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.”

Cooperatives have been more resilient to the deepening global economic and jobs crisis than other sectors. Report from Sweden. Another call is coming in from a customer to a modern call centre in Malmö in southern Sweden. The caller wants to discuss insurance, and the call centre agent, sitting at their terminal and speaking through…

THE GOVERNMENT needs to help enhance workers’ productivity as part of efforts to improve employment to lift more people out of poverty, the new director of the Country Office of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Manila said in a statement yesterday.

THE remittances of overseas Filipinos were 2.4 percent lower in peso terms in April as the value of the peso went up and gained on the US dollar by 7.4 percent.

DUE TO CHANGES IN PROGRAM MANILA, Philippines—There has been a 70- to 90-percent drop in the number of placements for foreign caregivers or nannies over the past three months following changes in Immigration Canada’s Foreign Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP), it was learned Tuesday.

Striking workers who were displaced numbering to about 500 have sought the help of President Aquino to revoke the P14 billion redevelopment project of the harbor forged during the time of President Arroyo which aimed to privatize the whole sea port.

(Continued from yesterday) The Peculiar Autonomy of SUCs The problem with ‘autonomy’ is that it has different meanings. But one meaning of ‘autonomy’ in regard to SUCs that sets them apart from private HEIs is the fact that SUCs are not covered by the Manual of Regulations for Private Higher Education. This alone is important…

The new country director of the International Labor Organization (ILO) on Monday said that he was backing labor policies of the Aquino administration, whose fight against poverty and joblessness would be carried out by “productivity and employment growth.”

How can we become smarter? Are there scientific ways to increase our brain’s capacity? Let’s find out. According to Dr. Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen, a study shows that, on the average, a person’s intelligence (measured by IQ) decreases by five percent every 10 years. But this is just the average. The good news is…

MANILA, Philippines – Japanese manufacturing firm Terumo Corp. will be transferring two of its factories in Europe to the Philippines, thereby expanding its existing multi-billion investment in the country.

MANILA, Philippines – A day after a journalist was killed in Tabuk City in Nueva Vizcaya, a coordinator of militant group Bayan Muna was shot dead yesterday morning in Kalibo town in Aklan.

Rules Implementing Wage Order No. NCR-15 Basic

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

All of us are, of course, aiming for a greener world. Who wouldn’t want a place where pollutants are set to a negligible level, plant and animal life can live and thrive, and we use and consume products without guilt because we are assured that they are on the good side of the environment? Incremental…