MANILA, Philippines – With congressmen preoccupied with Charter change, local and foreign business groups urged lawmakers yesterday to give priority to 12 pieces of legislation, including those that will lower power costs and provide broad access to public records.

On June 30 more than 600 lowly workers of Quedancor will be laid off — victims of the government agency’s financial mismanagement. Reason for the retrenchment: “huge operational losses.” Supposedly Quedancor has run out of funds to sustain one-third of its work force. The employees naturally are asking why they’ll be the ones punished for…

MANILA, Philippines – More employees will be hired by the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry despite the slowdown in the global economy, based on a survey conducted by the Business Process Association of the Philippines.

MANILA, Philippines – The accumulated bad loans of universal and commercial banks were unchanged in April, staying well below the four-percent pre-1997 level at 3.65 percent as banks kept discarding non-performing loans, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – University of Asia and the Pacific (UAP) professor and economist Bernardo Villegas expects the country’s economy to grow by close to six percent in the fourth quarter of this year.

MANILA, Philippines – The country’s unemployment rate slipped to 7.5 percent in April from 7.7 percent in January despite the economy shrinking at its fastest pace in two decades in the first three months of the year, the National Statistics Office (NSO) reported yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The National Government’s debt continued to pile up, increasing by 1.5 percent, or P65 billion, to P4.229 trillion as of end-March from the end-February level of P4.164 trillion, latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected Monday the United States would make a “solid” recovery from recession in mid-2010, but warned of major risks including the real-estate crisis and rising interest rates.

Despite lower headline jobless number   JOB prospects in the Philippine market hardly improved in April, according to the National Statistics Office (NSO), which reported lower unemployment numbers largely due to the government’s temporary work program.

The unemployment rate fell to 7.5 percent in April from eight percent a year ago despite a global recession, but a top economist said the latest jobs data were misleading.

The fight against the one-chamber constituent assembly to amend the Charter isn’t over as yet, despite a ruling by the Supreme Court (SC) dismissing for being premature two petitions that sought the nullification of moves in the House of Representatives to convene a con-ass in revising the 1987 Constitution.

The US economy should emerge from recession by the late summer, according to economists from some of the country’s top banks.

Despite the progress of the global fight against child labor, the economic crisis still threatens to increase the number of child laborers, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Monday. In its report titled “Give Girls a Chance: Tackling child labor, a key to the future,” the ILO said girls in particular are in danger of…

The United Nations (UN) has again flayed the Arroyo administration’s dismal human rights record after the UN Committee against Torture (UNCAT) expressed grave concern at the “routine and widespread use of torture” in the country and the “climate of impunity for perpetrators of acts of torture, including military, police, and other state officials.”

(OTTAWA) Twenty of Canada’s foremost health, environment and labour organizations are urging Canadian Parliamentarians to heed the call to ban Canadian asbestos being brought to Ottawa by three Grade 10 students from northern British Columbia. The students – Hayley McDermid, Claire Hinchliffe and Chloe Staiger, have written a bill to end Canada’s mining and export…

The white paper on Corporate Social Responsibility, published in January 2009 by the Government of Norway is now available in English. See link below.

MANILA, Philippines—Urging more Filipinos abroad to register for the 2010 elections, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) on Monday said it expects some 700,000 overseas absentee voters “to significantly influence” the outcome of next year’s presidential elections.

An unhealthy lifestyle may be to blame for the gender divide The reluctance of men to adopt a healthy lifestyle and visit the doctor may be fuelling a gender gap in cancer cases and deaths, experts say.

MANILA, Philippines—A group of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in New Zealand will try to persuade immigration officials there next month to allow OFWs laid off due to redundancy to remain in the South Pacific state so that they could find new jobs.

TODAY is the first hearing of Senate committees on Trade and Industry and Public Services on the issue of pre-paid loads of cellular phones that always seem to vanish.

Local and foreign business groups are calling on Malacañang and lawmakers to prioritize the twin power bills pending before Congress to ensure its passage.

INTERNATIONAL passenger traffic in the Philippines fell in the first three months of the year due to the global economic crisis, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) said Monday.

THE amount of unpaid bank loans issued to consumers is on the rise, based on Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data.

GENEVA: The poor are disproportionately victims of road crashes, with the number of deaths set to nearly double in two decades, according to the first global assessment of road safety released on Monday.

Social scientists tell us that battered women go through a cycle of violence that is divided into three main stages: a tension-building phase, an acute violence stage, and a repentance phase.

MANILA, Philippines – Remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) reached $1.4 billion in April, bringing the four-month total so far to $5.5 billion – an expansion of 2.6 percent compared with levels recorded over the same period in 2008, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Public Works and Highways suspended 58 construction firms from participating in DPWH projects for one year, beginning yesterday, for reportedly violating government procurement rules.

MANILA, Philippines – Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro is the richest member of the Cabinet while National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales is the poorest, according to their statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) for 2008 submitted to the Office of the President.

MANILA, Philippines – The Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) in Taipei, with the support of Taiwan’s Council of Labor Affairs (CLA), will strengthen its direct hiring program for Filipinos during the Philippine Independence Day celebration today following the holding of successful job fairs in the key cities of Taiwan.

Despite the widespread perception of corruption in the Arroyo administration, only 7 percent of Filipinos believe that the Philippine judiciary is affected by corruption, international think tank Transparency International (TI) has recently said.