THE Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday upheld Malacañang’s position in giving overtime pay and ordered the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to implement Customs Administrative Order (CAO) 1-2005 in connection with the proposed increase in the overtime rates of Customs personnel at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

BUTUAN CITY, Philippines – Communist guerrillas torched heavy equipment, three warehouses and three dump trucks owned by contractors of Dole Philippines and destroyed the firm’s eight-hectare banana plantation in Tago, Surigao del Sur before dawn Monday, police said.

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang yesterday condemned the burning of 12 passenger buses by suspected communist rebels in Capas, Tarlac last Sunday and vowed to punish those behind the incident.

TOKYO – Japanese firms expressed commitment to expand or put up new businesses in the Philippines during President Aquino’s meetings with business groups yesterday, Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma said.

AT LEAST THREE Japanese companies plan to keep expanding in the Philippines, Malacañang yesterday announced, as President Benigno S. C. Aquino III and his economic managers pitched for fresh investments and tie-ups under the Private-Public Partnership (PPP) program.

FULL-YEAR electronics exports could contract by more than 5% given slow consumption in troubled Western markets, an industry official yesterday said.

Electronics, semiconductor shipments down 29% JULY IMPORTS The Philippines’ main import item, electronics and semiconductor, fell 28.6 percent in July even as overall imports rose 6.6 percent, according to government data

MANILA, Philippines – Eligible small farmers and fishers will now be able to avail of either agricultural production or microfinance loans with an interest rate of 15 percent per annum following approval by the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) of the depository mode scheme of the Agro-Industry Modernization Credit and Financing Program-Cooperative Banks Agri-Lending Program…

MANILA, Philippines – State-run Home Mutual Development Fund, more commonly known as Pag-IBIG Fund, was able to lend out P32 billion worth of housing loans in the first eight months of the year, its top executive said.

UNITED NATIONS (Xinhua) — Libran Cabactulan, permanent representative of the Philippines to the UN, said here Tuesday that activities of the UN should be rules-based, with these rules grounded in justice and equity.

Filipino student activists have found a more engaging way to call attention to themselves than the issues they are supposed to be fighting for. They call it “planking,” or throwing themselves on busy roads where they just lie there and stop the free flow of traffic. And perhaps die there accidentally if, unfortunately, speed maniacs…

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine Airlines (PAL) suspended all flights yesterday after airline employees went on strike to protest the impending termination of 2,600 workers.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) sees no massive displacement of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) despite the debt crisis in Europe.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is the “the most aggressive recruiter” of Pinoy nursing professionals and personnel.

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MANILA, Philippines – Filipino nurses should look for jobs in Saudi Arabia, according to the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).

MANILA, Philippines—Remittances sent to the Philippines by migrant Filipinos are expected to still grow this year despite mounting fiscal and economic problems confronting the United States and eurozone economies.

About 200 suspected communist rebels attacked over the weekend an eight-hectare banana plantation in Surigao del Sur, burning down crops and heavy equipment alike.

CEBU, Philippines – The Philippine Nurses Association is against the plan to stop the volunteer program in hospitals that take in registered nurses who want work experience to get the needed employment certificates to work abroad.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Energy (DOE) reiterated yesterday that it needs more power to penalize oil companies found violating trade laws.

MANILA, Philippines – Suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels burned a total of 12 Victory Liner buses and an Isuzu elf truck at the bus company’s motorpool in Barangay Estrada, Capas town in Tarlac Sunday night.

We have the highest energy costs in all of Asia — maybe even the world. That should be a consuming concern for government. More and more sectors are worried that reducing energy costs ranks very low in this administration’s priorities.

MANILA, Philippines – The Management Association of the Philippines has announced the creation of a MAP National Branding Committee that will help the government create strategies to improve the overall image of the Philippines abroad.

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga ,Philippines – The country’s tourism industry continues to boom with an estimated 3.3 million tourists visiting the Philippines last year.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is not getting sufficient funding from the government to finance its scholarship grants, the 2010 report of the Commission on Audit (COA) said.

Thanks to this administration’s incomprehensible decision to cut subsidy for state colleges and universities, we’re seeing a resurgence of student activism. Thousands of students from all over the country walked out of their classes last week. In Manila, they converged at Mendiola, reminiscent of the heady days when the student protest movement was a major…

TOKYO (via PLDT)—Japanese business leaders are looking at transferring some of their manufacturing operations to the Philippines following the earthquake and tsunami that struck the country in March, Japanese Ambassador to Manila Toshinao Urabe said Saturday.

THE Supreme Court has cleared Customs to collect higher fees from the airline companies to pay its airport staff overtime and allowances.

MEDIA tablet sales will continue to experience strong growth through 2015 when sales are forecast to reach 326.3 million units. Apple’s iPad is projected to account for 73.4 percent of worldwide media tablet sales in 2011, down from 83 percent share in 2010.