Our local business leaders dread the coming of 2010, when our commitments to the AFTA will finally take effect. Come next year, many of our industries see an end to the good times, and see themselves struggling from all sides.

The government’s JOBapalooza ’09 job fair attracted thousands of job applicants in Metro Manila and in major cities in Mindanao on Friday. The country-wide job fair offered over 200,000 jobs in construction, business process outsourcing, engineering and overseas work. Majority were overseas jobs.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Press freedom declined around the world last year, deteriorating for the first time in every region, according to a study released by Freedom House.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Thursday to rein in credit-card companies accused of duping and gouging consumers already hurt by the paralyzing global recession.

US tags hawker centers as ‘piracy hotspots’   THE US Trade Representative Office (USTR) has tagged Quiapo and Binondo in Manila, Greehills in San Juan, Makati Cinema Square, as well as Metrowalk in the Ortigas Business District, as “piracy hotspots.”

It was good to have met up with former Senator Ernesto Herrera just a few days from Labor Day. Herrera, a pillar of the Philippine labor movement, is the quintessential laborite. I had not seen him for a while but I was keen to hear his views in a financial crisis that has profoundly affected…

WASHINGTON – The Philippines was placed on a lower level watch list of intellectual property rights violators along with 32 other trade partners by the United States government, reports from the capital said Thursday.

MANILA, Philippines – Around 30,000 jobseekers flocked to the Labor Day job fair, said to be the biggest in history, held yesterday at the SMX Convention Center at the Mall of Asia in Pasay City, as the government announced a package of non-wage benefits for workers to help them cope with the prevailing global financial…

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines continues to be on the US Trade Representatives’ Special 301 “ordinary” watch list amid efforts to curb all forms of intellectual property piracy in the country.

Isang maalab at mainit na pagbati sa Araw ng Paggawa! Muli, sa araw na ito ating ipakita ang mahigpit na pagkakaisa ng ating hanay,  mga manggagawa sa Pilipinas at sa ibayong dagat.   Ipinapaabot rin natin ang ating pakikipagkaisa sa mga manggagawa sa buong daigdig sa dakilang araw ng pandaigdigang paggawa.

MANILA, Philippines – The government will hold a three-day job fair starting June 12, Independence Day, to help workers who lost their jobs due to the global economic crisis.

When the Supreme Court (SC) declares a law unconstitutional it is exercising its power of judicial review explicitly granted by the Constitution itself (Section 5 (2) (a) and (b) Article VIII). This does not mean judicial supremacy but merely the performance of a duty as part of the system of checks and balances (Dabuet vs.…

MANILA, Philippines – Lawmakers are seeking measures to provide workers, employers and those retrenched ample benefits and other forms of assistance in the face of the worsening global economic crisis.

MANILA, Philippines – Even the combination of monetary easing and fiscal stimulus would not be enough to fully offset the impact of a slowing global demand and declining remittances, international ratings agency Standard & Poor’s Rating said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Only about three million Filipinos are registered as individual taxpayers with the Bureau of Internal Revenues (BIR), the Department of Finance (DOF) announced yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Government spending on infrastructure projects is the major reason why the construction industry is growing despite the global financial crisis, the Philippine Contractors Association (PCA) said yesterday.

After a grueling day at the JOBapalooza ’09, where throngs of workers are expected to converge for the job and livelihood fairs highlighting this year’s Labor Day commemoration, a special concert is set to entertain workers and their families to cap the day’s celebration.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) today said that some 250,000 local and overseas jobs will be offered to graduates, new entrants to the labor force, and other workers especially those who were affected by the global crisis at May 1 Jobapalooza ’09 job fair marking the Labor Day celebrations in 16 regions nationwide.

More and more new graduates and jobseekers are riding on the wave of opportunity by registering with the country’s biggest jobs fair dubbed “Tayo Na! Trabaho Na! JOBapalooza ’09” as Labor Day approaches, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) today reported.

In celebration of Labor Day on Friday, May 1, 2009, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in partnership with Globe Telecom will launch a call, text, and online hotline service for the local workforce and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) seeking immediate information on local and overseas jobs and other relevant updates and services.

Filipino consumers are not likely to buy new mobile-phone handset this year because of the global financial crisis, the International Data Corp. (IDC) said Thursday. In its Asia/Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, IDC said that mobile-phone shipments in the Philippines fell 20 percent in the fourth quarter of last year and expected to continue in…

EMPLOYMENT in Philippine industries in the fourth quarter of last year dropped at its fastest pace since the third quarter of 2007, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) said Thursday.

Many, many years ago when I was still rather new to the Philippines, a Filipino said to me if the Philippines was a centipede it would shoot itself in every foot—well, there aren’t many feet left, but here we go again.

At least 100,000 families can save their homes from foreclosure under an amnesty program that will take effect on May 4, the National Housing Authority said yesterday.

A food export leader has called on the Arroyo government to take the current crisis as a platform to institute lasting reforms in the farm sector, the first of which is a permanent ban on the conversion of irrigated and prime agriculture lands to non-agricultural uses.

The United Nations (UN) reiterated yesterday the Arroyo administration’s lack of commitment to uphold human rights despite the insistence of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, who represented the government in the UN meeting at Geneva, that President Arroyo remained committed to the ideals and vision of the UN’s Universal Declaration on Human Rights of attaining “dignity…

MANILA, Philippines – Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) officials are cautiously optimistic that foreign investments could actually be higher than expected this year, possibly pushing the country’s forex reserves higher and the balance of payments (BOP) stronger.

MANILA, Philippines – President Arroyo ordered yesterday the release of P1 billion next month to help the country’s export industries survive the global economic crisis.

MANILA, Philippines – New homes, jobs and livelihood grants await Filipino workers on Labor Day.

I can’t say I am ecstatic over the addition of more party-list congressmen as a consequence of the Supreme Court’s reading of the law.