SKYROCKETING OIL PRICES FUEL DISCONTENT Noise barrage and massive protest actions, which used to be the pursuit of President Aquino and his allies to gain attention, will now be trained on Aquino himself and the mass actions are expected to build up until Labor Day on May 1 when a massive rally is planned to…

MANILA, Philippines – The Board of Investments (BOI) announced first quarter investments surged by 205 percent to P110 billion as energy projects continued to pour in.

MANILA, Philippines – Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) has joined the list of local manufacturers which will temporarily suspend their local manufacturing operations due to a shortage of parts from Japan.

MANILA, Philippines – The government may earn up to P70 billion from the value-added tax (VAT) on oil this year because of higher crude prices, according to estimates from the Department of Finance (DOF).

FORT MAGSAYSAY, Nueva Ecjia, Philippines  — President Aquino belied yesterday reports of a looming rice crisis and insisted that concerned government agencies claimed that the unrest in North Africa, the Middle East and the disaster in Japan could only affect the prices of food.

CREDIT CAP: The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas stands firm on its position that letting market forces determine pricing serves public interest best and is the most effective way of allocating credit.

MANILA, Philippines –  Workers in Metro Manila may receive a much-awaited increase in their take-home pay, but this can happen only after Labor Day.

DETROIT—Ford Motor Co. says that its Asia-Pacific operations may have to slow or stop production later this month because of parts shortages from Japan.

Labor Day happens in about a fortnight. It’s supposedly a day to celebrate the contributions of workers to the advancement of societies all over the world and commemorate gains the labor movement has won through the years. Of course it is also a day meant to put the spotlight on the fate of workers and…

THE prices of commercial rice might increase by P2 a kilo as a result of rising fuel prices, the National Food Authority warned Tuesday.

MANILA, Philippines – The non-stop increase in fuel prices now warrants a review of the current minimum wage, majority of the members of the National Capital Region (NCR) wage board voted on Tuesday.

LET’S help the Palace with some numbers. Not impeachment votes in the Senate, Mala-cañang’s No. 1 worry, but something that really matters to ordinary Filipinos who are the avowed bosses of President Benigno Aquino 3rd: hunger and poverty figures.

SALES abroad of Philippine-made goods in February grew at their slowest pace in over a year mostly because of weak demand for electronic products, the government reported Tuesday.

Among the recent international business indicators, the World Bank’s annual Doing Business survey is likely to be the most influential. The survey represents information from responses of investors, public officials, and knowledgeable people concerning how countries permit business to operate and to grow. It grew out of work from that development institution’s private sector arm,…

MERCHANDISE exports growth eased to single digits in February, a slowdown both government and industry officials said reflected a normalization from last year’s rebound.

BECAUSE of the increasing cases of job mismatch in the country, the Commission of Higher Education (CHED) on Tuesday unveiled its list of “priority” courses recommended for incoming college students this academic year.

Rep. Arnel Ty of the party-list group LPG Marketers’ Association (LPG/MA) says only a third of college graduates manage to pass government licensing examinations. Citing Professional Regulation Commission statistics, Ty said that out of the 345,182 college and technical school graduates who went through professional eligibility examinations in 2010, only 125,419 or 36.3 percent passed.

When the new Social Weather Stations survey showed that more Filipinos were experiencing hunger and poverty under his administration, P-Noy couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The nationwide survey that covered 1,200 respondents from March 4 to 7 showed that 20.5 percent of the families polled said they experienced hunger, and that 51 percent considered…

THE crisis in the Middle East areas could worsen the country’s unemployment situation and the overall economy, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) warned on Tuesday.

MANILA, Philippines –  Two lawmakers have proposed that the minimum monthly pension of retired private sector workers from the Social Security System (SSS) be increased to P7,000.

MANILA, Philippines –  Following persistent requests for a similar government subsidy, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala yesterday disclosed that farmers and fisherfolk have been included in the fuel subsidy program.

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MANILA, Philippines –  Filipino household service workers (HSWs) employed overseas may soon enjoy higher pay. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) yesterday reported that the government is looking at the possibility of raising the minimum salary rate of HSWs deployed abroad.

MANILA, Philippines –  The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) urged yesterday member states and development partners to support access to reproductive health for women.

One of President Aquino’s allies in the Senate finds credibility on a possible public unrest caused by falling rice production and rising prices which was reportedly contained in a National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) report submitted to President Aquino.

These last two week, I have been in Italy to preside over graduation ceremonies of the Ateneo School of Government in Milan and Rome. In the last three years, the ASoG (of which I am Dean) has been implementing, with partners, a Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship Training Program for migrant Filipinos in Italy. We have…

Last week former President Gloria Macapagal rroyo—in one of her first TV interviews after leaving the Palace—publicly expressed her doubts that she would get fair treatment from the Aquino administration.

THE World Bank on Monday identified the Philippines as one of nine countries suffering from multiple forms of political and criminal violence that have kept thousands of their people poor and unemployed.

MANILA, Philippines – Many children from Sarangani Province, Iloilo City, Surigao del Sur, and Batangas are never at peace. They recalled that the lullabies that put them to sleep are often gunshots.

THE Aquino administration has released nearly half of its entire budget for the year during the first quarter to shore up economic activity.