THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) recently launched a four-pronged project aimed at developing models of climate change-resilient communities in agricultural and forested areas using updated scientific data on climate risk management under the Philippines Climate Change Adaptation Project Phase 1 (PhilCCAP1).

One extrajudicial killing recorded every week THE Aquino administration is no different from the previous Arroyo administration when it comes to human rights violations and extrajudicial killings, the Catholic Church said Sunday. In a report over the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), the conveners of the Religious Discernment Group denounced the recent spate…

MANILA, Philippines –  Despite the Department of Health (DOH)’s all-out campaign against firecrackers, the industry continues to flourish in the country as evidenced by the increasing number of firecracker manufacturers, dealers and retailers seeking license from the Firearms and Explosives Office (FEO) of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

CANCUN—UN-led climate negotiations in Mexico on Saturday approved a deal after two weeks of talks and a final two days of virtually non-stop diplomacy. Major powers including the United States, European Union, China, Japan and India all endorsed the deal. Bolivia was the only major holdout, but host Mexico overruled its objections.

REPRODUCTIVE health is now the focus of much talk as Congress starts hearings on RH bills. This article scans through the many arguments (pros and cons) of the debate. The sources cited below can be found easily via an Internet search.

History seems to be repeating itself in the case of the country’s love-hate relationship with nuclear energy. Amid frenzied lobbying in Congress by both the opposers, led by Greenpeace, and the energy players that are betting on nuclear as a safe, clean (read: good alternative to fossil fuels) means for building capacity while the specter…

Lung cancer remains the deadliest type of cancer globally accounting for more deaths than the combined mortality rate for other types of cancer, including breast, colon, kidney, liver, skin and prostate. Each year, 1.18 million people die as a result of the disease, equating to more than 3,000 deaths worldwide everyday or two deaths per…

Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz last Friday said the adoption by the country’s industries of voluntary codes of good practices boosts the efforts to wean industries from too much dependence on government for regulation and intervention even on minor issues that industries themselves, in cooperation with tripartite partners, can easily address.

President Aquino’s so-called “straight path” is nowhere to be discerned in a recent Transparency International (TI) survey that showed nearly half of Filipino respondents stated that the current government’s action against corruption was ineffective.

CEBU, Philippines – The Visayan Electric Company Employees Union is questioning why the order of the Department of Labor and Employment for a compulsory arbitration between VECO and the union has not reached the National Labor Relations Commission 7 until now.

MANILA, Philippines –  The Philippines is expected to solidify its position as a global leader in business process outsourcing (BPO) activities once Congress passes a special law securing personal data privacy, House Deputy Majority Leader and Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo said over the weekend.

THE immediate passage of a measure implementing a comprehensive insurance scheme that will cover the damage caused by natural disasters has been sought in the House of Representatives. Rep. Teodorico Haresco Jr. of Ang Kasangga party-list was referring to his House Bill 2672, which states that no comprehensive motor vehicle insurance policy will be issued…

In the past months, experts have warned that a power crisis looms next year, with Mindanao to be hit hard together with Luzon, including Metro Manila. The latest warning came from an official of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, who said that with unstable supply and no new generating capacity expected soon, the…

MANILA, Philippines –  The multi-sector Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC) is expecting the number of HIV/AIDS cases in the country to reach 46,000 by 2015 if no effective intervention measures will be implemented soon.

MANILA, Philippines –  Life begins at fertilization. Having agreed to this principle with the Catholic church, the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) has asked the Department of Health (DOH) for an inventory of contraceptives used in its family planning program on fears that some may contain abortifacients.  

THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said over the week end that it would prioritize processing allocations to scholarships and hospitalizations from the P70-million worth of Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of each member of the House of Representatives. “The DBM is giving priority to the processing if allocations for scholarships and hospitalizations because…

MANILA, Philippines –  The Philippines has called for national, bilateral and multilateral policies and programs to promote and protect the rights of persons with disabilities.

The National Power Corp. (Napocor) needs at least P3 billion to rehabilitate the Agus-Pulangi hydropower plants in Mindanao to increase their capacities by 100-200 megawatts (MW).

Noting that a growing number of Filipinos in China face illegal recruitment, and are often charged with overstaying and drug trafficking, Vice President Jejomar Binay on Sunday urged Filipinos there to follow the laws of their host country as well.

The Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) has frowned on the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.’s (PDIC) claim that the country’s rural banking industry is growing weaker.

THE Philippine Medical Association (PMA), the umbrella organization of medical doctors in the country, over the weekend urged the Department of Health (DOH) to study the possibility that certain “abortifacients” may be present in some inventories of the department’s family planning program.

MANILA, Philippines –  Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, chairman of the Senate committee on agriculture and food, said he will push for the immediate implementation of several measures to strengthen the Philippine export banana industry which is now encountering problems with Iran.

LAOAG CITY, Philippines – The mobile hearings of the Supreme Court on Tuesday led to the early termination of about 100 criminal and civil cases in various courts in Ilocos Norte.

TOKYO—Fishing nations have agreed to hold their catches of young bluefin tuna in the central and western Pacific in 2011 and 2012 below the 2002-04 annual averages, press reports said Sunday.

MANILA, Philippines—Self-regulation is the way to go for the country’s booming business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, according to Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz who witnessed the signing of a voluntary code of good practices by the BPO industry of Davao City recently.

Critics say the revamped National Human Rights Commission has been too passive in exercising its mandate to sound a warning on social injustice The overly cautious approach of the new National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has left the impression with some rights groups that it has been transformed from an independent body into a government…

MANILA, Philippines – A total of 48 policemen across the country were kicked out of the Philippine National Police (PNP) for human rights violation for the last three years.

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) – The Philippines today signed the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of Republic Act No. 9745, otherwise known as the Anti-Torture Law, for its effective enforcement.

TO reduce the country’s debt and attain the millennium development goals (MDGs), the House Special Committee on Millennium Development Goals passed a joint resolution creating the joint legislative-executive council on debt-for-MDG swap which aims to pursue a debt-reduction strategy and resource-generation scheme for sustainable human development.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION (ITUC) ITUC Online 189/101210 ITUC Statement on Human Rights Day Brussels, 10 December 2010 (ITUC OnLine): Fundamental human rights are under attack in every region of the world, and respect for workers’ rights in particular is being undermined as working people are increasingly forced to bear the burden of the global…