I’ve been having an argument with a fellow economist who thinks Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did just great as president. The trouble is that he belongs to a very small minority who thinks so. Overwhelmingly, the rest decry her performance.

CEBU, Philippines – In a recent forum hosted by the Association of Government Information Officers in Region 7 (AGIO), Dr. Alvin Roxas, head of the Renal Center of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, said that kidney or renal failure is considered one of the top 10 diseases afflicting Filipinos today.

It’s becoming clear that high in the new Aquino administration’s priorities will be the addition of two more years to our formal basic educational system. Right now, we have six years of primary school and four for the secondary to make 10. The idea is to make that 12, but it is still unclear where…

Extreme positions aside, many parents— and some teachers too—do have valid reasons for worrying about the possible impact of the new sex education modules being pilot-tested by the Department of Education. We can classify these various anxieties into three concerns: preparation, parental privilege and promiscuity.

MANILA, Philippines – With the recent RP visit of former US Vice President (now iconic champion against climate change) Al Gore, concern for the environment has been pushed to the top of the Filipino mind – no doubt helped along by the very public and shocking debacle that is the BP oil spill in the…

Something is really wrong when government agencies are adopting measures based on a legislation that has not even been passed by Congress yet. This is what the Department of Education (DepEd) under outgoing Secretary Mona Valisno is doing in her last few days in office when she issued DepEd Memo 261 integrating the subject of…

GOVERNMENT officials and employees have been prohibited to interact with tobacco industry members under a joint circular issued by the Department of Health (DoH) and Civil Service Commission (CSC), pursuant to the government’s anti-smoking campaign.

MANILA, Philippines – Most national and local candidates lied in their statements of contribution and expenditures and actually spent more than what is allowed by law in the May 2010 polls.

THE WORLD Bank will implement starting this Thursday a new policy that will allow the public to access its reports as part of the agency’s efforts to promote transparency and accountability.

MANILA, Philippines – Outgoing Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said the economy could have performed better and trimmed fiscal deficit were it not for the impact of the global financial crisis.

THE GOVERNMENT has saved a total of P2.3 billion from the rationalization plan which abolishes redundant functions and outdated positions in the bureaucracy, a Budget official said yesterday.

BRUSSELS, Belgium – Undocumented Filipino migrants in Belgium are concerned over the delay in the results of their applications for regularization.

A new bill circulating through congress has one call center services provider up in arms. Senator Charles Schumer of New York recently authored a bill that would impose strict fees on businesses that outsource customer service operations to offshore providers. Hit Rate Solutions, a U.S based outsourcing company with contact centers in the Philippines is…

THE Ejercito family, businessman Enrique Razon Jr., Estrada classmate Antonio Evangelista, a certain Jaime Dy, and gaming friend George Antonio have emerged as the biggest campaign contributors in the Joseph Estrada’s failed reelection bid.

ABOUT 3.1 million workers, many in the agriculture sector, lost their jobs during the first four months of the year due to the severe drought brought by the El Niño weather phenomenon.  This number was 300,000 more than the 2.8 million who lost their jobs from January to April 2009.

Paid sick leave plays a crucial role especially in times of crises where many workers fear dismissal and discrimination when reporting sick. A new ILO study shows that paid sick leave is not only affordable but pays off in terms of health and economic gains for employers, workers and the economy at large. ILO Online…

Former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada, who placed second in the May 10 elections, spent a total of P235.5 million—P227.5 million of which came from donations from business executives—during the whole campaign period, according to his poll expenditure report. In his statement of election contributions and expenditures submitted to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Estrada said…

A week before she steps down from office, President Gloria Arroyo gave her farewell address to the nation Wednesday evening. President Arroyo’s five-minute speech was aired live at 7 p.m. over the Presidential Broadcast Center in Malacañang and patched through state-run network NBN 4 and sequestered television stations RPN 9 and IBC 13.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

MANILA, Philippines – The country is looking at more than doubling the current investment approvals in a span of five years and attract P2.405 trillion worth of investments by 2014, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) announced yesterday.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION ITUC OnLine Vancouver BC, 24 June 2010: Unions from all over the world are to adopt today an ambitious resolution on climate change. In the framework of the 2nd ITUC Congress, unions have debated their role in the fight against climate change, the means to create green and decent jobs and…

Maternity protection has been a primary concern of the ILO since its creation, in 1919, when the first International Labour Conference adopted the first Maternity Protection Convention No. 3. A new publication on the state of maternity protection in the world (“Maternity at work”) has just been released by the ILO. It sheds light on…

THE Philippines ranks No. 4 in 10 countries in Southeast Asia that flunked in their campaigns to control corruption in government in 2010, an antigraft group said on Wednesday.

MANILA, Philippines – Some lawmakers score what they call attempts to blur the issue of incorporating sex education into the elementary and high school curricula.

MANILA, Philippines – More names have come up as possible heads of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and Department of Health (DOH) under the administration of President-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

GENEVA — A controversial plan to allow developing countries to raise tariffs temporarily to cope with a destabilizing flood of food imports or drop in food prices would actually have little impact on trade flows, a new study shows.