MANILA, Philippines – A survey conducted by the Department of Education (DepEd) showed that education stakeholders would rather schools open in June than in September.

I remember starting a new job about 10 years ago and being introduced to an employee who was plugging away in his cubicle. As we moved out of earshot, the manager who was showing me around remarked, “Good guy, but a bit of a poet.”

COPENHAGEN—Despite all-night efforts for two weeks by delegates to hammer out a global deal, which brought together 110 world leaders, the summit ended on Saturday with a political agreement and a loose commitment to develop the details over the next 12 months.

A US-led initiative called the Copenhagen Accord has formed the centre-piece of a deal at UN climate talks in Copenhagen, despite some countries’ opposition. Below is an explanation of the main points in the agreement.

As in a chess game, the contestants in the coming electoral contest will attempt to control the center of the chess board early on, to give each major piece room to maneuver and execute its given task as the match progresses. The core of the political territory in the electoral chessboard is no other than…

For much of the 1990s and the first half of the present decade, many developing countries seeking integration into the global economy adopted the type of market-oriented measures pushed forward by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Much has been written about the impact of these measures (known as the Washington Consensus) on…

MANILA, Philippines – From afar, the edifice known as the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) sits in quiet solitude atop the 3.5 square kilometer government property in Napot Point, framed by the lush mountainside of Mt. Natib and the clear azure skies of Morong. The power plant overlooks the South China Sea, where the sound…

The climate negotiation in the Fifteenth Conference of Parties (COP 15) in Copenhagen has come to a sour end. The world’s high expectation for a meaningful and binding agreement is doused with icy cold water by a non-binding deal dubbed as “Copenhagen Accord” – a deal primarily brokered by the most powerful and leading polluter…

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) recently urged the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to purge its list of accredited suppliers under the government’s Electronic Procurement System (EPS), amid reports it is full of prohibited sellers of goods and services to the public sector.

Trust the Filipinos and their optimism. Despite all the bad things that have happened this year, nearly nine of 10 Filipinos are hopeful the coming year will be better, according to a survey by pollster Pulse Asia.

Asian giants China and Indonesia have hailed the Copenhagen UN climate summit outcome, despite its cool reception from aid agencies and campaigners.

Here are 10 numbers every person should know. Read on and learn about them. Be sure to keep them below danger levels.

If you want to be really healthy, go beyond eating your veggies and add some good deeds to your diet: Research shows that altruism can positively impact your physical and mental well-being. “It’s good to be good, and science proves it,” says Stephen Post, PhD, a researcher at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine…

MANILA, Philippines – Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada remained the favorite senatorial candidate of a majority of Filipino adults, receiving more than half of the votes of 1,800 respondents in the latest Pulse Asia survey.

MANILA, Philippines – Less than five months before the May 2010 elections, Liberal Party standard-bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III continued to gain the support of a majority of voters, according to the latest surveys conducted by polling firms Pulse Asia and Social Weather Stations (SWS).

MANILA, Philippines – After a three-year deployment ban, the government may resume the sending of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Lebanon next year.

COPENHAGEN: US President Barack Obama on Friday (Saturday morning, Manila time) announced a climate deal with other major world leaders calling it “unprecedented” and “meaningful” but admitted it was still not enough to beat global warming.

COPENHAGEN (AFP) – A UN climate summit Saturday rammed through a battle plan against global warming forged by US President Barack Obama and other top leaders, sidelining smaller states which lashed the deal as betrayal.

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Loren Legarda yesterday said world parliamentarians were correct in their declaration that the post-2012 agreement on climate change should be underpinned by domestic legislation in all countries to be effective.

A YEAR’S holding of breath is expected by exporters before the sector reaches its precrisis levels, industrialist Sergio Luiz Ortiz Jr. said.

OVERSEAS Filipino workers (OFWs) remittances are likely to stagnate, and not contract, because of the global economic slowdown and the Dubai debt crisis, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). “For the Philippines, we do not see evidence of a dramatic plunge in workers’ remittances as a result of the current recession. The evidence suggests…

GOOD news: despite the global economic downturn, the number of jobs generated by the economy grew in the past year (from October 2008 to October 2009). Bad news: the number of jobs did not grow fast enough to catch up with the growth in the labor force. Based on the October 2009 Labor Force Survey…

Despite a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showing most Filipinos satisfied with government’s efforts in preventing the outbreak of various deadly diseases, a UN report said the Philippines was behind when it comes to AIDS. The SWS survey reported that government’s health workers enjoyed the highest net satisfaction rating at positive 31.

HONG KONG: Laden with colorful bags full of gifts, Andy Xu makes his way through Hong Kong’s jam-packed Causeway Bay shopping district apparently unfazed by the past year’s global economic crisis.

COPENHAGEN—A weak UN climate deal, agreed on Saturday after two weeks of talks pulled back from near collapse, underscored the vulnerability of a process depending on consensus and may mark a diminishing UN role.

SAYS UN EXEC MANILA, Philippines—Many of the 200 million migrants worldwide continue to be treated as commodities, violating their basic human rights, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said on the occasion of the International Migrants Day December 18.

CEBU, Philippines – After the global financial crisis reportedly affected industries, with some countries stopping their hiring of workers including nurses and caregivers, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration announced that the second batch of recruitment for nurses and caregivers to Japan would start soon.

As shown in other surveys, Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd took a commanding lead in a poll conducted by the Makati Business Club of its members—but the surprising second choice was Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro. Aquino is the presidential candidate of the Liberal Party, while Teodoro—his cousin—is with the administration’s Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD).

MANILA, Philippines – A neophyte party-list group yesterday called on Congress to pass a bill that will criminalize the act of training children to be assassins as this is not covered by any existing child protection laws.

We leave behind 2009 thankful that the global financial crisis that rocked the world’s strongest economies in 2008 had been kinder to our island community of 92 million Filipinos.