We beg to differ.
Although the record of the current administration of the Philippines with respect to regulating labor has been unimpressive so far, Republic Act 10361, also known as the Batas Kasambahay or “Domestic Workers’ Act,” which took effective on February 10, is a notable exception. The law, which was signed by President Aquino on January 18, provides…
Although the topic has not appeared on the media radar for a couple months, the always-contentious issue of the minimum wage will again be front-page news in 2013, if everything goes according to the Aquino Administration’s plans. By the end of this year, the government has a goal to replace the current minimum wage regulations…
I don’t recall ever coming up with a personal List of the Best and Worst things about living in the Philippines. In a practical sense for my lifestyle demands, I would have to say the worst aspects out number the best nevertheless; the things that are best here are very special and hard to come by…
Read More “My List of the Best and Worst of Life in the Philippines” »
It’s labour day again in the Philippines. A colleague of mine noted the irony in this celebrated occasion being a “non-working” holiday. But the way that irony and many others simply fly over pointed heads in a society renowned for missing simple points is another topic for another occasion. The more important thing to observe,…
Read More “The empty rhetoric surrounding Labor Day in the Philippines” »
Faced with growing outrage over President Aquino’s ham-fisted attempts to establish authoritarian rule and desperately needing some good news on the economic front, the Administration PR machinery was quick to herald the latest unemployment statistics as evidence that Peenoy’s agenda, whatever it is, is putting the country back on the daang matuwid. The unemployment rate…
Read More “Paving Noynoy’s Straight Path with Bent Statistics” »
I have been following the bizarre drama of Philippine Airlines, “the world’s most entertaining air carrierâ€, for nearly a year as it has struggled mightily – and at times, comically so – towards implementing an outsourcing plan which PAL hopes will turn its financial fortunes around. The sticking point throughout the whole sorry saga has…
While much Media airtime is given to the abuse of domestic workers employed in foreign countries, not much interest seems to go the way of domestic workers employed by households in the Philippines. Faded star of the 1980s Maricel Soriano provides the most recent of cases that highlight the plight of domestic workers employed by…
Read More “Maricel Soriano’s alleged abuse of domestic workers reflects Filipino society” »
Anyone who has purchased a shirt in a department store in the Philippines has probably observed how each cash register is often manned by anywhere from two to four sales personnel — one to scan the merchandise, another to ring up the purchase on the machine, another to make all sorts of notations on the…
Read More “Filipino labor: cheaper and harder-working is no longer the game” »