Global Financial Crisis – Philippines

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang yesterday renewed President Arroyo’s call on government agencies to tighten their belts and use their savings to provide emergency employment to the poor to help tide them over in the coming months.

AMID worldwide gloom and doom, local call centers are upbeat this year and for the following years when they expect to corner 10 percent of the $130-billion global market by 2010.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines is not insulated from the effects of the global crisis, and moving towards protectionism will just make the situation worse, the European Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (ECCP) said yesterday.

It is amusing to watch Cebuano Boy Herrera needle fellow Cebuano Winston Garcia on Winnie da Pooh’s pooh performance as funds manager for GSIS pensioners. The former Senator pooh poohed a recent press release claiming GSIS’s assets grew nine percent to P480 billion in ’08.

MANILA, Philippines – An official of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said yesterday that some 3,000 jobs are available in the hotel and restaurant industry as he painted a bright picture for the country’s domestic tourism.

PRESIDENT Arroyo has ordered the Department of Public Works and Highways to hasten the implementation of its emergency job creation program after only 20 percent or 100,000 of the available 500,000 jobs have been filled up in the past two months.

These are extraordinary circumstances. These times require extraordinary efforts, measures, determination, and will. 1.TUCP believes that the cheapest, quickest form of pump-priming would be a decision on a January 1, 2008 effectivity of the 2008 tax exemptions law. The mechanism is in place. The administrative cost would be least. There would be immediate direct effects…

MANILA, Philippines – The Arroyo administration has increased by P1 billion the funding for the emergency employment program to provide more jobs for poor citizens, Malacañang reported yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has expressed concern over the growing number of Filipinos losing their jobs as it admitted that the government does not have enough back-up plans for these retrenched workers.

Mining companies in the Philippines are cutting staff, putting some projects on hold and scrambling for cash as the global crisis financial drags down commodities prices, industry officials say. The economic slowdown could not have come at a worse time for the resource-rich southeast Asian country, which had been trying to rebuild the mining industry…

Mining companies in the Philippines are cutting staff, putting some projects on hold and scrambling for cash as the global crisis drags down prices commodities, industry officials said.

The global crisis continued to take its toll on Filipinos, as the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announced on Wednesday that as of this week, 40,191 workers have been laid off.

US-based outsourcing firm Accenture is laying off almost half its workforce in the Philippine because of the effects of the global financial crisis, the Labor department said on Tuesday.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) : Industry trackers on Wednesday slashed projections of global spending on information technology (IT) and said computer chip makers  could be hit with an unprecedented plunge in revenue.

Betty Reyes (not her real name), a single mother living in Pasig, stacked a collection of fliers and classified ads on her wobbly desk. While doing so, her son ate instant noodles and pandesal for breakfast. Nearly three months ago, she used to be call center agent working in Ortigas. But after an altercation with…

MORE Filipinos are watching TV and forgoing luxuries amid the hard times, AGB Nielsen Media Research said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Education (DepEd) warned private schools yesterday that the agency would use its regulatory powers against schools that will not practice self-restraint in imposing tuition hikes for school year 2009-10.

Officials allot P7B to create180,000 jobs   At least 39,000 Filipinos have lost their jobs since October, as factories and companies lay off workers amid the deepening global financial crisis, an official said Monday.

The government appears to be moving into high gear to create a million new jobs—its strategy to counter the impact of the global economic crisis on the Philippines.

Two departments have embarked on income-generating projects that will create 242,536 jobs in the countryside.

LIMOUSINES roll up to the plate glass storefront in Makati, unloading heirloom jewelry, paintings, and recently even a chamber for divers with the Bends.

JAPANESE company Toshiba will invest P110 million and employ more than 600 workers in Laguna to expand its operation beyond the production of hard disk drives.

MANILA, Philippines – President Arroyo yesterday appealed to private colleges and universities to defer any increase in tuition and other school fees due to the economic difficulties.

MANILA, Philippines – Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza said yesterday the DENR is budgeting P2.5 billion to create 111,536 “green collar” jobs as its contribution to President Arroyo’s Comprehensive Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program or CLEEP.

MANILA, Philippines – A glut of office supply is forcing landlords to compete for limited tenants by lowering rent, according to a leading global property services company.

A former economic manager said Thursday that he sees no need for a stimulus fund in the Philippines.

The number of South Korean tourists who would troop to the Philippines could slow down this year, the envoy of South Korea to the Philippines said in a roundtable with The Manila Times on Tuesday.

THE government will spend P82.79 billion on infrastructure within the first quarter to spur economic growth and create 900,000 jobs, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said yesterday.

Philippine furniture and home décor exporters are asking the government for aid, including a P1-billion export development fund and pegging of the exchange rate at P55 to the dollar, saying they faced “extinction.”

MANILA, Philippines – Some 500,000 jobs in various infrastructure projects all over the country will be available for workers, according to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).