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.

IF the country is to end hunger, a goal that has been elusive for years, the Philippines must post a long-term sustained economic growth of at least 6 percent to 7 percent, according to the Washington-based think tank International Food Policy Research Institute (Ifpri).

MANILA, Philippines — President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III will issue his first State of the Nation Address in front of an incomplete Congress on July 26.

MANILA, Philippines — Who says there is no life after retirement? In an effort to provide employment or additional sources of income, the government is now offering free skills training not only for young Filipinos, but older people as well, Pastor Guiao, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) director general, said even retirees could…

MANILA, Philippines—To address food insecurity, more investments must be made in sustainable smallholder agriculture, said more than 60 representatives of organizations of small farmers, fishers, indigenous peoples, rural youth and women, and rural development NGOs from 13 countries in Asia and the Pacific.

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The loans being offered by microfinance institutions are simply not enough to uplift the lives of the poorest of the poor, according to a ranking official of the Microfinance Council of the Philippines (MCPI).

SOMEBODY SENT ME A COPY OF A 2009 decision of the Supreme Court’s Third Division that surprisingly did not seem to generate the interest it deserved, particularly from credit card holders.

WE WOULD LIKE TO CORRECT THE statement made about PhilHealth’s coverage in an advertorial by the Insular Life titled “Invest to manage the risk of adverse health.” (Inquirer, 7/1/10) The ad placed PhilHealth’s coverage at about a third or a little over 31 million of 94 million Filipinos.

MANILA, Philippines—Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin has filed another version of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill that includes mandated government care for those with HIV and AIDS, as well as those suffering from complications from abortion.

THE NATIONAL Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) has denied the appeal of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) to increase the P22 daily minimum wage hike for Metro Manila workers that took effect last July 1.

High court black hole in transparency drive First of Two Parts GOOD GOVERNANCE is the solemn promise of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III. Transparency and respect for access to information could enable it; the rule of law, or the prosecution of cases built on evidence before the courts, could assure it endures.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said unemployment may have peaked in the OECD area in May 2010 (having reached 8.6%), but that nations in the region will have to create about 17 million news jobs to return employment levels back to where they were before the financial crisis.

A one-year-old girl died in Manila Sunday after drinking a glass of toxic silver cleanser. The parents, claiming it was an accident, refused to let the cops investigate. And you know what? The police let them be, after the father signified in writing disinterest in the child’s demise.

From day one of the P-Noy government, a raging controversy has swirled around the non-career positions in the civil service in view of the issuance of memorandum circular No. 1 declaring all of them vacant. The controversy revolves around the question of whether non-career employees in the civil service enjoy security of tenure.

MANILA, Philippines -The number of Filipino seafarers held captive by pirates has increased with the latest hijacking of a chemical tanker with 18 Filipino crewmembers on Sunday, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Loren Legarda urged the Department of Health (DOH) yesterday to ensure that government hospitals nationwide provide a senior citizens’ ward in accordance with Republic Act 9994, the Expanded Senior Citizens’ Act of 2009.

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino will not move legal holidays falling on a weekend as former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had done, Malacañang said yesterday.

Health Secretary Enrique Ona admitted he was reluctant to accept the position because he was very happy with his life as a “clinician.”