Bad News

There’s more sobering news on the state of the country’s environment, according to an environment official during Monday’s celebration of Earth Day: The Philippines has the second-lowest forest cover in Southeast Asia and its biodiversity is among the most threatened in the world; despite the country having one of the most extensive coral reef areas…

ZAMBOANGA CITY—An estimated 100,000 Filipinos in Sabah are expected to flee to the Philippines by May, according to a government “worse case scenario” following an incursion by supporters of the sultan of Sulu in February and a subsequent crackdown by Malaysian forces in the area.

The UN’s latest assessment of global cases of HIV/Aids shows there has been a further drop in new infections among children. There were 330,000 new infections in children last year – the figure is 24% lower than in 2009.

It isn’t as easy as Chicken Joy to sell the Philippines, as claimed by Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez, and not even his “It’s more fun in the Philippnes” slogan will work, because it is no fun for tourists coming to Manila with its airport being named as the worst airport in Asia.

You and I are living in a culture of performance. Comparing ourselves with the next person has become a norm. Advertising has convinced us that we should always look better, feel better and make others eat our dust.

MANILA, Philippines – Mining will be banned in protected areas and in tourism sites – including Palawan and Boracay – while no new permits for mining operations will be issued until Congress passes a new revenue sharing scheme that is more advantageous to the government.

TUCP President Ernesto F. Herrera and delegates to the TUCP Special Convention on March 16, 2012 welcomed a new project on social dialogue with the US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) through the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (Solidarity Center).

With a 70-percent rise noted in a span of 10 years from 1999 to 2009, the Philippines has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) official said.

SENSING hesitation from the Department of Education (DepEd) on using the child’s first language or the child’s mother tongue in teaching, a lawmaker championing the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) system has called on Sec. Armin Luistro to get rid of the old language of instruction and implement mother tongue-based teaching in the first 6…

THE Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 (NAIA 1) again made headlines in the international arena, but in a bad way. NAIA 1 was adjudged by travel guide Frommer’s as the second worst airport in the world.

TERMINAL 1 of the Ninoy Aquino International has been voted the world’s worst airport this year—down from fifth worst in April—by the online guide to sleeping in airports (http://sleepinginairports.net).

(Updated 6:09 pm.) While President Benigno Aquino III declared that foreign capitalists are “lining up” to invest in the Philippines, the United Nations’ World Investment Report (WIR) 2011 shows that the lines are much longer leading to Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

Foreign investors looking to invest in real estate-related businesses have ranked Manila as their last choice among various key cities in the Asia-Pacific.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines ranked third among 173 countries in terms of vulnerability to disaster risks and natural hazards, a study showed.

MANILA, Philippines – Filipinos are the leading shoppers in Southeast Asia, a survey by Nielsen released yesterday showed, as 80 percent of those surveyed said they enjoy shopping.

Millions of domestic workers around the world are employed in private homes, often unregulated by public authorities, making them vulnerable to exploitation. This week the ILO has been meeting in Geneva to design a convention to protect them.

MANILA: The rate of new HIV infections has seen a 25 per cent drop in the last decade. However, in the Philippines, the number of people infected has risen – particularly among call-centre workers.

Higher tablet demand and lower Netbook sales are likely to take a greater bite out of the PC market this year than expected, according to data released today by Gartner.

MANILA, Philippines –  The military’s Retirement and Separation Benefits System (RSBS) has completed a draft bill that aims to reform the armed forces’ retirement scheme and to address the government’s growing pension arrears.

The House of Representatives is in for another con-tentious debate on the issue of the divorce bill before it takes on another long recess.

MANILA, Philippines, May 13, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – President Benigno Aquino told reporters today that groups threatening or calling for a tax boycott or other forms of civil disobedience if the controversial Reproductive Health bill is passed are courting sedition charges.

These last two week, I have been in Italy to preside over graduation ceremonies of the Ateneo School of Government in Milan and Rome. In the last three years, the ASoG (of which I am Dean) has been implementing, with partners, a Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship Training Program for migrant Filipinos in Italy. We have…

I met her while lining up for coffee at the neighborhood Starbucks in Salcedo Village. It was almost 10 in the evening when I took a break from the grim images of a Japanese doomsday being played over and over again on CNN.

THE Philippines is no longer the world’s biggest importer of rice as the government lower its importation targets to less than a million metric tons (MT) this year.

Philippines—Washington believes the Philippines is “unlikely” to meet its second Millennium Development Goal (MDG) or achieving universal primary education by 2015, according to a report of the US embassy in Manila furnished the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

MANILA, Philippines – Two top international accounting firms are now under fire for their role in the financial meltdown that is up to now causing untold difficulties to economies and people everywhere. The last time a large accounting firm got into similar trouble was when Enron fell apart and Arthur Andersen, its accounting firm, subsequently…

DAVAO CITY, Dec. 21 (PIA) — After the pilot voluntary code of good practices on decent work in the Business Process Outsourcing industry, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE XI) launched yesterday a voluntary code in the banana industry as well.

“Honey, I’m going to the office,” is a remark we may not hear as much if more people have their way. Three out of five workers around the world said they don’t need to be in the office to be productive, according to a study out yesterday from Cisco. The “Cisco Connected World Report” collected…

A top government official, meeting with a group of senior journalists over lunch yesterday, inquired: Since we’re all Filipinos who want what’s good for our country, why can’t media just report the good things that government is doing, instead of always looking for what went wrong and criticizing?

Around 50 suspected armed members of the New People’s Army (NPA), attacked Victorias Milling Company Inc. (VMC) and damaged property worth around P600,000, the police said.