TACLOBAN CITY—The International Labor Organization (ILO) is taking a close look at the plight of thousands of working children in four provinces in a continuing program to end child labor in the Philippines.

Call CenterLAST week, news came out of an anti-outsourcing bill proposed by Sen. Charles Schumer. The bill, pending approval of the US legislative body, suggests to have US-based companies be charged with a 25-cent tax for every call made to a call center based outside the US. The main goals of this bill are to…

So-called promo meals some restaurants offer have prompted the Department of Social Welfare and Development to fine-tune its enforcement of the 20-percent discount for senior citizens.

A Filipina worker in west Australia has dropped a suit that she filed against a Perth franchise of global fast food giant McDonald’s for causing her alleged “forced abortion,” and accepted instead a confidential settlement, according to a report posted Thursday on an Australian news site.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — With the three-month fish aggregating device ban now in effect, the government has offered an alternative measure that would allow Filipino fishers to catch tuna in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a tuna industry official said yesterday.

THE WORLD Bank Group’s International Finance Corp. (IFC) is drafting stronger standards for environmental and social protection that projects needing its help will have to observe, Greg Radford, IFC environmental and social development director, told reporters in a briefing yesterday.

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Second of three parts Republic Act (RA) 6713, or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, enacted on February 20, 1989, is crystal about the inclusion of justices and judges among those who should file, and publicly disclose their statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs). According to the…

UPHOLDING consumers’ rights, the Supreme Court (SC) ruled that Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has no right to cut its services and impose additional charges on its consumers suspected of tampering with their electric meters without sufficient evidence to prove it.

MANILA, Philippines – Former Pangasinan congressman Mark Cojuangco urged President Aquino yesterday to consider reviving the $2.3-billion Bataan nuclear plant to bring down the cost of electricity.

MANILA, Philippines – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) upgraded anew yesterday the Philippines’ economic outlook for this year after the stronger-than-expected gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first quarter of the year.

Career civil executive Atty. Ramon G. Cuyco was properly warned. Joining the Customs Bureau in Jan. 2003 would be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. He had faced heavy pressure before, at the finance department, in exposing a giant firm’s P1.1-billion and a leading lawyer’s P48-million false tax credits. Yet he was entering…

MANILA, Philippines – Newly appointed Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala assumed office last Monday with the promise of a better life for farmers and fisherfolk.

THE World Bank has listed the Philippines as among the world’s most restrictive countries in allowing foreign capital into the economy.

MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III will lead the oath-taking of 11 new government officials in Malacanang on Thursday.

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Interestingly, the Federal Constitutional Court of the Federal Republic of Germany ruled (on March 3, 2009) that the use of voting machines must “meet the constitutional requirements of the principle of the public nature of elections.” The principal basis for this ruling was that “all essential steps of an election… [must be] subject to the…

With inflation slowing to 3.9% in June, Philippine monetary authorities are confident inflation for 2010 and next year will not go beyond its targets. I agree. But inflation should be the least of the new administration’s worries. With the global sentiment turning in favor of deficit reduction and against further stimulus, the risk of reigniting…

GENERAL SANTOS — Fresh produce giant Dole Philippines, Inc. (Dolefil) yesterday denied that it does not comply with labor standards as shown by an audit of Societe Generalle de Surveillance (SGS), saying it was protesting the findings that could deny the firm a global certification on social acceptability. DOLE claims to be the world’s largest…

THE COUNTRY’S rice inventory at the start of June this year was up by 25% from the same month last year, data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) show.

THE PHILIPPINES restricts foreign direct investments (FDI) from entering into more sectors than most of the 86 other economies covered by a World Bank report released yesterday.

Stronger protection for domestic workers might soon be a reality after the 99th ILC 2010 GENEVA, Switzerland – Thirteen-year-old Lica de Guzman sang at the makeshift stage at the Place des Nations, during a gathering to commemorate Domestic Workers’ Rights.

HONG KONG – The IMF raised Thursday its global growth forecast for this year despite renewed financial turbulence stemming from an European debt crisis that has sharply raised potential risks.

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(Part 1 of a series on How Congress & Local Gov’t can Meet UNMDG) The official UN definition of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) strategy incorporates gender equality and women’s empowerment prospective. Thus, all targets and indicators would be gender-responsive and “sex-disaggregated”, enabling the “concerns and experiences of women”, as well as men, to be…

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino will keep pork barrel allocations but will make sure they are equitably distributed and wisely spent.

MANILA, Philippines – Senior citizens found to be abusing the privileges granted to them under the Expanded Senior Citizens Law could be imprisoned for a minimum of six months and fined up to P100,000. 

MANILA, Philippines – The author of a law rationalizing the country’s holidays yesterday cautioned Malacañang against its plan to review what it called holiday economics policy of the Arroyo administration, saying that the President’s advisers are misinformed about the issue.

MANILA, Philippines – Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras vowed that his first order of business is to prevent power interruptions.

WASHINGTON—The International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised its forecast for global growth this year, reflecting a stronger-than-expected first half, while warning that financial- market turmoil has increased the risks to the recovery.