MANILA, Philippines – UK-based Standard Chartered Bank sees the country’s economic growth slowing down next year on the back of overheating concerns after posting a strong growth this year.

MANILA, Philippines – The agriculture sector must post a growth of more than five percent in the fourth quarter to achieve a flat growth for 2010. Otherwise, it will end up in negative territory, said University of Asia and the Pacific economist Dr. Rolando Dy.

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Catholic Church officials on Monday held a “consultative meeting” with the country’s largest organization of doctors regarding the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill currently pending in Congress.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Europe and the euro will never be the same. The debt crisis is forcing governments to rewrite some of the eurozone’s most fundamental rules. While some see the current turmoil as the slow-motion wreckage of the common currency bloc, others maintain Europe will have the political resolve to keep it together and…

MANILA, Philippines – Australian investments in the Philippines are expected to increase significantly in the next few years specifically in the mining, outsourcing, clean energy and environment, and to some extent in education and the manufacturing sector, according to Australian trade officials.

MANILA, Philippines – The Akbayan party-list group is calling for the ouster of Alfonso Cusi as director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) due to his alleged links to former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo and his being a “midnight appointee.”

MANILA, Philippines—Some 2,300 overseas Filipino workers on Monday urged the Supreme Court to act on their appeal in connection with the 27-year-old case they filed against a Texas-based giant company worth some $609-million in claims plus interest.

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has approved the maximum annual revenue of the country’s power transmission monopoly for the next five years. In a decision, the regulator approved the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ (NGCP) revenue requirement of P40.47 billion in 2011; P41.65 billion in 2012; P43.37 billion in 2013; P44.39 billion in 2014;…

MANILA, Philippines—The largest alliance of Protestant and non-Roman Catholic churches in the Philippines has thrown its support behind the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill as “a means to encourage Filipino couples to seriously consider how to plan their family.”

No real change or reform is possible under the existing government set-up. It looks like PNoy may not truly succeed in his promised pagbabago if he will just continue working under the present policies and practices prevailing in government service. The fact that even in government, family ties still run deep for many of his…

MANILA, Philippines—It is unlawful for private firms to interfere with the formation of labor unions by their workers, the Court of Appeals (CA) has reminded company owners and managers.

AN official of the United Nations Development Program sees the passage of a reproductive health bill as aiding the country in achieving the Millennium Development Goal of reducing the incidence of extreme poverty.

MANILA, Philippines—The minority bloc in the House of Representatives will push for the retention of the P880-million allocation for family health at this week’s bicameral conference committee on the P1.645-trillion national budget for next year.

MANILA, Philippines – Congress should investigate the rising number of HIV/AIDS cases in the country, a party-list lawmaker said Sunday.

MANILA, Philippines – Amid the reported surge in new HIV cases, lawmakers want to review implementation of the 12-year-old Philippine AIDS Prevention and Control Act.

MANILA, Philippines – Some 17 million Filipinos still do not have access to safe water while 25 percent of the population does not have “individual type of sanitation facilities,” an administration lawmaker said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Three students from Grace Christian College bagged the championship trophy in the Junior Division of the 4th International Young Mathematicians Convention (IYMIC) held in Lucknow, India over the weekend.

MANILA, Philippines – A group of religious organizations has urged lawmakers to speed up the passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill into law.

SAYS UN OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIME MANILA, Philippines—Ecstasy and methamphetamine are increasingly becoming the illegal drugs of choice in East and Southeast Asia, replacing heroin, opium, and cannabis, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in a report.

MATI, DAVAO ORIENTAL — The Health department is expanding health insurance coverage through a “zero payment” scheme for the poorest of the poor.

…as new industry development program hits delays AN OLD INCENTIVE PACKAGE for automotive exporters will be temporarily revived while work to upgrade a broader policy for car assembly remains stalled, officials last week said.

MANILA, Philippines—Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz on Monday advised would-be students, students, and graduates to consider taking up fisheries and agricultural courses or skills training and upgrading in these fields because job opportunities in these sectors abound and are “in-demand from 2011 and onward.”

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte, Philippines—Amid the heated and often emotional debates over reproductive health, the population officer of this city has expressed preference for teaching the Church-backed natural family planning method more than the government-supported artificial methods.

Exasperated over ever rising electricity bills, consumer protection groups yesterday sought the government takeover of the power industry to shield the public from further unwarranted hikes in local electricity rates which they said has become the world’s highest.

ILOILO CITY — A carpenter was electrocuted, while five of his fellow carpenters sustained severe burns in their bodies after a steel pipe they were installing at the Iglesia ni Kristo Church snapped into a high tension wire in Oton, Iloilo.

Hong Kong – A Filipino maid is challenging Hong Kong’s immigration laws in a bid to win the right to citizenship, a news report said Sunday.

MANILA—The Philippines and its Asean partners have agreed to work together in the implementation of industrial relations practices as embodied in the Asean Industrial Relation Guidelines adopted during the 21st Asean Labor Ministers Meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam last May 2010.

At least 14 distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) were repatriated from Malaysia last December 2, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Monday.

HONG KONG – Singapore and Shanghai rank top among Asian cities as the best real estate investment destinations, while Osaka and Manila are seen as the least ideal, an industry survey showed on Monday.