New law scraps DST, travel tax, airport fee for migrant workers Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are now exempted from paying documentary stamp tax (DST) on their remittances as well as travel tax and airport fee.

(This is the conclusion of  the columnist’s discussion of this subject, which started last Friday.)

Manila, Philippines – The multi-sectoral group tasked to discuss the adoption of a National Program for the Elimination of Asbestos Related Diseases (NPEAD) finally agreed in a meeting today, 16 April 2010, to develop the NPEAD based on the outline of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and World Health Organization (WHO).

To help address the mismatch between available jobs and college graduates, foreign-owned businesses in the country would offer longer internship programs to qualified students.

DEMAND for business process outsourcing (BPO) office space in Metro Manila will rise this year with prices returning to pre-crisis levels seen two years ago, according to an international property consultant.

BAGUIO CITY: Posting pictures on social networking sites may land one in jail.

A House panel has approved several measures seeking to establish breast care centers around the country amid reports that the Philippines has the highest incidence of breast cancer in the South East Asian region.

Filipinos are preparing for a historic election in which they will vote using automated machines for the first time, but there are rising fears the experiment could fail and trigger deep political chaos.

The next Philippine president who will be elected on May 10 should prioritize job creation and education, a United Nations survey released on Thursday showed.

MANILA, Philippines – A wish list of priority economic reforms was handed over to Congress’ administrative units yesterday in a bid to lay down an agenda for incoming legislators.

MANILA, Philippines – Davao has been named the Philippines’ top “next wave” city for business process outsourcing (BPO).

MANILA, Philippines – Money sent home by overseas Filipinos grew 7.1% in February, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported on Friday.

CEBU, Philippines – The Supreme Court (SC) has finally released Tuesday the rules of procedure on environmental cases which shall form bases for the prosecution of cases involving the environment protection and preservation. Environmental lawyer Gloria Estenzo-Ramos said that the rules of procedure on environmental cases will help usher in an era of stewardship and…

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya , Philippines  – Ten small-scale miners were buried alive in an illegally constructed tunnel in a gold-rich mountain village in the province’s eastern Kasibu town last week, belated reports said.

MANILA, Philippines – Foreign portfolio investments or “hot money” that entered the country surged by 602 percent in the first quarter of the year on the back of robust corporate earnings, strong peso, the rise in US stock market as well as bouyant Asian markets, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

NEW YORK – All the dirty laundry younger people seem to air on social networks these days might lead older Americans to conclude that today’s tech-savvy generation doesn’t care about privacy.

CHICAGO – Asian economies are “on the move” after weathering the global economic downturn, but require more liberalization and reforms, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Thursday.

From the introduction of R. Torres, IILS Director: This Policy Brief shows that the benefits from adopting and pursuing fiscal measures in support of jobs are significant. Such measures are crucial for reducing the lag between the incipient economic rebound and job creation. Indeed, a premature exit from such measures would weaken the economic recovery,…

THE PHILIPPINES SAVED some P4.4 billion in 2009 due largely to energy efficiency and conservation measures implemented by the government last year, according to the Department of Energy.

MANILA, Philippines—Agribusiness, business process outsourcing, creative industries, infrastructure (airports and seaports, road and rail, power and water), manufacturing and logistics, mining, and tourism, medical travel, and retirement will frontline the country’s drive for robust investment, foreign investors said in a forum.

[Following are some very funny spelling bloopers caught in US local newspapers, publications and various emails – as reported in Clean Laffs. See if you can catch the goofs.]

IN order for the next president to get the Philippines back on track to achieving sustained and inclusive economic growth, the domestic investment rate must be increased to an annual rate of 25 percent from the current 15 percent, which is the lowest among its neighbor states.

SEATTLE—Worldwide personal computer shipments increased more than 20 percent in the first three months of 2010 from the same period a year ago, a sign the PC business is on firmer ground after one of its shakiest stretches ever.

CEBU, Philippines – In line with the celebration of the Labor Day 2010 and Industrial Peace Month, the Department of Labor and Employment-Region 7 will conduct more jobs fair to help reduce the problem on unemployment.

SLOWLY and steadily Lakas-Kampi CMD presidential candidate Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. has climbed up the polls, maintaining his second-place ranking in the latest survey conducted by the independent research firm Campaigns & Image Group, with a 26 percent rating among young voters that comprise almost half of the electorate in this year’s May 10 presidential…

MANILA, Philippines – Investor confidence in the Philippines reached a new high in the first quarter of 2010, rebounding from its rock-bottom level in early 2009, despite political uncertainties in the May polls.

MANILA, Philippines – The Green for Life: One Million Trees and Beyond (OMTB), a project initiated by Br. Armin Luistro, FSC and the Lasallian Institute for the Environment (LIFE), hit 610,694 seedlings planted as of end of February, 2010. The project aims to plant one million trees around the Philippines by June 2011, in time…

PRESS RELEASE HON. RAYMOND DEMOCRITO C. MENDOZA        April 12, 2010 Trade Union Congress Party-List (TUCP) TUCP-PGEA Compound, Maharlika cor. Masaya Streets, Diliman, Quezon City Tel/Fax: (632) 351-3757/924-7551 TUCP Party-List: Proper inspection could have prevented Cebu construction workers’ deaths The TUCP Party-List # 178, the largest worker’s party in the Philippines, lamented the deaths of…

THE Supreme Court on Wednesday issued landmark rules to govern how courts must handle cases involving the environment.