MANILA, Philippines – Teachers’ groups yesterday opposed the appointment of Presidential Assistant for Education Mona Valisno as the new head of the Department of Education (DepEd), saying it would impede the reforms implemented by Secretary Jesli Lapus.

MANILA, Philippines – Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral reiterated yesterday that there is no evidence that condoms promote promiscuity or casual sex.

I had mixed feelings as I followed the international coverage of Toyota’s massive recall of several of its models, mostly those sold in the North American market.

MANILA, Philippines – The government must create three to four million quality jobs every year to bridge the employment gap in the country, the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Education (DepEd) has asked Malacañang to certify as urgent a bill filed in Congress seeking to make pre-school education mandatory in public schools.

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang admitted yesterday that hunger incidence has increased since President Arroyo assumed power in 2001, but said this could be the “only major sore spot in a sea of good news about the President’s economic legacy.”

MANILA, Philippines – Domestic violence is still “pervasive” in the Philippines despite the passage of a law that supposedly prohibits violence against women and children, the local chapter of a London-based human rights watchdog said yesterday.

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga , Philippines  – President Arroyo is leaving the presidency with more Filipinos overweight.

THE Board of Investments has extended the contingency list of the 2009 Investment Priorities Plan to the first half of the year after the National Economic and Development Authority declared the global financial crisis is not yet over.

Spending pattern in the Philippines is expected to change, once the country breaks the $2,000-per-capita income level, which may come soon.

SENATORS Benigno Aquino III and Manuel Villar Jr. remained locked in a statistical tie, 34 percent to 32 percent, in Manila Standard’s latest nationwide survey, in contrast to a Pulse Asia poll that showed Aquino pulling ahead.

Decisions for Work

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Acting without design, occupying oneself without making a business of it, finding the great in what is small and the many in the few, repaying injury with kindness, effecting difficult things while they are easy, and managing great things in their beginnings; this is the method of Tao. —Lao Tzu

PALACE ADVISER SAYS MANILA, Philippines — An economic adviser of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo lamented that the rich got richer while the ranks of the poor swelled even further amid heady economic growth in the last nine years.

Salceda: Rich also became richer MANILA, Philippines—The rich have gotten richer, but the ranks of the poor have expanded amid the economic growth since 2001, an economic adviser of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Sunday.

MANILA, Philippines – Representatives from the Philippine government are now in Washington DC to plead with the US Congress to fast track the Save Act which is expected to help the local garments industry.

MANILA, Philippines – A government think tank worries that the series of natural and economic calamities that visited the country last year has led to an increase in poor children that it now estimates to be higher than the 2006 estimate of 12.8 million. It did not give any dimension of the rise.

Why is it that Pinoys are constantly proving themselves world class abroad but the country itself seems unable to extricate itself from the third world? Name any field of endeavor… science… business… athletes… artists… entertainers… teachers… doctors… nurses… even religious leaders and we have proven ourselves equal to the world’s best.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Health said yesterday four of 20 state-run hospitals in the country continue to use mercury-containing medical devices despite an order for its gradual phase-out in the country.

The Catholic Church will campaign actively against politicians, especially in the northern part of Metro Manila, who are promoting the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill as it vowed to discourage people from voting those who are incompetent and lacking in moral principles.

‘FOR RP TO AVERT REPEAT OF CRIPPLING ENERGY CRISIS IN ’86’ To prevent the recurrence of a crippling energy crisis, a lawmaker yesterday said the government should seriously consider putting up nuclear power plants each for Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

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MASSIVE DISENFRANCHISEMENT PLUS ZOMBIE VOTERS EQUALS POLL FAILURE Zombie voters, or double registrants, estimated at three to five million people may be the least of the problems in the May 10 elections if computations of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) on the electoral process on the voting day itself prove true as the estimate…

MARGINALIZED: The Commission on Elections has given some 185 Party-list groups until March 26 to submit their nominees for congressional seats. The nominees will be checked for qualification and their names published if they qualify.

MANILA, Philippines – EmPower Consumers Alliance has raised doubts on government‘s pronouncements of a power supply crisis in Mindanao, saying it could be a play to force the use of nuclear energy and raise power rates.

BUTUAN CITY , Philippines  – Claiming that trade policies affect peace and development, New Zea-land Ambassador Andrew Matheson urged ASEAN member-countries, particularly the Philippines, to “give a closer look at the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA).”

MANILA, Philippines – More and more consumers are turning to their credit cards instead of using cash to pay for goods or services acquired as the bank’s credit card receivables went up 4.5 percent last year, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.