MANILA, Philippines – Unioil Petroleum Philippines Inc. announced yesterday “real big time” price cuts of P4.75 per liter for gasoline, P3.50 for diesel and P1.50 for kerosene.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine banking system is facing potential drags on its bottomline as the operating environment remains difficult, squeezing banks’ interest rate margins, loan growth decelerating, and the cost of lending rising.

MANILA, Philippines – Over 100 projects involving renewable energy (RE) are now in the pipeline following the passage of the Renewable Energy Act late last year, a Department of Energy (DOE) official said.

MANILA, Philippines – The government decried yesterday the latest assessment of the World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) indicating that Filipino workers have low productivity that is why the country’s competitiveness ranking slipped three notches to 43 from 40 last year.

MANILA, Philippines – Treasury bill (T-bill) rates dropped across-the-board during yesterday’s auction on the back of strong investor appetite for government debt papers.

LEGAZPI CITY, PHilippines  – A leader of a jeepney drivers’ group in Bicol was shot and wounded during the nationwide transport strike yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The demand for nurses abroad has started to decline, while opportunities for graduates of technical courses like engineering are on the rise, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile said a giant multinational drug firm had tried to stop the signing of an executive order putting a cap on the price of essential medicine by offering an alternative program to health officials involving the giving away of five million discount cards to indigent Filipinos.

GMA Network Inc. announced on Monday that it signed a deal with its employees’ union that would pave way for their salary hike and improved benefits in the next three years.

LOCAL shoemakers are asking the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) to repeal a rule that requires adding mustard oil on toluene-based contact cement, which is more popularly known as “rugby,” an industry official said.

I ordered a pizza recently at a popular chain which I have been patronizing ever since it opened. Obviously their pizzas, especially the kind I’ve been used to ordering, are a long way of from what they used to be. Gone are the tons of toppings and instead of a zesty sauce you get more…

To be able to reach its 1 million target voters for the overseas absentee voting (OAV), the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is planning to tap religious organizations and a migrant workers group to help it entice Filipinos overseas to register for the national polls next year.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) yesterday expressed concern over the rise in violence in the country, labeling the current situation as that of “unpeace” that is not only “distressing but disturbing, and even tragic.”

A group of internet cafe owners are organiizing Icafe Pilipinas, a national industry association.

Being preoccupied with building a legacy to be left behind as a reminder of one’s greatness is not necessarily a bad thing. Some people become preoccupied with building grandiose structures and edifices, some endeavor to produce spectacularly magnificent (or conversely, spectacularly horrendous) works of art, others take on social projects of mammoth proportions, or labor…

THE indigent-holders of pre-need plans by the Legacy Group of Companies have been exempted from paying docket and filing fees by the Supreme Court.

SAUDI Arabia’s new draft law to protect domestic workers from abusive working conditions and unpaid wages “falls short” of international standards, Human Rights Watch said.

As many as 120,000 information technology experts will be tapped by the Commission on Elections and its private partners for the automation of the 2010 polls.

Software firm Oracle partners with AMA University MANILA, Philippines – Database business software firm Oracle is setting its sights to make the Philippines as a major source for database systems experts.

Huge commissions, more than the standard 10-percent hush money, being demanded by engineers belonging to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) from constructors undertaking government-funded infrastructure projects not only threaten the profitability of the construction industry but also result in poor-quality projects to the detriment of their target beneficiaries.

SINGAPORE (Xinhua) — The role and relevance of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in the regional and global architecture will be shaped by how it deals with the current crisis and its aftermath, a Singapore official today.

LONDON (AP) — Thousands of people with schizophrenia worldwide could have been saved if doctors had prescribed them the anti-psychotic drug clozapine, a new study says.

99,000 jobs still open in Qatar MANILA, Philippines—Norway is open to Filipino professionals from the fields of engineering and information technology seeking to land a job there, Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) Secretary Marianito Roque said on Monday.

Updated estimates released at July 13-14 International Diaspora and Development Conference WASHINGTON, July 13 – Remittance flows to developing countries are expected to be $304 billion in 2009, down from an estimated $328 billion in 2008, said the World Bank today, releasing a new migration and remittances brief to coincide with an International Diaspora and…

Various task forces from areas with high prevalence of child labor met in June in a unique assembly meant to inspire people to continue upholding child labor education as a priority issue.

Conclusion   Parents of homosexual and lesbian children have the choice to love or to reject them and the earlier they recognize what homosexuality is all about, the sooner they will be able to avoid much of the unnecessary pain that these young people have to bear as they grow into adulthood.

CALL centers would have to freeze salary increases to remain attractive to clients, amid a recent study showing that salary inflation of about 10 percent is among the highest in the Philippines, an industry official said. Benedict Hernandez, Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) president, told reporters that annual salary adjustments may no longer…

STANDARD and Poor’s (S&P) forecast Philippine economic expansion to slow down to 1 percent this year due to the lower than expected first quarter growth and a significant shortfall in government revenues.

Second-quarter GDP growth to take a hit   THE Philippine economy may not pick up in the second quarter of the year as four agencies tasked to stimulate growth failed to disburse funds for infrastructure projects.

MANILA, Philippines – Workers from both the government and the private sector who have been infected with the A(H1N1) virus can now seek compensation from the Employees’ Compensation Commission through the Social Security System or the Government Service Insurance System.