LEGAZPI CITY—(UPDATE) Masbate police clarified that two people died and one was seriously wounded (not three fatalities as earlier reported by the Bicol police) when an explosive device they were making blew up Sunday in Barangay (village) Panique, Aroroy, a mining town in Masbate.

MANILA, Philippines – Motor vehicle assemblers were caught by surprise of a plan of the Board of Investments (BoI) to reissue the Automotive Exports Program (AEP) or Executive Order 244 to continue granting a special incentives package for exporters of completely built up (CBU) packs even as the agency is still having a hard time…

CEBU/DAVAO — Restless over prospects of more “hot money” weighing on the foreign exchange rate and forex-sensitive sectors of the economy, businessmen and exporters in the Visayas and Mindanao have resumed pressing policymakers to drop their wait-and-see stance and adopt active measures to shield the peso.

Part I “We discovered that you can spend for the education. But if a child is abused at home, she cannot learn. There is money being put in education, but if 30% of children in each classroom are being abused, how will they learn? We must educate them to protect themselves and help those who…

More than 25,000 Filipino student nurses now in the United Kingdom have benefited from a study and work program under the UK Borders and Immigration rules and many of these nurses have found opportunities which have allowed them to become permanent residents.

REGULATORS want to introduce a “three-in-one” product to the fledgling microinsurance market, capitalizing on the Filipinos’ penchant for cheap, convenient products and to boost protection for the poor.

MANILA, Philippines—Nobody ends up in the slammer for opposing the reproductive health (RH) bill. House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman Sunday twitted Catholic Church leaders for claiming that bishops, priests and laity would risk jail time if only to stop the controversial measure.

CHICAGO – Slight differences in five amino acids in a protein called HLA-B may explain why certain people resist the human immunodeficiency virus, US researchers said on Thursday in a study that lends new clues about how to make a vaccine to prevent AIDS.

First it was the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco); now it’s the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (Wesm) and the National Power Corp. (Napocor); another time, it will be the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP); and then it’ll be Meralco’s turn again. The power rate gouging just goes on and on, constantly keeping our power…

Church leaders anticipate a head-on collision with pro-choice President Aquino and supporters in Congress of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill with Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal comparing the bishops’ stand against the bill to the position they took during the People Power revolt in 1986 that led to the toppling of former President Ferdinand Marcos.

The problem with our tax system, a tax lawyer once told me, is that it is too complicated… even for tax lawyers. The lawyer explained that the BIR issues countless rulings and interpretations of tax laws that only they know about. This makes it difficult not to negotiate with BIR examiners because the window for…

The “talking points and proposals” advanced by the Loyola School of Theology and the John J Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues supposedly for the use of the proponents and opponents of the RH bill in formulating an amended version that will serve the best interest of the Filipinos may be useful in the…

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet, Philippines—The province has more reasons now to beef up its disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation measures following an assessment that found it as the country’s second most vulnerable area to climate hazards, next to Metro Manila.

A notice of strike was “served” by militant youth and students groups disclosing that a nationwide protest action is brewing in major universities and colleges across the country in protest of budget cut among State Universities and Colleges.

MONTALBAN, Rizal — Four hauler trucks containing waste materials at the vicinity of Barangay Macabud here were accosted by Montalban policemen.

The Child Protection Unit (CPU) Philippines said feminization of overseas labor, alcohol and use of illegal drugs pushed up incest incidents in the Philippines to 33 percent of total child abuse cases recorded in 2009.

Part one BELOW is the keynote speech I delivered during the National Conference on Information Technology Education with the theme “Building an IT Enabled Nation” on October 21, 2010 at La Carmela de Boracay Convention Center, Station 2, Boracay, Malay, Aklan. The speech is 1,852 words long and will take up three columns. So today’s…

Half a billion people can’t be wrong. It is mind-boggling that after a mere six years of launching the social networking site, Facebook has over 500 million users. For many, it is a useful tool for keeping in touch with friends all over the globe, perhaps even making new ones, and is another instance of…

MANILA, Philippines – Seventeen-year-old “Jennylyn” never even had the chance to mourn the death of her mother because on the very night of the funeral, she was taken by her uncle and was raped repeatedly, in different places, for hours.

MANILA, Philippines – Etiquette is the science of living. It embraces ethics. It is honor.   — Emily Post Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.    — Arthur Schopenhauer The recent troubles encountered by President Noynoy C. Aquino’s Assistant Secretary for Communications Mai Mislang over having tweeted that Vietnam wine “sucks” while the…

MANILA, Philippines – Eight of the 13 stay-in grocery workers perished in an early morning fire that hit a two-story commercial establishment in Cagayan de Oro City yesterday.

RIYADH: An increasing number of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) have run away from their employers in Saudi Arabia, according to a non-governmental organization that looks after migrant workers from the Philippines.

PASIG City – Only sixth sense can help overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) succeed in business: common sense. That’s according to Miguel Bolos Jr., a former OFW who now runs a shopping mall and spa after a quarter of a century of working in Saudi Arabia.

The eyes and ears of the world are now on Korea for the G20 summit on Nov. 11-12 in Seoul.  What is the Philippine interest in this event?  At first glance, there is not much to indicate that the Philippines is represented, much less invited.  The president of neighboring Indonesia regularly sits at the summit. …

MANILA, Philippines – The plastic and glass manufacturing plants of diversifying conglomerate San Miguel Corporation have settled their labor-management conflicts.

A ruling by the Supreme Court (SC) affirmed the ruling of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC), directing the national flagcarrier Philippine Airlines, Inc. (PAL) to give separation pay to a former employee who contested her dismissal for incompetence.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) has formed a fact-finding committee to conduct an investigation into the case of a Filipina household service worker who was allegedly subjected to verbal abuse by Romulo Salud, the labor attaché currently posted in Hong Kong.

AQUINO HIT FOR UNWARRANTED BACKSLAPPING President Aquino’s backslapping on government officials for doing their job in preparation for super typhoon “Juan” received criticism from an Asian security risk intelligence firm, saying that it was unwarranted since there is no significant headway in government efforts to soften the impact on the country of frequent natural calamities.

The report a while ago about the Philippines being one of the lowest ranking countries on the index of Transparency International and tagged as “highly corrupt” should be no great surprise. Outspoken Bishop Joel Baylon of Legazpi and the diocesan clergy said in a strongly worded Pastoral Letter that “there has been an erosion of…