MANILA, Philippines — The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has urged young Filipinos to stay out of heavily overpopulated college courses if they want to increase their chances of obtaining gainful employment after graduation.

The Reproductive Health (RH) bill should be enacted into law despite a report from a pro-life American news agency that the number of maternal deaths in the country has declined, its authors at the House of Representatives said Monday.

If they still fail this time, they might as well “chalk” it up to experience. Education Secretary Armin Luistro said his department could only meet the demand of public school teachers for an increase in their so-called chalk allowance if Congress would approve its proposed budget for 2012.

MANILA, Philippines — Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections recorded in the Philippines have broken from a 20-year low to a rapidly spreading disease, particularly in Cebu, Davao and Manila, a new report by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) revealed over the weekend.

The Procurement Service — put in place for transparency purposes in government transactions — does not seem to be working, the Commission on Audit said, noting the steady decline in the sales from the service’s depots and sub-depots in the past years.

Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jesse Robredo yesterday said that plans are now in progress to review the existing policies on the collection, distribution and utilization of revenues arising from national wealth.

Director General Joel Villanueva of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) has recommended to corporations to revive and strengthen their apprenticeship programs and hire qualified trainees as part of their workforce.

MANILA, Philippines – The World Bank has ranked the Philippines among the best performers in the services exports, particularly in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, but urged further reforms in the travel and tourism sector if the country intends to sustain growth moving forward.

CABANATUAN CITY, Philippines – The Aquino administration is hiring 12,000 additional nurses and midwives to fill up the vacancies in hospitals and beef up health personnel in clinics and health centers in rural areas.

DIVISIVE: For Sunday reading, I am borrowing remarks of former senator Kit Tatad, a writer of note, many of whose ideas on the controversial Reproductive Health bill happen to coincide with my own.

MANILA, Philippines – Former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is seeking the immediate passage of a bill granting tax deductions to parents and legal guardians of children with special needs.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Education (DepEd) has taken steps to strengthen environmental education in public and private schools to boost government efforts in dealing with climate change.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has issued a resolution partially lifting the deployment ban to Afghanistan and Iraq.

MANILA, Philippines – The government will launch tomorrow a five-year program aimed at providing guaranteed employment to beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

It often happens that when an outstanding worker is promoted to become a supervisor, the company loses a good worker and gains a poor supervisor. The main reason for this failure is that supervising demands an additional set of skills that still needs to be developed in the newbie supervisor. In some cases, the person…

“Give a man a fish and he will live for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he will live for a lifetime,” this is one of the best known quotes by the Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu. This quote has often been cited in a number of negative feedbacks regarding the Pantawid Pamilyang…

MANILA, Philippines – The United Nations (UN) is now identifying local government officials who publicly make a stand against HIV and AIDS to provide them with direct assistance.

Mining in Zamboanga Peninsula banned GROUPS commend the Supreme Court (SC) en banc decision and issuance of Writ of Kalikasan to ban mining in Zamboanga Peninsula on August 16.

GRANTING that golden rice is safe and farmers become willing to plant it, there is a commercial issue that worries them. That is because the creators and proponents, which refers to themselves as a humanitarian organization, have entered into a contract with an international commercial biotechnology corporation.

AFTER lawmakers, farmers and consumers bombarded the golden rice project with criticisms during a roundtable discussion at the House of Representatives, a Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) official clarified the safety issues raised against the genetically modified rice variety.

THE Congressional Committee on Agriculture and Food is investigating in aid of legislation the field test of BT eggplant, a genetically modified vegetable reportedly causing health risks and allegedly intended for commercial release in the country this year.

GOLDEN rice (or Golden Rice with G and R in capitals, as the global Golden Rice Humanitarian Board, which is the proponent of the Golden Rice Project, prefers to have it written) could be the solution to one of the world’s most serious malnutrition problems: VAD. Vitamin A deficiency.

IS golden rice safe? Lawmakers share the fears of consumer groups, farmers and some scientists that this genetically modified rice variety poses serious heath risks. In a round table last August 23 at the House of Representatives, legislators, farmers and consumers raised safety issues before biotechnology experts from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippine…

BRIGHTON, UK – Teodoro “Jun Jun” Medran Jr. arrived in the United Kingdom in 1999 with a dream to become a successful nurse. Like many first-time overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), he was anxious about being in a foreign country, uncertain of what lay ahead.

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino has announced another big deal that made his state visit to China a success: “more than 10%” of the $1-billion ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) China Fund.

The stash of felt-tip pens, stickers and paints donated by students cost no more than a few dirhams. But to the women who use them to illustrate or write down their innermost thoughts, they represent a lifeline.

THE DEPARTMENT of Budget and Management (DBM) has released P3.07 billion to the Department of Education (DepEd) to provide more basic educational facilities throughout the country this year, a statement said on Friday.

MANILA, Philippines – The non-performing loans (NPLs) ratio of universal and commercial banks continued to improve in June as the industry’s total loan portfolio outpaced the build-up in bad loans in light of the country’s improving economy, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Zurich-based Credit Suisse has lowered the economic growth forecast of the Philippines together with other countries in the Asia Pacific Region this year and next year as advanced economies led by the US are teetering on the brink of recession.