MANILA, Philippines – Millions of Filipinos working overseas sent home a record high $1.5 billion in June, up 3.3 percent from last year, allaying fears that remittances will dry up amid the global slowdown.

For the first time, a Cabinet official of the Arroyo administration has publicly admitted that the reason why economic benefits are not trickling down to the poor is due to the country’s high population growth. Finance Secretary Gary Teves even used imagery to illustrate his point, correctly pointing out that people will just have to…

Academics do not wait for constitutions and legislatures to declare them free. They have always believed themselves to be free to do what academics do, and have so acted. It is the juridical recognition of academic freedom that is rather belated.

What is particularly significant to reproductive health advocates about the Magna Carta of Women is that it addresses the major causes of women’s mortality and morbidity, including access to maternal care, responsible, ethical, legal, safe and effective methods of family planning. For me, this assures a woman her human right to determine the family planning…

HONG KONG’s Maynilad Water Services Inc., the water concessionaire operating the western zone part of Metro Manila, is not opposed to the development of the Laiban Dam project in Tanay, Rizal but has objected the proposed “take or pay” provision of the agreement.

Failure to remit the compulsory contribution of the employees to the SSS is a violation of the SSS Law (R.A. 1161 as amended by R.A. 8282) that renders the employer criminally liable. Such liability however arises only if there is employer-employee relationship between the complainant and the alleged offender. This is the ruling in this…

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Francis Escudero yesterday said Congress is expected to ratify into law the Anti-Torture Bill after the bicameral conference committee has reconciled the two versions of the bill.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines raised the alarm yesterday over the slow pace of negotiations for the reduction of greenhouse gases that could lead to the failure of nations to forge a new climate change treaty replacing the Kyoto Protocol before the December deadline.

Little has been heard of the proposal to privatize Philpost in recent months, but it would be a mistake for employees to become too complacent. They would be well-advised, in fact, to read a study published by the post and logistics section of the UNI Global Union.

The head of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) yesterday assured that the fund being maintained by the agency to be used to provide for the needs of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) is intact even as amounts of it are placed in investments.

Migrant Filipino workers in the United States spend an average of $12 79 to send $500 home to their families in the Philippines, or an average of $11 45 to remit $200

P5-B rural infrastructure plans partly funded by ADB   ATOTAL of P5-billion rural infrastructure projects funded with assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that aims to combat poverty in 779 of the country’s poorest municipalities are currently being implemented by the Department of Agriculture, an official said Monday.

The Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA) this year targets to enroll about a third more foreign retirees, its chairman said.

Remittances continued to post a modest increase in the first six months, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Monday.

A House-Senate conference committee on Monday reconciled after just one meeting the conflicting provisions of their versions of the proposed Anti-Torture Law, the missing link in Philippine observance of human rights.

MANILA, Philippines – Having “shared” IT networks among state universities and colleges (SUCs) will improve research and development while allowing students to transact online, according to Catanduanes Representative Joseph Santiago.

MANILA, Philippines – The local manufacturing and outsourcing sectors are the biggest software pirates in the country, due mainly to the large number of computers that they use in their operations.

Proposed bill supports current voice, SMS rates MANILA, Philippines – Manila Representative Congresswoman Maria Theresa Bonoan-David has filed a bill seeking to mandate telecommunications firms to allot a portion of their revenues for health and education programs for children.

The Arroyo administration increased the number of beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, or 4Ps to one million poor families a month from 700,000 families a month.

DuPont Co., a giant multinational operating in 70 countries providing products for agriculture, apparel, communications, electronics, home and construction, nutrition, safety and transportation, is being sued in Delaware for asbestos-related illnesses incurred by three workers from its former Argentina nylon fabricating plant.

The Philippines has convinced five lawmakers from the US Congress to sponsor a bill aimed at giving duty-free or reduced tariffs on local garment exports made of US fabric.

I have three “guests” in my house, promdi relatives who came to Manila in search of the proverbial green pasture. Two are undergraduates who dropped out of college in Tacloban City—one because he lost interest in pursuing a college degree; the other one because she got pregnant and had to get married. In typical Pinoy…

The battle to recruit and retain qualified call center personnel just got tougher.

At least three left-leaning congressmen are bent on running for senator in the 2010 elections and one of them has agreed to join the senatorial ticket of deposed President Joseph Estrada’s political party.

THE government has raised its programmed spending next year by P35 billion to bankroll the stimulus package of the Arroyo administration and keep the economy from sliding into recession.

MANILA, Philippines – The country posted a consolidated public sector surplus of P28.67 billion in 2008 or 0.4 percent of gross domestic product, (GDP), marking the third consecutive yearly surplus for the public sector, latest data from the Department of Finance (DOF) showed.

You may have a good idea and you may want to turn it into your business, so go for it … after you make your business plan. Business plans are written declarations of your business goals: what you aim to achieve, why you think you can reach these goals and how you plan to reach…

The automation of the 2010 elections is a step in the right direction to insure that the results are accurate and will be known in a matter of hours. But it does not necessarily insure that the winners are the best and the wisest choices of the electorate. More important than automation is the education…

MANILA, Philippines – Catholic bishops have vowed to continue to support pro-life groups in opposing the passage of the controversial Reproductive Health Bill.

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino workers continue to sneak into Lebanon even as negotiations for the lifting of the deployment ban there remained uncertain.