Category: Philippines

Posted on

Great News::RP steps up cash handouts to poor – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

I’d rather be feeding the poor than helping politicians buy their Nth house, just hope this isn’t just a way for government officials to extract the money from the government coffers. I’d really love if they found away, for ordinary citizens through technology; to monitor such projects.

RP steps up cash handouts to poor
Agence France-Presse First Posted 17:22:00 04/03/2009
Filed Under: Poverty, World Financial Crisis, Unemployment, Government Aid
MANILA, Philippines — Five million of the Philippines’ poorest families will receive cash or health insurance benefits from the government this year, Malacañang said Friday.
A total of 321,000 families — double the original target — will qualify for cash handouts of up to P9,000 $187.50 this year, spokesman Cerge Remonde told reporters.
More than 100,000 people have either lost their jobs or suffered pay cuts as the effects of the global financial crisis hits the Philippines.
The country has been hit by plunging exports amid falling demand from recession-plagued overseas markets, according to labor department data.
Under the plans, five million families will receive the equivalent of P1,200 each in the form of medical insurance coverage, Remonde added.
The government will also retrain half a million young people aged between 15 and 24 “which is the biggest segment of the unemployed population,” he said.
The government says nine million people — or 10 percent of the population, are now jobless or underemployed.
The Asian Development Bank said Philippine economic growth would slow to 2.5 percent this year compared to 6.4 percent in 2008.
via RP steps up cash handouts to poor – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.

Posted on

rePost: Hope This Becomes Law:Bill proposes 7 more holidays – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

José Rizal
Image via Wikipedia

Bill proposes 7 more holidays
By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 17:55:00 03/13/2009 Filed Under: Legislation, Public Holidays
MANILA, Philippines—As if Filipinos do not have enough holidays already, Congress is proposing to add at least seven more red-letter days on the calendar that would jack up the number of non-working holidays in a year to 23.
Catanduanes Representative Joseph Santiago warned in a statement on Friday that too many holidays could further dampen the country’s economy especially the 24-7 call centers that have to pay a premium for non-working holidays.
The extra non-working holidays being sought in a bill pending in Congress are February 4 (Philippine-American War Heroes Day), Chinese New Year‘s Day (movable date), March 18 (Bangsamoro Day), March 22 (Emilio Aguinaldo Day), June 19 (Jose Rizal Day), November 20 (Children’s Day), and September 1 (Filipino Family Day).
via Bill proposes 7 more holidays – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Posted on

Joey De Leon's Poem To Francis Kiko "Master Rapper"Magalona and Tito Sotto

Francis M.
Image via Wikipedia

From probably one of the most versatile, talented and frank/real persons on Philippine Show Biz , idol Joey De Leon, his poem to two of his very close friends :

Sa dalawa kong matalik na kaibigan, aking ka-Bulaga, Kapuso, at kasandalan, isa
ngayo’y nagdiriwang ng kaarawan at ang isa naman’y may pinagdaraanan.
Maligayang bati, Tito kong Escalera, tulad ng pangalan, magsunud-sunod sana ang
mga biyaya ang mga pagsagana at magtagal pa nawa ang ating pagsasama. Tumpak ka, Pareng Kiko. Sa iyong tinuran sa landas ng buhay, isang lubak lamang yan.
Pagkatapos ng dilim ay kinabukasan. Awit mo, may bago na namang pagkukunan.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Posted on

rePost:Public Transpo Rant!:Business – Prius to hit Philippine roads by June – INQUIRER.net

2004-2007 Toyota Prius photographed in USA.
Image via Wikipedia

The mortgage of my parents latest vehicle is going to be paid by next year that’s why in total consumer cliche behavior we are beginning to think of our next car. The Prius is probably going to be very expensive hope my parents can afford it. As for me. Public transport is still the best way to bring people with the least amount of carbon emissions and gas usage. I may only be one but I vote with my peso and ride only the best busses to promote investment in this underserved sector of the Philippine services part of the GDP. Hope more people do because as long as we tolerate overburdened, second rate, second hand 20 year old buses from Japan, people who can buy cars would always prefer buying one.
If public transport:
-ran just a little late (10 minute car ride becomes 20, versus the now, 10 car ride is an hour ),
-meant I get to sit down during rush hours(versus the forced to stand up)
-meant standard fares and intelligible fare matrices, so I don’t get irritated by rider and bus conductors fighting over 1-4 peso difference in fare.
-meant exclusive lanes or congestion pricing. Because the volume of traffic in manila is unsustainable and old cars are just too cheap, we must discourage these jalopy or at least level the playing field. I like the way Singapore handles this. You have to have a garage and your car can only be used for a fixed number of years.
-meant less pollution , which means the Department Of Health would no longer warn the public from biking to work because of the health risk associated with lung/repiratory diseases.
I could go on but I detect a mild rantiness in my writing probably due to me being very sick with fever and flu yesterday, and the ton of work I have to Do

Prius to hit Philippine roads by June
By Abigail L. Ho Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 03:41:00 03/11/2009
Filed Under: Automotive Equipment
MANILA, Philippines — Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. plans to bring the Prius hybrid car to the Philippines by June, amid global efforts to come up with ways to limit carbon dioxide emissions, a company official said.
The company “very recently” got the go-ahead from Toyota Motor Corp. in Japan to bring the Prius over, its vice chairman Alfred Ty said.
Business – Prius to hit Philippine roads by June – INQUIRER.net.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Posted on

rePost: 5 Years Late :BPO sector: English skills no longer enough – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Location of the Philippines
Image via Wikipedia

It’s nice to know that the our leaders are finally thinking of the stuff I’ve been hearing form Indian Business leaders probably 5 years ago. Hope we could catch up.

“Labor arbitrage erodes over time. What we need are people who can contribute to the bottom line. Success comes from a combination of labor arbitrage and cost efficiency. These would make for a successful long-term play,” he added.
He said critical thinking was an important trait for BPO workers to imbibe, as this provided added value to what they could do. Beyond answering calls and doing basic voice functions, critical thinking could be applied to other aspects of the BPO chain.
BPO sector: English skills no longer enough – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Posted on

rePost:Great News:Business – Toshiba to shift some SSD assembly to RP – INQUIRER.net

Toshiba Corporation 株式会社東芝
Image via Wikipedia

Companies that have manufacturing facilities in the Philippines usually have factory priced sales during December. They sell excess supply. If the recession continues to dampen demand, there would probably be excess supply. I hope I can buy  a few SSD drives!

Toshiba to shift some SSD assembly to RP
Solid-state drive assembly to start in Apr-June Reuters First Posted 10:23:00 03/10/2009
TOKYO, Japan — Toshiba Corp. said Tuesday it planned to start production of solid-state drives (SSD) overseas to cut costs and increase output, beginning assembly in the Philippines by the middle of the year.
Toshiba, the world’s number two maker of NAND flash memory after Samsung Electronics Co., is betting on strong growth for NAND-based SSD memory devices, seen as a promising alternative to some hard-disk drives because they are more shock-resistant and consume less energy.
Business – Toshiba to shift some SSD assembly to RP – INQUIRER.net.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Posted on

-No To Right Of Reply Bill-GMANews.TV – Media groups vow stiff defense against RORB – Nation – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News – BETA

FHM-Lusia
Image by BlueJeff via Flickr

The right of reply bil would like to ensure that the party referred to by a media report has a law defined right to air his side. Its all fine and good in theory but let’s analyze this in its proper context and we would realize that like libel it is another tool that powerful people use to suppress the truth and/or bullying by the media. Ordinary people like me do not have the resources to hire lawyers to try to sue people for libel or if this becomes law try to force media organizations to air my side. Generalizing this, although I have been extremely critical of the Philippine media, the toolset of powerful people in the Philippines would be the only one that is helped by this bill.

Media groups vow stiff defense against RORB
03/04/2009 | 09:02 AM
MANILA, Philippines – After failing to come to terms with lawmakers, media groups vowed Wednesday to stage a “man-to-man” defense against the passage of the Right of Reply Bill in Congress.
National Press Club president Benny Antiporda said they will not allow the passage of the RORB, which he likened to a “beautiful woman with AIDS.”
GMANews.TV – Media groups vow stiff defense against RORB – Nation – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News – BETA.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Posted on

rePost-Hope This Does Not Come To Pass-Foreign Policy In Focus | Asia: The Coming Fury

Map of the dominant ethnolinguistic groups of ...
Image via Wikipedia

I’ve admired Prof Bello for a long time. I’ve enjoyed stories about him tearing celebrity professors a new one(Celebrity professors/acamedics tend to be more in the communications field and tend to be less in the academic world!).But I sure hope he is wrong about this! Thanks to Angry Bear for the liunk

The Coming Fury
The sudden end of the export era is going to have some ugly consequences. In the last three decades, rapid growth reduced the number living below the poverty line in many countries. In practically all countries, however, income and wealth inequality increased. But the expansion of consumer purchasing power took much of the edge off social conflicts. Now, with the era of growth coming to an end, increasing poverty amid great inequalities will be a combustible combination.
In China, about 20 million workers have lost their jobs in the last few months, many of them heading back to the countryside, where they will find little work. The authorities are rightly worried that what they label “mass group incidents,” which have been increasing in the last decade, might spin out of control. With the safety valve of foreign demand for Indonesian and Filipino workers shut off, hundreds of thousands of workers are returning home to few jobs and dying farms. Suffering is likely to be accompanied by rising protest, as it already has in Vietnam, where strikes are spreading like wildfire. Korea, with its tradition of militant labor and peasant protest, is a ticking time bomb. Indeed, East Asia may be entering a period of radical protest and social revolution that went out of style when export-oriented industrialization became the fashion three decades ago.
Walden Bello is a Foreign Policy In Focus columnist, a senior analyst at the Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South, president of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, and a professor of sociology at the University of the Philippines.
Foreign Policy In Focus | Asia: The Coming Fury.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Posted on

Cato Unbound » Blog Archive » Down with the Four-Year College Degree!

Cato Institute
Image via Wikipedia

I’m digging through unpublished/drafts in the blog and I found this. Its march already and students are starting to deal with finals and afterwards graduations, and finally the drudgery of work for most other people!  Thought provoking!

Finally, consider the hundreds of thousands of students who go to college just because they have had it pounded into their heads since childhood that the good jobs require a BA The wage premium that shows up in regression equations may or may not apply to them. In Real Education, I offer an extended example involving a hypothetical young man graduating from high school who is at the 70th percentile in intellectual ability–smart enough to get a BA in today’s world–but just average in intrapersonal and interpersonal ability. He is at the 95th percentile in the visual-spatial and small motor skills useful in becoming a top electrician. He is trying to decide whether to go to college, major in business, and try to become a business executive, or instead become an electrician.
Cato Unbound » Blog Archive » Down with the Four-Year College Degree!.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]