More than half (53 per cent) of the 215 million child labourers worldwide do hazardous work. While their number is increasing among older children, aged 15-17, progress is being made for younger children, aged 5-14, says the latest ILO report on child labour “Children in Hazardous Work”. Some of them succeed in leaving the dark…

QUEZON CITY, METRO MANILA –The Reproductive Health Practitioners of the Philippines (RHPP) is calling on lawmakers to finally approve the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) Bill.

Thirty years since the discovery of AIDS, the world appears to be ready to look at the epidemic with a more optimistic lens: the death rate is going down in many parts of the world, thanks to innovation in anti-retroviral treatment, and there’s a global decline in new infections. This week, in a high-level meeting…

PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino 3rd in a statement urged overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to avail themselves of the government’s newly launched P2-billion low-interest reintegration loan program.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer will voluntarily suspend US sales of a poultry-pumping additive, which is also sold in several other countries including the Philippines, after studies showed that it can leave traces of arsenic in chicken livers, the US government said on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila).

SEN. Antonio Trillanes 4th on Thursday called on the Senate to investigate the enhanced K+12 basic education program of the Department of Education (DepEd), saying that it would only worsen problems facing the country’s education sector.

Dear PAO, I am single and I want to know if I can get married with a married guy. He has been separated for like 10 years now. His ex-wife has 2 kids already with another man. Is it possible that we can be married even if my partner is already married before? Thanks. Ladyleo

THE Department of Public Works and Highways on Thursday said that the government will spend about P750 billion for infrastructure projects.

MANILA, Philippines – Power generation companies and distribution utilities (DUs) are now required to list on the local stock market as the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has approved the rules on the public offering of at least 15 percent of their shares to the public.

MANILA, Philippines – Institutional reforms at the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) are designed to transform the agency into a truly responsive, relevant, and efficient welfare arm of the government for the poor.

MANILA, Philippines – Exports for the second half of the year are expected to skyrocket and could even exceed the target growth rate of 10 percent, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines –  Five communist rebels were killed last Monday by their comrades in Negros Occidental as the New People’s Army (NPA) steps up its campaign dubbed “Kampanyang Paghilamon” against suspected military spies within its ranks, the Army said yesterday.

DALI — If P-Noy thinks he has problems, he should consider the challenges of feeding and giving decent shelter to over a billion people and eliminating poverty in such a country.

All five governor and six city mayors in the Caraga Region (Region XIII) have posted 100 percent compliance with the government-initiated Full Disclosure Policy (FDP) which requires them to make public the source, use and disposition of their incomes and share from Internal Revenue Allotments (IRA).

MANILA, Philippines – Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile had agreed that for now, Congress will only act on proposed amendments to restrictive economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution.

KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti delegation comprising officials from the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor(MSAL) is participating in the International Labor Conference which is currently ongoing in Geneva and will conclude on June 17. A report entitled, ‘Decent Work for Domestic Workers’ will be adopted during one of the sessions, detailing the…

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The regional wage board in Central Luzon recently issued a wage order providing for an additional P14 cost of living allowance (Cola) for minimum wage earners in the private sector in the region.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has lifted the ban on the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Bahrain.

I recently got an email from a friend with the subject, “100 Ways to Uncomplicate Your Life.” Reading through it, I found the majority of the tips to be practical and plain common sense. But the person who came up with them seems to know that these are the very things we take for granted,…

House adjourns with no vote on RH bill MANILA, Philippines – Lawmakers expect President Aquino to make a strong statement of the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) Bill during his State of the Nation Address in July.

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – The Cordillera Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWBP) here decided to hold in abeyance the granting of a wage increase for daily wage earners in the region because of the absence of a supervening event that could warrant the same to come out with a new wage order even before…

COST management remains the primary driving force behind local businesses’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, according to a survey by Grant Thornton. In a statement, Punongbayan & Araullo (P&A), the local partner of Grant Thornton, said the latest International Business Report (IBR) asked 150 Filipino business leaders regarding their CSR activities for the second time…

(Second of two parts. Part 1 appeared last Thursday.) WHAT does the government have to show us after a decade of power industry privatization under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or EPIRA? Power rates have increased all over the country. More rate hikes loom for consumers from various recovery schemes legitimized under the law.…

Dear PAO, Good day! I just want to be enlightened about the single parent issue. Are there provisions regarding this subject? Does the Civil Service Commission prohibit employment and continuance in service of single pregnant women? Currently, I am employed in the government sector and my fear is that they will terminate me on the…

MANILA, Philippines –  The Aquino administration will still strive to attain the seven percent to eight percent economic growth target this year by accelerating state spending, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said yesterday.

DESPITE the uproar of student groups and lawmakers over alleged abuse in collection of miscellaneous fees, the Commission on Higher Education said there is no need for a law governing the collection of such fees.

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Maranon Jr. has called on President Aquino to intervene to prevent a looming crisis in the sugar industry. The governor said sugar trading in Negros Occidental has stopped because of overproduction, and the sugar planters and producers, especially the small ones, will greatly suffer very soon. “We…

In our December 30, 2010 column, we raised 16 major concerns the then six months old Aquino government must attend to. As President Aquino is about to complete one year of his term, let’s review his performance on the 16 major concerns.

Vienna — Indonesia, a country which used to below the Philippines in being a site for business, has made the most progress in terms of competitiveness in recent years, but major challenges remain, the World Economic Forum said yesterday.

Consumer confidence continues its downward spiral in the second quarter with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) periodic confidence index (CI) falling to negative 24.2 percent from negative 23.1 percent the previous quarter.