Saying that emergency powers are not needed, Deputy House Speaker and Camarines Sur Rep. Arnulfo Fuentebella said yesterday the creeping power outages threatening the country, especially Mindanao, could have been avoided had the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) of 2001 been faithfully implemented.

EXPORTERS are bracing for a quicker recovery than earlier expected, with demand returning to pre-crisis levels in the first month of the year. Sergio Ortiz Luis, Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. president, on Wednesday said they expect revenues to match pre-crisis levels by the end of this year.

The Social Security System (SSS) remained the top government agency in terms of sincerity in fighting corruption for the second straight year, according to results of an annual survey of Filipino business managers across the country.

Earlier this week was International Women’s Day. While the Philippines has made great strides in the area of women and children’s rights, there is a lot of work to be done. In need of address are human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of Filipino women and children. In 2009 the US government put the Philippines…

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Much has been made about Gov. Joey Salceda’s remarks about the poverty rate earlier this week. Those who made much about it laced the remarks with undue political speculation.

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines – All 17 Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Boards (RTWPB) nationwide will gather in Baguio City on March 25 and 26 to explore the possible increase in minimum wages in various regions.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines is in the process of negotiating its second bilateral economic partnership agreement (EPA), this time with the European Union (EU) in an attempt to beef up trade and attract more European investors to come to the country.

MANILA, Philippines – Prices of consumer goods are not likely to increase despite an increase in the cost of power and the problems brought about by the El Niño, outgoing Trade Secretary Peter B. Favila said.

MANILA, Philippines – Investments in the country’s electronics sector went up 20 percent in 2009 compared to the previous year as the global economy starts recovering from the recent financial crisis, the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. (SEIPI) reported.

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Net inflow of foreign direct investments (FDI) jumped 26.2 percent last year on the back of strong equity inflows as investors continued to plough back earnings to the country in re-cognition of the resilient domestic economy, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas officer-in-charge Diwa Guinigundo reported yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine seaweed production is expected to drop by 28.6 percent to 50,000 metric tons from last year’s 70,000 MT due to the prevailing El Niño weather phenomenon, driving up further the price of seaweeds and exerting additional cost pressure on local carageenan processors.

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines/11 March 2010 by Mike Baños—The largest workers’ party in the country, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP),  has joined the bandwagon calling on all Mindanaoans to vigorously oppose the privatization of the Agus-Pulangi Hydroelectric Complex.

LE HAVRE – Three seafarers have died of food poisoning on an oil tanker traversing the Channel between Britain and Europe, French maritime authorities said Wednesday.

LONDON – More than three-quarters of people across the world believe access to the Internet is a fundamental right, a poll carried out for the BBC indicated Monday.

MANILA, Philippines—Life could have been easier for Lilia Roseryo had she been a beneficiary of a microfinance program, a government blueprint to ease poverty.

I-TEAM REPORT: THINK ISSUES (Seventh of a series) CONCEPCION, TARLAC—It was a scene from Marlboro country come alive. The brothers Rocky and Joel Lopa, in full cowboy gear, came galloping on horseback at Hacienda Luisita as a security helicopter hovered overhead.

MILAN, Italy – The Philippine Labor Office in Milan is concerned about overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) whose health and career advancement are affected by misplaced priorities.

Gloria’s graft-ridden gov’t root of widespread poverty—Erap It is no surprise that the Philippines under President Arroyo is again still in the bottom list of corrupt economies.

BRAIN drain or the loss of skilled intellectual and technical employees has plagued government and private hospitals in the last two years, causing the permanent closure of 200 institutions across the country and the partial shut down of another 800.

The results of the mock presidential election held by the University of Sto. Tomas is out. It is no longer surprising that former Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro topped the mock elections participated in by more than 13,000 students with 32.5 percent of the “votes” since he has emerged number in all surveys conducted in…

THE government will encourage companies in Mindanao, where power outages are happening daily, to shift their working hours at night when demand for electricity is lower, Executive Secretary Leandro Mendoza said Tuesday.

Thousands of workers of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. said the management has barred them from forming a union.

TOP government officials in the from of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo, Justice Undersecretary Ricardo Blan-caflor, joined European Union Ambassador Alistair MacDonald to launch the EU-Philippine Justice Support Programme (EPJUST). Also participating were Detlev Mehlis, the team-leader of the EPJUST program, and Bo Åström, the program’s police advisor.

PLDT not only stands for the country’s biggest phone company, said Ariel Ayala of Radio Veritas on Saturday.

SINGAPORE: Indonesia remains the most corrupt country in Southeast Asia and graft is getting even worse, a poll of businessmen said, dealing a blow to the president’s efforts to clean up the country. The Philippines, however, was not far behind and was ranked 13th on the list of 16 countries that included developed economies for…

Pass-through charges to increase by P200-P400 Already saddled with erratic power supply, customers of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) would also have to bear a hefty spike in their electric bill because of a surge in the utility’s power cost.

CEBU, Philippines – A group that has been leading in the fight against the controversial Reproductive Health Bill has announced that it is supporting the candidacy of Nacionalista Party standard-bearer Senator Manny Villar.

MANILA, Philippines – The Makati Business Club (MBC) has criticized the alleged “instability of government policies and regulations” after the government ordered Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. to pay back taxes.

I have always liked Vicente “Tito” Sotto III. For starters, when my Dad Louie Beltran passed away in 1994, Tito Sotto took over dad’s “Brigada Siete” on GMA 7. Tito Sotto did so with respect and sensitivity to our family.