Global Financial Crisis – Philippines

by Cris Evert Lato from Cebu Daily News CEBU CITY, Philippines – About 30 percent of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are working in the United States, according to research group Ibon Foundation.

As global markets reel from the impact of the financial crisis that has claimed among its victims corporate giants from the US to Europe, Philippine banks have, thus far, emerged largely unscathed, the country’s top central banker points out.

Economic managers unveiled yesterday a P300 billion Economic Sustainability Plan for next year that will shield the country from the global economic crisis by boosting consumer spending, government and private investments and extending more direct cash assistance to the poor.

SPECIAL REPORT:LOCAL IMPACT OF GLOBAL MELTDOWN   RP banks, investment firms, even exporters are forecast to weather the storm but labor sector will suffer.

The Monetary Board yesterday closed down three more rural banks identified with the Legacy group and placed them under the receivership of Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.

AMID a global credit crunch, overseas Filipino worker (OFW) households are holding on to their cash rather than investing them in financial instruments, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.

Social Security System (SSS) administrator Romulo Neri now controls a P100-billion fund that was approved by President Arroyo and her Cabinet for a massive infrastructure-based program.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. expressed confidence yesterday that the monetary policies of the BSP would allow the economy to be “relatively less affected” by the global slowdown.

WASHINGTON – Will the global economic crisis cause a sharp drop in worker remittances to the Philippines in 2009 or will the country be immune to the downturn?

from ABS-CBNNews.com The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) should look after the 900 workers recently laid off by a business process outsourcing (BPO) company, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said Wednesday.

by Moira Herbst from BusinessWeek Economic woe usually leads to layoffs in certain industries, but this time the pink slips will be widespread When the dot-com and housing bubbles burst, it was easy to see what types of jobs would disappear. But these days as nervous lenders cower and credit contracts, virtually every industry is…

by ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS Associated Press Writer from FindLaw GENEVA (AP) – The global financial crisis will add at least 20 million people to the world’s unemployed, bringing the total to 210 million by the end of next year, the U.N. labor agency said Monday. That will be the first time in a decade of…

by Mayen Jaymalin from The Philippine Star Labor Secretary Marianito Roque gave assurances yesterday that the world economic crisis would not cause Filipino workers in the United States and other countries to lose their jobs. “It may affect us, but it will not hit us like a tidal wave, not suddenly,” he said. “With the…

by Ernesto F. Herrera from The Manila Times The Philippine economy is already seeing the effects of a global economic slowdown through a decrease in foreign investments flows. The Bangko Sentral ng Pili–pinas (BSP) reported that net foreign direct investments from January to July dropped 60.2 percent and was less than half the $2.41 billion…

Calamba City — In line with the directives of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to implement pro-poor programs, the Regional Inter-Agency committee (RIAC) on the non-wage benefits spearheaded by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) recently with 43 companies regionwide aimed at helping workers to cope up with the…