NTUC Blog

by Lawrence Agcaoili – The Philippine Star, 24 Dec 2021 MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has joined the fight against predatory lenders charging an interest rate of as much as 504 percent per annum, as it decided to impose a cap on the charges imposed by lending firms, financing companies and…

by Louella Desiderio – The Philippine Star, 17 Dec 2021 MANILA, Philippines — Philippine exports to other members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement may decline by $100 million due to the deal’s tariff concessions, but this can be offset by additional trade and other benefits, the UN Conference on Trade and Development…

by Lawrence Agcaoili – The Philippine Star, 16 Dec 2021 MANILA, Philippines — Remittances from overseas Filipinos sustained their growth momentum for nine straight months, hitting a three-month high in October as the Christmas season approaches, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

by Janvic Mateo – The Philippine Star, 15 Dec 2021 MANILA, Philippines — The number of jobless Filipinos slightly decreased in the third quarter of the year, but remains above pre-pandemic levels, according to a survey conducted by Social Weather Stations (SWS).

by Ramon Royandoyan – Philstar.com, 14 Dec 2021 MANILA, Philippines (Update 1, 6:51 p.m.) — A faster-than-expected growth in the third quarter prompted the Duterte administration to hike its economic target for this year, which officials said would be feasible if vaccination further picks up and pandemic curbs become looser.

by Ian Nicolas Cigaral – Philstar.com, 7 Dec 2021 MANILA, Philippines — There were fewer jobless Filipinos recorded in October, thanks to looser pandemic restrictions that have allowed people to find work. However, the quality of available jobs deteriorated in the face of hard economic times and high inflation.

by The Philippine Star, 29 Nov 2021 MANILA, Philippines — The number of Filipino families who classified themselves as poor decreased from an estimated 12 million in June 2021 to around 11.4 million in September 2021.

by Romina Cabrera – The Philippine Star, 10 Nov 2021 MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education said a million more learners have enrolled for the current school year compared to 2020 at the height of the pandemic.

By: Ben O. de Vera, INQUIRER.net, 9 Nov 2021 MANILA, Philippines—As the economy further reopened, the Philippines’ gross domestic product (GDP) grew 7.1 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, above expectations although slower than second-quarter expansion GDP or the goods and services produced in the country from July to September was also 3.8-percent larger than output…

By: Neil Arwin Mercado – Reporter, 4 Nov 2021 MANILA, Philippines — The unemployment rate in the country rose to 8.9 percent—equivalent to 4.25 million Filipinos—in September 2021, the highest since January this year, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported Thursday.

by Philstar.com, 14 Oct 2021 MANILA, Philippines — Despite Malacañang’s claim that the press is “alive and well” in the country, a recent national poll found that that 45% of Filipinos believe that it is perilous to publish criticism of the Duterte administration

by Lawrence Agcaoili – The Philippine Star, 13 Oct 2021 MANILA, Philippines — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) slashed anew its growth forecasts for the Philippines, expecting the economy to expand below the targets set by government economic managers as the country struggles to contain the resurgence of COVID infections.

by Andrew J. Masigan – The Philippine Star, 6 Oct 2021 (Part 1) We are in the midst of an educational crisis. Philippine educational standards have deteriorated to such an extent that Filipino children are ranked the least proficient in reading, math and science among 87 nationalities evaluated. This was validated by global academic rating…

by Louella Desiderio – The Philippine Star, 1 Oct 2021 MANILA, Philippines — Over 60 percent of consumers saw their income decline amid the pandemic, according to the third quarter survey of information and insights company TransUnion.

by Christian Deiparine – Philstar.com, 21 Sep 2021 MANILA, Philippines — A network of private schools on Tuesday sought for financial aid from the government amid another low turnout in enrollment during the second year of distance learning in the country.

by Macnamara – Agence France-Presse, 18 Sep 2021 PARIS, France — A failure to slash global emissions is setting the world on a “catastrophic” path to 2.7 degrees Celsius heating, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned Friday just weeks before crunch climate talks.

by Louise Maureen Simeon – The Philippine Star, 8 Sep 2021 MANILA, Philippines — The country’s jobless rate hit its lowest level since the start of the pandemic, but more Filipinos are still on the lookout for additional hours of work as the quality of jobs available in the labor market has yet to improve.

by Louise Maureen Simeon – The Philippine Star, 1 Sep 2021 MANILA, Philippines — Economic recovery for the Philippines will continue to be tough, with its return to pre-crisis levels seen only by late 2023, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said.

by Louise Maureen Simeon – The Philippine Star, 27 Aug 2021 MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine economy will have to wait until late next year to see a return to its pre-crisis levels as the pandemic continues to put a drag on the country’s much-needed rebound.

By Ben O. de Vera, 25 Aug 2021 The Philippines suffered from one of the biggest hikes in joblessness in the Asia-Pacific region last year, and many Filipinos continued to bewail lack of income amid prolonged COVID-19 quarantine, two multilateral lenders said.

By JAMIL SANTOS, GMA News, 19 Aug 2021 The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) on Thursday reported that a total of 654,546 overseas Filipino workers have already returned home amid the global threat of the Delta coronavirus variant.

By Daxim L. Lucas, 17 Aug 2021 Dollars sent home by expatriate Filipinos continued to rise in June resulting in a similar increase for the first semester of the year, defying the ill economic effects of the raging pandemic around the world, data from the central bank showed.

by Louella Desiderio (The Philippine Star), 5 Aug 2021 MANILA, Philippines — Two-thirds of consumers saw their income negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the second quarter, with the impact more pronounced for Gen X and millennials, according to a survey by information and insights company TransUnion.

DOLE releases the number of displaced workers in NCR from Jan. To July, 2021. @BusinessMirror pic.twitter.com/6yFaaokuWM — Samuel Medenilla (@sam_medenilla) August 2, 2021

By Karl R. Ocampo, 29 Jul 2021 President Duterte had promised in previous editions of his State of the Nation Addressed that under his administration, the agriculture sector would be modernized, food prices would be lowered and that the “Plant, Plant, Plant” (PPP) flagship program would jumpstart urgently needed innovations in the vital sector.

by Helen Flores (The Philippine Star), 27 Jul 2021 MANILA, Philippines — About half of Filipino families rated themselves as “mahirap” or poor, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said in its latest survey.

By Ferdinand Patinio, 27 Jul 2021 MANILA – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Tuesday has issued rules in determining the employment relationship between food delivery and courier riders and their respective digital platforms.

BREAKING: Billionaires have gotten $1.8 trillion richer, nearly all tax-free, since the pandemic began. Don't tell us we can't afford a bold reconciliation package that invests at least $4 trillion in jobs and families, paid for by fairer taxes on the rich and corporations. pic.twitter.com/FCj5evDZbV — Americans For Tax Fairness (@4TaxFairness) July 14, 2021

by Louella Desiderio (The Philippine Star), 1 Jul 2021 MANILA, Philippines — Government agencies and business groups have signed an agreement to create one million jobs this year to help the economy bounce back from the impact of the pandemic.

(The Philippine Star), 25 Jun 2021 MANILA, Philippines — S&P Global Ratings has lowered anew its 2021 gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for the Philippines to six percent as the reimposition of strict lockdowns further restricted economic activity.