MANILA, Philippines – The combined earnings of companies listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) surged 60.8 percent in the first nine months of the year to P283.76 billion on the back of improving global conditions, a new study on the performance of the publicly traded firms revealed.

HIGH operating costs would push call centers to consolidate, according to an industry-commissioned study.

The local contact center industry will grow slower this year because of high operating costs and a shrinking customer base, the industry’s organization said in a press briefing late Monday.

Two weeks ago in this space, in an article called “Getting dramatic over climate change”, I wrote about the Philippine position that our delegation would be bringing to Copenhagen, Denmark during negotiations for carbon-emission cuts. The resulting climate change pact—if one could be arrived at—would pick up from where the first commitment period of the…

MANILA, Philippines—Starting November 30, Filipinos transiting through New Zealand en route to other destinations have been exempt for securing transit visas, the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

COPENHAGEN—(UPDATE) The first decade of the 21st century is set to be the warmest on record, the head of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said at UN climate talks Tuesday.

GENEVA—Climate change is already forcing people to migrate, with most moving within their countries or to a neighboring country, a report by the International Organization for Migration said Tuesday.

The Constitution says that “the accused shall be presumed innocent until the contrary is proved” (Art. III of Section 14(2). This is a time honored principle recognized in every civilized, fair and just society. It is a recognition of the inherent goodness in every man.

MANILA, Philippines – One in two Filipino adults is dissatisfied with the performance of the Arroyo administration, bringing its new net satisfaction rating to -20, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said in its recent survey.

Nothing is certain except death and taxes. In the Philippines, the inevitable burden of taxes cannot be more emphasized by the fact that estate tax even ensues at the time of death.

IMANILA, Philippines – Yields on the government’s Treasury bills (T-bills) moved sideways during yesterday’s auction as investors are on a wait-and-see stance ahead of the meeting of the Monetary Board next week.

BUTUAN CITY , Philippines  – Three small-scale miners in a gold mining tunnel at gold rush areas in Agusan del Sur were killed due to toxic poisoning Saturday.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark—The road to the climate-change summit for the next two weeks has been filled with tension—including the cyberheat generated by hacked e-mail messages that cast scientists as manipulators of data to push the alarm button on global warming, and the fears that the international climate-change negotiations will not yet produce a comprehensive and binding…

Amid the threat of kidnappings in the high seas, Filipino seafarers remitted a record $2.502 billion from January to September this year, the Trade Union of the Philippines (TUCP) said.

THE pre-crisis savings rate in the Philippines had fallen amid accelerating consumption growth, according to an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report.

P TO GET $250M CLIMATE CHANGE FUND THE Philippine government expects to receive $250 million from the Clean Technology Fund to help the country implement projects that will mitigate climate change, according to Energy Secretary Angelo T. Reyes.

MANILA, Philippines – Job seekers should be wary of offers to work in Dubai in light of the financial crisis besetting the Middle Eastern emirate, according to Susan “Toots” Ople, a former labor undersecretary.

MANILA, Philippines—A government-owned hospital in Saudi Arabia is now recruiting 300 Filipino male medical workers, Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said Sunday.

MANILA, Philippines—Some 340,000 retirees who are members of the Social Security System can now avail themselves of their 13th-month bonuses as the agency has released P8.7 billion which also covers pensions for December. SSS spokesman Joel Palacios said in a statement the funds were released in mid-November to partner banks, including Philippine National Bank, Philippine…

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—Construction worker Bilal is in a happy mood as he takes his lunch break sitting next to an artificial lake near Dubai’s showpiece Mall of the Emirates. But he admits anxiety about the end of his contract in one year’s time, when the 24-year-old may have to return to Bangladesh.

LOS BAÑOS—Asian rice farmers typically do not fly around the world on holiday or own big-engine cars but scientists say they have an important role to play nevertheless in helping cut the world’s output of greenhouse gases. While much of the globe’s focus in the climate change fight is on the burning of fossil fuels…

MANILA, Philippines—The country registered more than one million hours of effort to tackle climate change and other environmental issues, the United Nations office here said. The top five countries are India, which registered 53,917 hours, followed by Pakistan, 40,710, Nigeria, 31,647, Kenya, 32,277, and Philippines, 26,112.

MANILA, Philippines—A party-list representative on Sunday urged Congress to pass a law that would penalize schools that bar students from taking their exams because they had not fully paid their school bills.

MANILA, Philippines – The Aboitiz Group and a number of foreign power firms have joined hands to further improve efforts to maintain operational and environmental safety at the Aboitiz- run power facilities.

MANILA, Philippines – The number of 3G (third generation technology) users in the Philippines, whether for mobile phones or USB modem devices, is expected to grow to eight to 10 million by next year, quadrupling to 40 million by 2014 or about 39 percent of the population.

MANILA, Philippines – The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) warned the public yesterday that criminal syndicates are recruiting minors to stage crimes such as robberies, then killing them once they have served their purpose.

MANILA, Philippines – The country faces as much as a $300-million drop in remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) due to the debt crisis in Dubai, the country’s largest labor group warned yesterday.

IT is amazing how the wind turbines in the northern part of the Philippines are not only picturesque that draw tourists; they can, in fact, generate 25 megawatts of electricity and are connected to the Luzon grid. What is even more interesting is the creation of a unique project between Philippine and Japanese partners that…

WASHINGTON, D.C.: You have to be mighty isolated not to know someone who has been laid off, was forced into early retirement or—just entering the labor market—can’t find a job. Unemployment of 10.2 percent is still below the post-World War II peak of 10.8 percent of late 1982, but by other measures, the job situation…

THE Philippine auto industry pales   in comparison to its other Southeast Asian counterparts due to a cost disadvantage arising from a lack of scale, according to a study commissioned by several assemblers.