MANILA, Philippines – The local ICT industry is getting out of the doldrums this year, according to market research firm IDC, which is quoting huge numbers — $3.14 billion and $3.81 billion — for total IT and telecommunication market spendings, respectively, by the end of 2010.

MANILA, Philippines – Private sector economists see inflation accelerating to 4.8 percent this year from 3.2 percent as the sustained rally in global commodity prices would continue to exert inflationary pressures.

MANILA, Philippines – The local automotive industry slammed the government for not laying down concrete measures as to how the government will encourage car makers to continue to manufacture in the country.

MANILA, Philippines – More than 3,500 rural, thrift, and cooperative banks were given the green light by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to sell microinsurance products as part of efforts to eliminate informal insurance schemes and at the same time put an end to the unauthorized provision of insurance products.

MANILA, Philippines – After a brutal decline since the fourth quarter of 2008, the country’s top export, electronics is seen by its leaders to bounce back to a modest growth this year.

Camp Vicente Lim, Laguna, Philippines – A 50-year-old president of a transport group in Bacoor, Cavite was shot dead near his home last Saturday morning, authorities said.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has rejected a proposal to ban the deployment of Filipino seafarers to foreign vessels that ply the pirate-infested waters of Somalia.

With another damning report published on asbestos in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, a group of prominent Canadian physicians have accused Premier Jean Charest of lying to the public about the mineral, rebutting his contention asbestos has benign uses.

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After a year and two months of implementation, the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) has ushered an increase in the bilateral trade between Japan and the Philippines by 218 percent, records show. Based on the 2009 year-end data provided by Japan’s Information and Culture Center Director Tomoko Dodo, the trade between Tokyo and Manila involving…

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine government on Sunday defended its policy of distributing free condoms to mark Valentine’s Day after influential senior church officials labeled it “vulgar”.

The amended Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 will hurt more the seafarers than it helps, the Mariners Association for Regional and International Networking Organization (MARINO) said Saturday.

Today being Valentine’s Day and all it would seem like a great disservice if I did not write about love. So. Expected and unsurprising though it may be, let me roll out for you a list of the very things you can do right after you fall in love truly, madly, deeply — Keeping. It.…

(Second of a series) CNN’s unthinkable sins against the Filipino people MANILA, Philippines – The CNN’s propensity to employ terrorism and violence to achieve its ends is draining its pond of supporters and constituency. The CNN was declared a terrorist organization by the US Department of State in 2002 and by the European Union in…

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will intensify its campaign against HIV/AIDS in workplaces amid rising cases of the fatal disease in the past few years.

LABOR CHIEF REITERATES MANILA, Philippines—HIV testing cannot be a requirement for employment, Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said in a statement e-mailed to media outfits.

MANILA, Philippines—There is no need to ban the deployment of Filipino seafarers to foreign-flagged ships passing by the pirate-infested waters of Somalia because effective interventions are in place, the labor department said in a statement e-mailed to media outfits.

Worldwide PC shipments surpassed 90 million units in the fourth quarter of 2009, a 22.1 percent increase from Q4-08, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. It was the strongest quarter over quarter growth rate the worldwide PC market experienced in the last seven years. It should be noted that these numbers are compared to…

Monthly inflation rate is expected to reach 5 percent in the second and third quarters of 2010, but still within the full-year target range of 3.5 percent to 5.5 percent, the Bangko Sentral said Friday.

THE Philippines launched a European-funded program Thursday to reduce the country’s large number of summary killings and disappearances of activists, journalists and union workers.

Under a new and more stringent Syrian labor regulation, foreign workers, including Filipinos, will only be allowed to work in Syria for a maximum of three years .

I met Dr. Ola Madsen many years ago when this huge and muscular motivational speaker came to the Philippines, and I was given the privilege to share the same speaker’s platform with him. This Swedish man is very committed to his faith. He sent me an email which I share with you now. Dr. Ola…

(First of 3 parts) MANILA, Philippines – After 41 years of fighting the government, the CPP/NPA/NDF (CNN) miserably failed to achieve its strategic goal of seizing political power. Inarguably, the future seems bleak for the movement, as its military capability and people’s support to its cause continue to decrease consistently each year. Today, it has…

There is this unfolding drama in Europe that will be instructive for us. Four member-countries of the European Union are in some degree of fiscal trouble. The four countries are: Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain. In the memos doing the rounds in financial circles, the four countries are collectively referred to by the acronym PIGS.

MANILA, Philippines – Government health authorities will distribute free condoms today to customers of flower shops in Manila’s Dangwa Flower Market, reversing a nine-year-old policy against the promotion of artificial birth control.

Manila (12 February) — A high level delegation of six officials and experts of Japan International Labor Foundation (JILAF) headed by its President and former JTUC-RENGO (largest trade union organization in Japan) President, Mr. Tsuyoshi Takagi, will arrive in the Philippines on February 16 to observe and participate in Trade Union Congress of the Philippines’…

In my recent columns, I started my denouement of the fictitious achievements of the Arroyo administration. Just after that, Newsweek, a highly reputed international magazine read by millions had a full page on “Asia’s laggard.” That laggard is the Philippines.

Asbestos is back in the news as efforts are made by a United Nations agency to add the chrysotile variety of asbestos to the world’s list of most hazardous substances.