MANILA – Concerned health groups are hoping to give more condoms and toiletries to victims of tropical storm Ondoy, in an effort to respond to reproductive health (RH) problems in overcrowded evacuation centers.

The handling of the Ondoy disaster was a massive managerial failure, I said last week in my column.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) raised its forecast for the country’s dollar surplus, citing robust remittance inflows and foreign investments.

THE Philippines needs significant investments in the short term to bring its natural gas resources to the retail market.

An upcoming job fair organized by foreign businessmen will give priority to job seekers who were affected by tropical storms Ondoy and Pepeng.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The United States said last Tuesday that it would not endorse any new global trade accord unless it contained a “solid” deal on services, urging Asian nations in particular to liberalize the lucrative sector. “We know that the biggest gains to the global economy are likely to derive from multilateral services liberalization, but…

Dear PAO, I would like to inquire about the computation of an employee’s separation pay. I have a friend who works for a company that is about to change its company name. Is she entitled to a separation pay? Her salary is P10,000.00 a month and she has been with this company for over 10…

THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) expects to enhance its operational capability with the implementation of a knowledge transfer project endorsed by the Supreme Prosecutors Office of Korea. PDEA has been chosen as the beneficiary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)-Republic of Korea Knowledge Transfer on Narcotics Crime project.

A lawmaker on Wednesday filed a measure that would prohibit the imposition of a surcharge, extra charge or additional charge in the use of the credit, or automated teller machine (ATM) debit cards for payment of purchases of consumer products and services. Rep. Narciso Santiago 3rd of the party-list Alliance for Rural Concerns filed House…

ROME: The food crisis in poor countries, coupled with the global economic crisis, has caused a spike in world hunger, with more than one billion people undernourished this year, United Nations food agencies said on Wednesday.

Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd again led all candidates for president in next year’s elections in a survey that sought to determine the top three candidates most preferred by the public to succeed President Gloria Arroyo.

MANILA, Philippines – The economy may still hit the high end of the government’s 0.8 to 1.8 percent growth target this year despite the damage caused by the two typhoons that recently ravaged the country and the lingering impact of the global financial crisis, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Augusto Santos said during the government’s midyear economic…

The timely payment of a cash or surety bond is a jurisdictional requirement for the perfection of the appeal by employers to the NLRC. If no bond is posted within the period to perfect the appeal, the case will be dismissed even if a motion to reduce the bond has been filed and yet unresolved.…

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) delisted yesterday 25 organizations from the official list of registered sectoral party-list groups for failing to get sufficient votes in the 2007 elections.

MORE than 3,000 students and career guidance counselors from the different colleges and universities gathered for a campus lecture on decent work in Cebu.

SAN PEDRO, Laguna, Philippines—At least 31 residents of the village of Maguyam, in Silang, Cavite, were rushed to a hospital early Thursday after vomiting and showing signs of suffocation, the town’s police chief said.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has said unemployment in its member countries has edged higher.

Giving up work completely on retirement could be bad for your health, US research suggests. The study of 12,189 people found retirees who take on temporary or part-time work have fewer major diseases, and function better day to day.

The Department of Finance has directed all internal revenue officers to stop issuing tax assessments against cooperatives in response to their complaints.

MANILA,Oct. 14 (PNA) – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has revised its projections on remittances and dollar reserves as inflows of money being sent home by Overseas Filipinos (OFs) continue to remain strong.

MANILA, Philippines — The National Labor Relations Committee has overturned the decision of the executive labor arbiter and ordered Sentosa enterprises to pay the nurses actual damages of $186,372 (about P8.7 million) after finding that the employer “constructively discharged” the nurses, it was learned Tuesday.

BIG industries will finally be able to choose their power supplier by the second quarter of next year under an interim open access program.

ORGANIC farming advocates have called on the Department of Agriculture to integrate disaster preparedness and risk reduction by funding programs that will make farming resilient to natural calamities. Lawyer Efren Moncupa, lead convenor of Go Organic! Philippines said the government should “allocate adequate fund for disaster preparedness, to reduce risk of losing billions of pesos…

Results of a recent survey found that the number of Filipinos experiencing hunger in the past three months has declined. The Social Weather Stations (SWS) reported that 17.5 percent, or an estimated 3.2 million families have experienced hunger in the third quarter of this year.

President Gloria Arroyo announced on Tuesday the creation of a Special National Public-Private Reconstruction Commission that would hasten fund sourcing and quicken the country’s coping mechanism against effects of recent calamities. Mrs. Arroyo made the announcement in Dagupan City, Pangasinan, on Tuesday where she led a meeting of the Cabinet and the National Disaster Coordinating…

A United Nations official on Tuesday urged countries like the Philippines, which are vulnerable to the effects of climate change, to adopt measures to reduce the impact of disasters.

MANILA, Philippines – Officers of the Philippine Coffee Board, Inc. are urging the Department of Agriculture (DA) yesterday to immediately release the remaining P125 million earmarked for the development of the coffee industry.

MANILA, Philippines – The competitiveness of the Philippines when compared to other countries is expected to drop next year as more money is allocated for social services to help typhoon victims, the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The number of Filipino families who suffered involuntary hunger in the third quarter declined to around 3.4 million from an estimated 3.7 million in the second quarter, the latest household hunger survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

MANILA, Philippines–More than 700 cases of leptospirosis have been reported in four government hospitals with more people suspected of having contracted the potentially fatal disease coming in every day.