by 2015. And this is how it is proceeding despite the euro experience. In a recent article by Esther Samboh of The Jakarta Post, the World Bank (WB) says that Asean should learn…

GOVERNMENT Service Insurance System (GSIS) has earmarked a credit facility to Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-IBIG to finance the housing requirements of state workers and pensioners.

Businessmen and politicians with vested interests have been blamed for the widespread poverty in the Philippines, which has been left behind by its Asian neighbors in the race to development.

A LAWMAKER allied with President Benigno Aquino III has urged the Palace to dump the P39.8-billion conditional cash transfer program, saying the increase in poverty and hunger only proved that the dole to the poor was a failure.

The Aquino administration has already disbursed nearly 90 percent of its budget for this year amid efforts to catch up on spending.

A college professor of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) is facing charges of sexual harassment before the Manila Prosecutor’s Office after one of her female students lodged a complaint at the Manila Police District Station 8 Women’s and Children’s Concern Division (WCCD) in Sta. Mesa, Manila.

THE reproductive health bill could lose in the plenary if it were put to a vote now, so House leaders set the voting on the bill next year, Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said Tuesday as the plenary debates on the measure resumed.

MANILA, Philippines – The amount of money sent home by Filipinos working overseas grew 7.1 percent in the first nine months of the year on the back of sustained demand for skilled Filipino workers abroad, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

Mama, watch this with me. It’s so inspiring,” my 12-year-old daughter, Sophi, said, laptop in hand. We settled in bed and logged on to www.ted.com, a website devoted to “ideas worth spreading,” as their tagline says. Ted.com is an online cache of “riveting talks by remarkable people.”

The labor department has deferred for three months the barring of Filipinos from working in 41 countries. But it has not dropped the idea of blacklisting the 41 work destinations. That is, unless something drastic happens during the 90-day reprieve.

The Philippines is nearly a decade behind in achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of reducing poverty incidence by half in 2015, according to the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB).

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has absolved the three commissioners of the National Labor Relation Commission (NLRC) of their involvement in the P.2-million extortion complaint in relation to alleged “illegal dismissal.”

AT the summit of leaders of states and territories that straddle the Pacific Ocean, the most important topics that should have been discussed are countries that do not belong to the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) bloc—Iran and eurozone nations, particularly Italy and Greece.

AN environmental health group on Monday renewed its call for the Philippine government to stop paying for a 15-year old medical waste incineration project that costs the Filipino people close to $2 million a year in debt service.

Majority of Filipinos considered themselves poor, according to the latest Social Weather Stations survey. The survey results, which were first published in a national business newspaper, showed that 52 percent of respondents (estimated 10.4 million households) considered themselves poor, three percent higher than the 49 percent recorded in the June survey.