MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino has issued an executive order strengthening the legal protection provided by the government to victims of abuse through the Committee for the Special Protection of Children (CSPC).

The trust fund containing P10 billion set aside to compensate alleged human rights victims during the 20-year regime of former President Ferdinand Marcos remains intact and has grown to P11.5 billion but its release remains uncertain since the bill which provides for its allocation was not included by President Aquino among his administration’s priority measures.

MANILA, Philippines – A bill has been filed in the Senate to lower the coverage of the Senior Citizens Act from citizens aged 60 years old and above to 55 years old.

Over 20,000 to 50,000 “green” jobs will be created once the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 is implemented, a power company executive said over the weekend. First Gen vice president Aloysius Santos said that the wind industry is expected to generate 5,000 to 6,000 jobs from 220 megawatts (MW) in wind projects. Lopez-owned First Gen…

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, August 21 (PIA) — There is no denying it, the world is changing, and changing fast, foremost of which is, the world’s climate. Every nation, every nook in the world is gearing up to meet the challenge of climate change, and Pampanga is no exception.

Two sides report agreement on terms of hiring Filipina domestic workers Saudi Arabia is set to lift a ban on the recruitment of housemaids from the Philippines introduced early this year following tough terms imposed by Manila on sending domestic workers to the world’s largest oil exporter.

Bank of America-Merrill Lynch has tempered its growth outlook for Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, noting that the region was “resilient but not immune” to a US slowdown or recession. In an August 19 economic commentary titled “Asean: Recession Guide,” the investment banking unit of Bank of America projected a 35-percent risk of the United…

People are only just starting to understand new technological trends such as virtualization and cloud computing, when along comes a phenomenon called “Big Data.”

Empowering the Filipino People (First of Two Parts) MANILA, Philippines — LAST 18 August, FVR keynoted the 6th Pan-Beibu Gulf Economic Cooperation (PBGEC) Forum in Nanning, Guangxi Province, People’s Republic of China, upon the invitation of the People’s Government of Guangxi and the China Development Institute.

hen I first received the letter of “Furious Teacher” in my e-mail (published Aug. 14), what I wanted was to help a single, unwed, pregnant woman who I felt was being given a raw deal by her unenlightened superior.

Employment rates in the Philippines grew by 4 percent year-on-year as the country’s labor market regains momentum in April 2011, but not in the case of region VI.

MANILA – There are 178 new cases of HIV as of June this year, the HIV/Aids registry reported. Department of Health Technical Program Officer Ethel Dano said the new cases constitute a 63 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

The Department of Labor and Employment will implement a seven-point strategy to help young people make the transition from education to work.

This is going to be a sweet year for the country’s sugar industry. Enjoying a bumper harvest, the Philippines is poised to export at least 300,000 metric tons of raw and refined sugar this year, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said Friday.

IT is no surprise that armed Muslim groups, including the newly-formed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) of expelled Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Commander Ameril Umbra Kato, are using child soldiers, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said on Friday.

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine Airlines (PAL) said yesterday they will commence a company-wide information campaign about its outsourcing program after its workers’ union rejected management’s offer for a dialogue.

About 25,000 housing units in relocation sites of the National Housing Authority (NHA) will be awarded to informal settlers in Quezon City, particularly those occupying danger zones such as sidewalks, roadways, waterways and areas under bridges and transmission lines and over water pipelines.

In the cold eyes of financial analysts, what appears as a meltdown in the markets is really a process of “re-pricing” stocks. What this means is that most investors — hedge funds or individual punters — anticipate a slowdown in global economic activity. That translates into less business and less profit. In turn, that means…

Muslim leaders pleaded to justice officials to fully implement the Republic Act 8371 or the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997 which recognizes the rights of indigenous people and the role of the government to safeguard their well being.

HONG KONG – Migrant workers here urged President Aquino to rethink his labor export program to protect Filipinos against “rising xenophobia and social exclusion” in this territory as well as in other migrant-destination countries.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines’ conditional cash transfer (CCT) program could increase annual incomes of beneficiaries by 12.6 percent, resulting in the reduction of poverty incidence by 6.2 percent, simulations by the World Bank (WB) and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) showed.

MANILA, Philippines – The ability of terrorist and militant groups to launch attacks in the Philippines has greatly diminished due to stronger counterterrorism measures and operations being carried out by the government, the US State Department said in a report released this week.

THE GOVERNMENT’s cash grant scheme for the poor is expected to raise annual income of beneficiaries and at the same time reduce poverty level, the World Bank said in a statement on Friday.

Three miners died and four others were injured in a landslide in Compostela Valley province. Municipal and provincial disaster relief response teams were dispatched to the Sitio Tagutong, Barangay Manurigao, New Bataan.

MANILA, Philippines — Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Hong Kong Friday expressed alarm over the alleged “rising xenophobia and social exclusion” in Hong Kong and other destination countries for migrant workers.

GOVERNMENT agencies led by the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) have formally launched a campaign for “green jobs” in light of the threats posed by climate change.

TACLOBAN City, Philippines—The Department of Health (DoH) in Eastern Visayas is alarmed by the increase of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome cases in the region.

ECONOMIC GROWTH will likely pick up in the second half as the government spends more and Philippine businesses benefit from a Japanese recovery, a planning official yesterday said. Worries over the economy should be tempered since sluggish first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) was due more to global troubles and the new administration’s adjustment phase,…

THE lawmakers who went to Mexico to study its conditional cash transfer program on Tuesday urged the administration to end its own P21.9-billion dole, saying they did not want the Philippines to go through the same difficulties that the Latin American state had been going through.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) insisted yesterday that any agreement less than its proposed Bangsamoro substate will not address the decades-long Mindanao conflict as the group indicated that the substate proposal would be the least it can offer at the bargain table in terms of autonomy when it negotiates peace with the government in…