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.

A third quarter survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) on self-rated poverty and hunger found an increase in number despite the Aquino administation’s flagship anti-poverty program — the conditional cash transfer (CCT), or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

More Filipinos are looking for work, but the number of jobs available to them has not grown. This was one of the findings of the Department of Agriculture’s Labor and Population Force Survey released last week and which mapped out the country’s working population within and outside the agriculture sector.

SOME bus operators and drivers are questioning the move of the Department of Labor and Employment to revamp the compensation system for bus drivers in an effort to boost public transport safety.

People are our only remaining source of competitive advantage; most of our other resources are gone or are fast going but what we do have in large quantities are people. It stands to reason, therefore, that we should be spending more in terms of investments in human capital. I know I have written about this…

Members of the state-run health care system may look forward to increased benefits without having to pay higher premium contributions than the prevailing rates.

MANILA, Philippines – Mobile Internet usage in the Philippines is growing rapidly on the back of the rising popularity of smartphones, tablets and other non-computer Web-enabled devices.

MANILA, Philippines – Despite the continued dive in the overseas sale of electronics products for the fifth straight month this year, most Philippine export products continued to grow.

THE quality of loans of the country’s largest banks edged up at end-September as their total loan portfolio declined past their non-performing loans, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said.

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Audit (COA) is calling for the closure of one of two workers’ inns built by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), saying the government has lost more than P21 million since the inns started operating three years ago.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said demand for call center agents continue to grow in the Philippines. Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, as such, urged students, fresh graduates, and workers to enhance their communication skills to have better employment opportunities in the growing business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

A Filipino migrants’ rights group in the Middle East yesterday urged the Aquino government to resolve the issue on OFWs deployment ban in 41 countries as soon as possible saying “it causes confusions among OFWs and would-be OFWs and will result to proliferation of illegal deployment and human trafficking activities.”

Statement of Ambassador Roy V.Señeres, spokesperson of TUCP, in Manila Bulletin, regarding ban on deployment of OFWs to 41 countries. DFA urged: Delay ban to protect OFWs MANILA, Philippines — The recruitment industry urged the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Sunday to withdraw its certification on the 41 banned countries.

HONOLULU, Hawaii – The Philippines will no longer be needing rice imports as it is already nearing a self-sufficiency stage, President Aquino said yesterday in a panel discussion with chief executive officers of top companies.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) yesterday assured the public that there is no plan yet to increase its premium, particularly for those who are employed.

MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Jejomar Binay is preparing his PDP-Laban (Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino- for a “big fight” in the 2013 and 2016 elections.

MANILA, Philippines – The government recalled the ban on the deployment of overseas Filipino workers to 41 countries earlier declared “unsafe” for OFWs, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said yesterday.

WAGES of bus drivers must be based on part-fixed and part-performance instead of purely commission basis, the Metro Manila Development said Friday.

MANILA, Philippines – Health Secretary Enrique Ona yesterday underscored the need for the Philippines to become “globally competitive” because of the challenges posed by medical tourism.

HONOLULU (AP) — Leaders working to forge a Pacific free trade bloc plan to announce an outline for achieving that goal at an annual Asia-Pacific summit this weekend, one of many initiatives aimed at fending off recession as Europe struggles to resolve its debt crisis.

Unfortunately, across most of the Asia-Pacific region, the returns on higher education are not high enough when viewed in terms of economic returns. The parallel problems of unfilled job vacancies together with unemployed tertiary graduates showed that higher education was not yielding the expected benefits.

Rebuild crumbling social contract At the core of the conflict between Philippine Airlines (PAL) and PAL Employees Association (Palea) is the effort of the airline to manage business freely with maximum flexibility, including its contested prerogative to outsource jobs done by regular and unionized workers.  PAL says outsourcing is a legitimate weapon in insuring its…

CITY OF MALOLOS, Bulacan, November 12 (PIA) — The National Capital Region (NCR) and Region III accounted for the most number of Filipinos migrating to other countries as the number of intermarriages through the internet increases.

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—Torture and forced disappearances involving soldiers and policemen continue to be recorded in many areas in Mindanao under the Aquino administration, and Western Mindanao, where the government’s anti-terror campaign is centered, accounts for the most cases.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada yesterday supported the provision of fixed monthly salaries for bus drivers and conductors, saying the new system upholds the rights of workers to decent wage and working conditions as it promotes road safety for commuters and common road users.

Tomas D. Achacoso was administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration from 1987 to 1990 under then-President Corazon C. Aquino, when Filipino migrant workers were still called overseas contract workers (OCWs).