THE MANILATIMES
2010 YEARENDER

FACED with a budget deficit, President Benigno Aquino 3rd is reviving a scheme first implemented by his late mother to pursue big infrastructure projects using private-sector financing. In his first State of the Nation Address (SONA), the President highlighted the need to harmonize public and private sector initiatives to spur economic growth and accelerate infrastructure development. Read the rest of this entry »

LOCAL share prices and the peso ended the year on a positive note, with the benchmark stock index breaching the 4,200 level in light trading ahead of the New Year holiday. Read the rest of this entry »

AS this year draws to a close and the next beckons in firecrackers and booze, let us look back on the momentous events of 2010 and see if our nation moved forward, never in a straight line, but hopefully advancing somehow. No doubt the biggest development, if not accomplishment, of 2010 for Filipinos is the elections, which affirmed our democracy and elevated a new leadership on its promise of eradicating corruption in order to end poverty. Read the rest of this entry »

WHILE nine out of 10 Filipinos are optimistic for 2011, employment opportunities in the country remain grim as shown by the 152-percent increase of overseas employment certificate in process with household service workers accounting for the majority of said applicants, lawmakers said Thursday. Read the rest of this entry »

2010 YEARENDER

A new administration and a new set of legislators took the helm in 2010, raising hopes that the country would be able to leave the supposedly stained legacy of the immediate past leadership through reforms spelled out by President Benigno Aquino 3rd. Then President Gloria Arroyo, however, would not be denied her place in Philippine electoral history, having effected through the Commission on Elections (Comelec) the country’s first fully automated elections–the May 10 balloting. Read the rest of this entry »

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga, Philippines – A worker was seriously injured in a blast that ripped through a makeshift firecracker factory in Baliuag, Bulacan Wednesday afternoon, police said. Read the rest of this entry »

MANILA, Philippines – The Save the Industries Act, the bill that was supposed to save the ailing garments industry of the country, failed to pass the US Congress, the Board of Investments (BOI) said yesterday. Read the rest of this entry »

MANILA, Philippines – The year 2010 had been a disappointing year for the agriculture sector. Read the rest of this entry »

MANILA, Philippines – The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) announced that starting Jan. 15, the flagdown rate of taxicabs would be P40 from the previous P30. Read the rest of this entry »

Last Tuesday was the Holy Innocents Day, when King Herod ordered the killing of all the children in Bethlehem because the Magi did not return to him to inform him where the Messiah was in Bethlehem. The poor innocent little children of Bethlehem became the first Martyrs who died in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, executed by a blood thirsty king who thought that since he ruled the land, no one should be a threat to his authority, not even the Messiah whose coming was foretold by the Prophets. Alas, it is the poor and innocent children who died in the hands of kings and in today’s times, presidents or prime ministers. Read the rest of this entry »