MANILA, Philippines –  The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) reported yesterday that prices of some basic food products including canned meat and noodles have gone up by as much as 10 percent, while the prices of bread and flour are also expected to increase.

A friend was visiting from Washington. He’d first been here in 2001 scouting around for where to put a call center. It was to be India or the Philippines. “Americans just wouldn’t fit in in India; here they’d be right at home”. So the Philippines was it. He established a call center here with 150…

MANILA, Philippines – Recognizing that child sexual abuse and exploitation are social realities in our country and constitute two of the most severe violations against the rights of children, Presidential Proclamation No. 731 issued February 5, 1996 has declared the second week of February every year as National Awareness Week for the Prevention of Child…

President Aquino’s decision to drop the Responsible Parenthood (RP) bill from his list of priority legislative agenda for the first Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) he would convene is not an act of betrayal to the women’s groups, Malacañang implied yesterday.

THE forest industry and the academe on Tuesday warned that the worsening problem of illegal logging will escalate if the government will not repeal and fine-tune Executive Order 23, Malacañang’s total logging ban.

THE Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Wednesday is now working on the mass repatriation of the third batch of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Kuwait after successfully sending home 114 OFWs last month.

THE Philippines is no longer the world’s biggest importer of rice as the government lower its importation targets to less than a million metric tons (MT) this year.

ZAMBOANGA CITY: Emphasizing that an empowered woman claims her rights as much as her obligations, various woman leaders urged Muslim women religious scholars (the aleemat) to assert their role on issues affecting Muslim communities in the Philippines.

MANILA, Philippines –  The government is looking at creating an economic zone similar to the ones being administered by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) but solely for local enterprises.

In April 2009, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) formed the Technical Panel on General Education (TPGE). The TPGE was tasked to restudy CHED’s General Education Curriculum (GEC) in the light of what the Presidential Task Force for Education (PTFE) had recommended as the “Philippine Main Education Highway.” In particular, the TPGE was mandated to…

MANILA, Philippines – Bureau of Immigration (BI) Acting Commissioner Ronaldo Ledesma the other day said that there are 19,121 foreign students currently taking up college courses in the country, which is 768 higher than the previous school year.

MANILA, Philippines – Despite the continued exodus of Filipino skilled workers and professionals, the Philippines has not taken adequate measures to prevent it from affecting the country’s over-all economic development, a study of the University of the Philippines (UP) showed.

MANILA, Philippines – The departments of Education (DepEd), Budget and Management (DBM) and the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP), have signed a pact that provides DepEd and provincial governments are to share 50-50 in the costs of constructing public school buildings.

(Part II of a series on 25 Years of Non-Political UNESCO projects for the Philippines and Asia) Since he was elected last May, President Benigno C. Aquino III has not activated the UNESCO National Commission. Even before election, a complete list of experts has been carefully studied by Committee Chairmen Dr. Florangel Braid (Communication), Felice…

MANILA, Philippines –  Taiwan has started hiring workers from Thailand and Indonesia to replace Filipinos in retaliation for the Philippine government’s deportation of 14 Taiwanese to China, a source said yesterday.

Narcotic agents recently admit drug trafficking syndicates diversify into recruiting call center agents and social network members as drug mules.

LUCENA CITY – Quezon Governor David Suarez has ordered provincial, city and municipal government agencies and non-government organizations (NGOs) in this province to create a child labor committee under the Quezon Council for the Protection of Children. Suarez said the creation of child labor committees is pursuant to Republic Act No. 9231 which provides special…

Manila (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) – Bad news for lovers: On Valentine’s Day, the Department of Health (DoH) of the Philippines won’t be around to give away free condoms to couples assailed by temptations.

Some 462 former promoters of local manpower agency Temps and Staffers Inc. complained against TSI’s alleged unfair labor practices.

CEBU, Philippines – Aside from financial assistance it will grant to the so-called “poorest of the poor,” the Department of Social Welfare and Development will be allowing beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4P’s) a P10,000 loan to start a livelihood.

A program aimed at overcoming malnutrition primarily among underprivileged children, particularly pre-school and elementary school children, will be launched on Friday, Feb. 11, by its primary advocate, Sen. Edgardo Angara. Called “Oh My Gulay!” (OMG), the program will encourage families to plant and eat vegetables, and be more concerned with nutrition. OMG will get schools…

MANILA, Philippines –  Philippine Airlines (PAL) said yesterday scheduled meeting between the airline management and its ground crew union at Malacañang tomorrow is part of the Palace dispute resolution mechanism and not a negotiation for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

MANILA, Philippines –  President Aquino has always been for responsible parenthood, Malacañang reiterated yesterday.

TO shield investors from local governments, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is pushing for a legislated magna carta for investors as well as the establishment of economic zones for domestic manufacturers.

More to the Point MANILA, Philippines – The debate continues on whether the government should put its limited resources on the Enhanced K-12 Basic Education Program which will add two years to our present 10-year basic education. The enhanced K-12 program as many now know, will have kindergarten, 6 years of elementary education, four years…

Competition from neighbors expected to rise MANILA, Philippines—Business process outsourcing (BPO) companies operating in the Philippines will have to innovate and start offering higher-value services to clients if the country is to be able to maximize the industry’s potential for growth in the next five years.

Japan is making it easier for foreign nurses and caregivers to pass the licensure examinations, according to the Japanese embassy in Manila.

SAMAL, Bataan: About 90 percent of the total number of farmers in the country is still dependent on the expensive imported inorganic fertilizers with only a little over 10 percent practicing organic farming, a leader of a nongovernmental organization said over the weekend.

The government should start measures to halt labor export as it would need skills and talents to keep the economy growing, according to a University of the Philippines (UP) study.