The Singapore-based Keppel Subic Shipyard, the employer of the six Filipino workers who died in an accident while working on a container ship in Subic, Zambales some two weeks ago, was found to be non-compliant of the country’s safety standards.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies (Papa) has proposed to create a mechanism to protect the welfare of domestic workers following Cambodia’s abrupt decision to stop its citizens from working as domestic helpers here.

At the closing of the most recent conference of Philippine businesses was the predictable presentation of a wish list for the government of P-Noy to act on.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines will ask the Japanese government to include in the Japan Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) a condition that the bilateral agreement shall observe any future Philippine laws, including those passed by Congress, local governments, and administrative agencies.

THE loan quality of the country’s largest banks deteriorated at end-August from the end-July level as their soured credit exposures grew faster than their overall lending.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has signed an agreement with the Office of the Ombudsman that seeks to address corruption in local government units.

I was deeply immersed in preparations for a national conference in the last two weeks and I didn’t have time to think about anything else. I still have tons of emails to wade through, but there is one thing that I needed to get out of the way. So to the many friends and readers…

Fewer and fewer nurses are seeking employment in the United States. Former labor leader and now party list representative Arnel Ty said only 1,370 nurses made efforts to seek employment in the United States by taking the NCLEX for the first time from July to September this year.

Almost 500 former Philippine Airlines (PAL) employees received their separation pay over the weekend as the carrier began distributing P2.6-billion in cash benefits to those affected by PAL’s outsourcing program.

MANILA, Philippines — A United Nations human rights expert has urged Lebanon to introduce laws to protect the estimated 200,000 domestic workers in the country, many of whom are Filipinos, warning that many of them live in conditions of servitude and are subject to physical or sexual abuse and economic exploitation.

Filipino workers on Saipan attend an information caravan organized by the United Filipino Organization and hosted by the Philippine Consulate General yesterday at the Filcom Pavilion in Susupe. (Clarissa V. David) The fairly good turnout of Filipino workers at the start of the information caravan series held yesterday at the Filcom Pavilion in Susupe signifies…

The still sorry state of human rights protection in the country may prove to be a major roadblock to obtaining cheap funds for the government as the European Union (EU) stated it will re-prioritize its aid to deve-loping countries, including the Philippines, putting more emphasis on democracy and human rights and that the assistance may…

MANILA, Philippines — Labor Secretary Rosalinda D. Baldoz announced Monday that the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) is fast-tracking efforts to ensure a decent work and labor standards in the local maritime industry involving an estimated 40,000 domestic Filipino seafarers.

MANILA, Philippines – An administration lawmaker has called for amendments to Republic Act 7277 or the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons to allow persons with disabilities (PWDs) to be covered by the Social Security System (SSS) and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).

MANILA, Philippines – The Senate has passed two bills that would provide security of tenure for casual and contractual employees of the government and grant civil service eligibility to qualified members of local government councils.

SUSPECTED members of New People’s Army (NPA) burned heavy equipment at an ongoing government construction project along the national highway in the boundaries of Manjuyod and Bindoy towns in Negros Oriental, before dawn Friday, police reported yesterday.

NEWS ANALYSIS MANILA: The stimulus package of P72 billion pesos or US$1.7 billion was unveiled by President Benigno Aquino 3rd on Wednesday has been hailed but at the same time belittled by some sectors.

Arguing the case for support to his Party-list’s constituency, Ang Kasangga Rep. Teodorico Haresco said that financial assistance should also be provided for the moderate poor, which according to the World Bank definition, are those living on $2 to $5 per day.

Key shelter agencies, in particular Pag-IBIG Fund, the National Housing Authority and the Social Housing Finance Corp., have committed to provide 1.5 million homes by 2016.

MANILA, Philippines – A recent study conducted by a group of geologists from the University of the Philippines-Diliman found that Napot Point, where the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) is located, is not geologically safe and at risk from many volcanic hazards.

BANTAY Kita is a newly-formed network advocating for transparency in the extractive, particularly the mining industry. It is composed of organizations engaging the mining industry on their adverse effects on communities and the environment, and economic and governance policy research and reform organizations.

(This is the second of two excerpts from Rhacel Salazar Parrenas’s new book, Illicit Flirtations: Labor, Migration, and Sex Trafficking in Tokyo.) I SPENT nine months in Tokyo working as a hostess in a working-class club in one of the city’s many red-light districts, frequented by members of the yakuza, the Japanese crime syndicates. This…

THE Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (Palea) will not accept the separation pay offered by Philippine Airlines (PAL), the group said in a statement on Friday.

The Philippine government should rescind its plan of deploying civilian militias to augment security at private mining operations, Amnesty International said.

EVERY Filipino wastes three tablespoons of rice every day, adding up to at least P23 million worth of daily wastage—so reveals a survey conducted by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

MALACAÑANG REJECTS DIALOG WITH JUSTICES A heated exchange erupted anew between the Palace and the Supreme Court (SC) yesterday as SC administrator Midas Marquez indicated the Palace was shooting from the hip without knowing the details of the case when it commented on the tribunal’s order to recall an earlier ruling for the reinstatement of…

Presidential spokesman dismisses chief justice’s warning, says it’s a smokescreen for Court’s mistake in recalling its own ‘final’ decision in PAL case. CHIEF Justice Renato Corona on Thursday accused the Palace of “insidious attempts to undermine [and] destroy the independence of the Judiciary,” which he said had never been subjected to “so much disrespect and…

HOT money flows fell in September amid a flight to safe havens on investor fears that Europe would not avoid a debt crisis that could derail global economic recovery.

It is just too bad that our Supreme Court (SC), the last bastion of truth and justice and the court of last resort in upholding the peoples’ legally demandable and enforceable rights, has issued a resolution in the PAL flight attendants’ and stewards’ case generally perceived as dubious and irregular enough as to seriously dent…

MANILA, Philippines – The 37th Philippine Business Conference (PBC) submitted yesterday a list of resolution submitted yesterday to President Aquino.