CEBU, Philippines – The Supreme Court has ordered ABS-CBN Cebu to reinstate four of its former employees who were illegally dismissed 10 years ago and to pay the workers back wages.

Now that I have your attention, allow me to translate today’s heading: “The heart of a man, the brains of a pig”.

MANILA, Philippines – Crisis-hit firms that retain or hire more workers may not be eligible for tax perks this year after all as the Board of Investments (BoI) has reversed an earlier policy decision.

MANILA, Philippines – Presidential candidate Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III has softened his stand on the Reproductive Health (RH) bill.

MediaBanc, a media monitoring and media analysis company, recently met with local communications practitioners to discuss the value of media performance measurement, an event to which this writer was invited as a speaker. Let me share with readers an abridged version of my speech on PR measurement.

MANILA, Philippines – After “hilot” or therapeutic massage, now comes faith healing. Faith or spiritual healing is now officially recognized and will be promoted by the Department of Tourism (DOT) as part of the country’s medical tourism programs.

MANILA, Philippines – Highly skilled Filipino workers fit for overseas employment are getting fewer – and older.

MANILA – A union representing Philippine Airlines (PAL) ground staff said Monday it had notified the government of its intention to call a strike in a dispute over the outsourcing of the airline’s services.

QUALIFIED Philhealth members and their dependents may now avail of an outpatient blood transfusion benefit starting Feb. 1.

DOH warns RP may face epidemic soon MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Health (DOH) has said Internet social networking sites have provided a venue for young people to find partners in risky sex that usually leads to cases of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) in the country.

Don’t worry – those of us who are adults now probably won’t live to be a hundred eyars old. But babies being born today, may very well reach 100, according to a report first published in the medical magazine, Lancet and subsequently picked up by the general media.

How to avoid age discrimination There was an overwhelming response to my earlier article on age discrimiantion against those 40 years old and above. Even now I am receiving questions regarding the topic and so it seems time for an update on the matter.

LONDON, United Kingdom—Britain has temporarily suspended student visa applications from northern India, Nepal, and Bangladesh after a sharp rise in numbers, the UK Border Agency (Ukba) said Sunday.

TO PRESERVE RP’S $1-B TUNA INDUSTRY: A local chief executive of a city in Metro Manila has warned the government that the economy of Gen. Santos City, and Mindanao in general, would suffer immensely with the implementation of a two-year ban on tuna fishing in the Central and Western Pacific.

LEFT-HANDED CUT: The country’s estimated 4.6 million senior citizens can only rejoice with the plan of President Gloria Arroyo to sign into law a bill passed by Congress exempting them from the 12-percent Value-Added Tax on goods and services.

NO MARGIN FOR ERROR: The Commission on Elections must not take lightly the glitches experienced in the second field test of its precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines the other day.

MANILA, Philippines – Nearly three million indigent Filipinos benefited from government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), a poverty alleviation strategy implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

yesterday that even old people or senior citizens up to 80 years old have abused children left under their care.

HEALTH authorities in Central Visayas said they would focus their efforts on curbing the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among call center employees in the region.

MANILA, Philippines–After getting huge investments from large foreign firms last year despite the recession, the Department of Trade and Industry is confident that the country will get more infusions this year as the global economy has already started to recover.

THE PAG-IBIG FUND IS GIVING out P8.5 billion in dividends for 2009—20 percent more than the payout made in 2008, according to Vice President Noli de Castro.

MANILA, Philippines – The worst of the global economic crisis may be over, but the Philippines still faces a rough road ahead, officials said Friday.

THE World Bank and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Friday signed an agreement to address traffic congestion in Epifanio De Los Santos Avenue (EDSA) by reducing the volume of buses plying the Philippines’ busiest main thoroughfare.

The Department of Health has  pressed for the passage of the much-debated reproductive health bill amid the alarming increase of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) cases in the country.

CEBU, Philippines – The Philippines must learn from Thailand which is now having a surplus of classrooms after it was able to successfully manage its population.

CEBU, Philippines – Implementation of Republic Act 9262 or the Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act of 2004 needs to be strengthened further in the Visayas.

CEBU, Philippines – The Commission on Population-7 stands firm in support for the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill pending at the House of Representatives, saying it is needed to help ease the country’s population problem.

CEBU, Philippines – A health official said call center agents have a higher risk of acquiring Human Immuno Virus-Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV-AIDS).

The ballot for the May 2010 elections will be the longest in Philippine history. Aside from the candidates for President and Vice President all the way down to city or municipal councilors, we will also be choosing from 144 party list contenders that have been accredited by the Comelec.

MANILA, Philippines – The government sees a subdued but steady growth for the Philippines this year with volatile oil prices and the El Niño phenomenon posing the biggest threats to the economy, an official said yesterday.