P6 billion is needed annually to provide a monthly subsistence pension to all Filipino senior citizens. But only a small fraction of that amount is available for 2011, the social welfare agency admitted on Saturday. Amid grumblings from some senior citizens’ groups, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) sought understanding for its “selective”…

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The Philippines has the highest incidence of depression in Southeast Asia. In 2004, over 4.5 million cases of depression were reported in the country. Three percent of Filipinos are clinically diagnosed as depressed. Today, 8.27 million Filipinos suffer from some form of mental disorder, including depression.

With the start of the “ber” months, a toxic watchdog has called on the authorities to test toys for harmful chemicals to ensure that only safe toys are offered for sale in the build-up toward Christmas gift-giving.

DAVAO CITY—The Mindanao Fruit Industry Council (MinFruit) here has asked Malacañang to devise a policy that would approximate the generic drugs law in procuring agricultural chemical inputs to bring their prices sharply down and make agricultural products more affordable for consumers.

PHILIPPINE government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCS) have recently been in the limelight on the issue of the compensation of their respective boards and management who are largely appointed by the incumbent administration and the measures of their performance.  By the term “government-owned or -controlled corporation,” straightaway there are many issues that come to the fore…

Next week, our country will be hosting the Mining Philippines 2010 Conference and Exhibit which targets CEOs and managers of mining companies, heads of exploration projects, investors and financiers, industry analysts and economists, service providers and suppliers and government regulators. Like a pimp, this conference will definitely entice prospective investors to covet our mines and…

MANILA, Philippines – Senator Edgardo J. Angara has deplored the steady decline in the literacy rates as well as the quality of basic education in the country.

We are an industry leader as a supplier to several food manufacturers. This may sound easy and too basic for most of our managers, but just the same, it appears that we just can’t avoid tardiness despite the fact that we have already suspended several employees. The trouble is that the suspensions became a self-inflicted…

Libby Sartain wrote in her book HR from the heart: Companies that want to encourage long-term relationships with their employees do everything they can do to help them build futures that count. This means not only comprehensive and easily affordable health care, but opportunities to build financial security, opportunities to provide for retirement income, and…

Demand for residential properties is likely to stay as long as interest rates remain in the low single digits, a real estate consultancy firm said. Jones Lang LaSalle Leechiu (JLLL) said the supply of residential units is “just right” for the current level of housing demand as the low interest rates make condominiums more accessible…

MANILA, Philippines—The energy chief has himself admitted that he was in the dark about the actual extent of the government’s electrification program.

Editor’s note: The fifth part of this series discussed how direct subsidy programs of the government for the poor may be flawed, and how the implementation of the PhilHealth program is lagging because of lack of funds on the part of local governments, among others. Last of six parts Last year, the National Economic and…

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The newly unionized workers of Radio Mindanao Network-Davao picketed their radio station on Thursday to protest the dismissal of station manager Dodong Solis.

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Audit has found that the continuous granting of the P20,000 per diem given per meeting to the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority’s board of directors in 2009 did not have permission from the Office of the President.

CEBU, Philippines – Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III is alarmed by the program implemented by the Department of Health (DOH) providing syringes to drug users hoping to pre-vent the spread of the dreaded HIV-AIDS.

MANILA, Philippines—A group of medical practitioners, finding the P32 billion proposed national budget for health too small, has put forward an alternative P90-billion spending plan for the Department of Health (DOH).

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino has referred the wish list of local businessmen to the Cabinet and other agencies for possible action, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) said.

MANILA, Philippines – Former housing officials, including some members of the board of trustees of the Pag-ibig Fund, received condominium units from troubled real estate developer Globe Asiatique, Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The country’s personal consumption expenditures (PCE), which comprised 80.5 percent of total expenditures, rose slightly in 2009 from the previous year’s level, National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) secretary general Romulo Virola said in a report.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) announced yesterday that it would continue to extend cash assistance to the poorest of the poor as part of the poverty reduction program of President Aquino.

MANILA, Philippines – Aside from the P200-million pork barrel fund for each senator in the 2011 national budget, lawmakers who were appointed to chair the 34 oversight and ad hoc committees in the Senate will get millions of pesos in additional funds.

OUR DAYS are numbered. And no one is spared from the certainty of his or her own mortality. The thing is, some societies just get to stay that much longer here on earth than others. The typical Filipino can expect to live to about 70 years. Does that seem long enough for you?

PEOPLE WITH Disability or PWD. I do not know if this is the politically correct term to refer to the disabled or handicapped sector, but the basic truth is that these are the people we must take great care to consider when designing buildings particularly in public areas. They are the VIPs in our society,…

MOTHER TONGUE Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) is the use of more than two languages for literacy and instruction. It starts from where the learners are and from what they already know. This means learning to speak, read, write and think in their first language or L1 (Cebuano, Tagalog, Ilocano, Waray, etc.) and also teaching mathematics,…

THE NEW SWS report on poverty in June 2010. Last Monday, through BusinessWorld as usual, Social Weather Stations reported Self-Rated Poverty (SRP) at 50 percent of households, and Self-Rated Food Poverty (SRFP) at 38 percent of households, as of its Second Quarter Survey of June 25-28, 2010 (nationwide, 1,200 households, 3 percent sampling error margin).

ROSARIO, Cavite—Alex Secoya’s two-month stint at the factory left him with a fractured nose bridge, a swollen face, six stitches on his left arm and a fractured rib bone. He said he would have wanted to return to work if the company had not fired him after the accident.

MANILA, Philippines—The 30,000 sitios all over the country groping in the dark cannot expect light soon after Malacañang thumbed down the proposed P2 billion electrification project of the National Electrification Administration (NEA).

The Philippines’ ranking as a competitive economy climbed two notches over the last year mostly because of improved scores on macroeconomic environment, labor market efficiency and financial market development, according to the latest World Economic Forum (WEF) report.

EXECUTIVE Order (EO) 7 issued by President Benigno Aquino 3rd cannot cover the government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) and government financial institutions (GFIs) that are exempted by law from the Salary Standardization Law, Sen. Franklin Drilon said Thursday.