State pension fund Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) said it is working closely with the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to address members’ issues that were brought to the attention of the CSC and subsequently communicated with the pension fund for appropriate action.

COPENHAGEN: United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon heads to global climate talks on Tuesday warning that negotiators face a race against time to prevent the meeting ending in catastrophic failure after developing nations staged a five-hour walkout.

MANILA, Philippines – Money sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) went up by 6.7 percent to $1.53 billion in October, the highest monthly remittance level recorded so far, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Oil-rich Abu Dhabi pumped $10 billion into its indebted neighbor Monday, sending stocks soaring while sparing Dubai and the rest of the Emirates federation the humiliation of an imminent default by one of the struggling Arab boomtown’s star companies.

MANILA, Philippines – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has revised downward its growth outlook for the Philippines this year to one percent, from an earlier forecast of 1.6 percent, citing that the economy “performed even worse than expected” in the first nine months.

MANILA, Philippines – Voters can still register for next year’s elections until Jan. 9 after the Supreme Court voided the Oct. 31 deadline set by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

MANILA, Philippines – The National Statistics Office (NSO) reported yesterday that the number of jobless Filipinos increased to 7.1 percent in October from 6.8 percent last year.

MANILA, Philippines – Senators Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and Manny Villar are the top choices of Filipinos as the next president, the latest survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

MANILA, Philippines – Trouble is brewing in the Philippines’ first nationwide poll automation, and the signs are slowly unfolding.

No, the title of this column does not refer to that Michael Jackson movie which was shown recently. It is the title of a presentation on HIV/AIDS made by the National Epidemiology Center of the Health Department last week. The data presented on HIV/AIDS prevalence in the country was not only sobering; it was depressing.…

Nacionalista Party president and standard-bearer Sen. Manny Villar yesterday welcomed Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo and Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza as the party’s guest senatorial candidates.

GENEVA (ILO News) – An “early exit” from support measures adopted in response to the global economic crisis could postpone a jobs recovery for years and render the fledgling economic upturn “fragile and incomplete”, a new report by the research arm of the International Labour Organization (ILO) says.

CALIFORNIA, United States — The California Nurses Association (CNA) stepped into the national spotlight on the health care debate when the influential organization joined forces with two other nurses’ unions to form the alliance National Nurses United (NNU).

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has again qualified for financial support from the US Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) in 2010, according to Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo.

MANILA, Philippines—An increase in the price of rice has forced the government to cut back on its planned purchase of the grain, deciding instead to buy 509,950 metric tons of the grain, mostly from Vietnam.

The demand for Filipino domestic helpers in Taiwan had dropped dramatically, with Indonesians and Vietnamese taking a bigger share of the market in that country mainly as a result of the direct hiring program pushed by the government.

Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) announced that it would widen its coverage and increase the contribution rate of all members to improve its services.

TAIPEI: Investments infused by Taiwanese investors into the Philippines this year more than doubled compared to last year, according to the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO).

Efren Peñaflorida said he wants to change the system of education in the Philippines, where not having a birth certificate or a mere P20 (about $0.40) could bar  poor children from enroling.

Christmas is that one time of the year when your health could be at risk – from developing psychological depression to suffering a holiday heart attack. In addition, your health may suffer from just simply eating too much or abandoning your exercise routine due to your busy holiday schedule.

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) — Remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) coursed through banks rose 6.7 percent on year to a record high of 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in October on continued global demand for Philippine labor, the Philippine central bank reported Tuesday.

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) — Philippine unemployment rate was 7.1 percent in October, slightly higher than the 6.8 percent rate posted in the same period last year, the National Statistics Office reported Tuesday.

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) forecasts that the Philippine economy will slow to 1 percent this year as damages wrought by typhoons Ketsana and Parma dampen consumption.  

MANILA, Philippines – The outlook for overseas employment opportunities in 2010 is bleak with international labor markets virtually closed because most economies are still hurting from the onslaught of the global financial crisis.

MANILA, Philippines – Beneficiaries of remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are turning to savings and investments to survive the uncertainty brought about by the global financial crisis, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.

MANILA, Philippines – About 1,000 workers might lose their jobs this Christmas if the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) allows a Malaysian-backed company to take over the operations of the Philippine National Construction Corporation (PNCC).

HUMAN RIGHTS: Have officials of the Commission on Human Rights and their foreign guests gone on vacation after that tiring trip to Maguindanao to register their concern for the massacre victims in Ampatuan country?

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Health (DOH) today released a new Administrative Order (AO) on the subject “Adopting New Policies and Protocol on Essential Newborn Care (ENC),” which details specific policies and principles to follow for all health care providers involved in newborn health care.

DUE to the extent of the global economic crisis and the continued increase in the Philippine labor force, the country may experience a continued increase in the number of underemployed and unemployed until the end of 2010, according to local economists.

Nearly 40 per cent of all jobs worldwide are in high carbon intensive sectors. If we want to arrest climate change, this will inevitably create an employment challenge as workers will have to move to different jobs and sectors. And it raises the question to what extent “green” policies can produce a double dividend, in…