Mimosa Workers Group

DOLE’s WIN-AP provides Livelihood Opportunities to 

Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga – With efforts to address the continuous rise inprices of basic commodities and services by providingadditional source of income for industrial workers, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Regional Office No. 3, recently provided livelihood assistance to the Workers Association of the Mimosa Golf and Country Club.

 

DOLE Regional Director Raymundo G. Agravante reported to Labor Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz that the DOLE Pampanga Field Office awarded a livelihood assistance amounting to P300,000 benefiting 495 members of the Association of Clark Mimosa Employees (ACME).

 

Present to award the ACME are DOLE Pampanga Field Office head Arlene Tolentino and DOLE RO3 Technical Support and Services Division for Employment and Welfare head Nely Punzalan, together with Labor and Employment Officers Aurita Layug and Fidel Gonzales.

 

Aside from the DOLE, Mimosa Golf and Montevista Villas Management Acting General Manager Teresito T.  Tiotuyco and Mimosa ACME Union President Reynaldo L. Geron were also present to witness the event.

 

According to Tolentino, the ACME is a duly-recognized labor organization since May 21, 2008. Initially, the group sold rice to their members through a salary deduction scheme and eventually decided to venture it a business due to its viability, thus, the launching of the DOLE-assisted Mimosa ACME Rice Trading Project.

 

“Through the DOLE’s Workers Income Augmentation Program (WIN-AP), we are hopeful, just like with our other wage-worker beneficiaries, that this start-up capital will also be able to help the ACME succeed in their livelihood enhancement project,”Tolentino said.

 

Tolentino also noted that this developmental and income augmentation program initiative will provide workers group the opportunity to improve their living conditions through the management of their small business.

 

“With the full support of MIMOSA management, the DOLE trusts that this joint-project would prosper into a successful micro-enterprise which will improve the welfare and socio-economic benefits of ACME’s members and non-members as well,” Tolentino said.

Source:http://ro3.dole.gov.ph/default.phpretsamlakygee=380&resource=cfe6055d2e0503be378bb63449ec7ba6

Team Building @ La Luz Batangas

388 new HIV cases discovered in April

By Paolo Romero (The Philippine Star) | Updated June 2, 2013 - 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines - A total of 388 new cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were discovered nationwide in April alone, or 13 HIV-infected individuals per day, a party-list lawmaker said yesterday.

LPGMA party-list Rep. Arnel Ty, one of the authors of House Bill 6751 proposing amendments to the AIDS Prevention and Control Act, said the new cases include 40 overseas Filipino workers and 32 intravenous drug users.

HIV causes AIDS or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS destroys the human body’s immune system and does not have any known cure. However, anti-retroviral therapy can slow down the ailment.

Health authorities become aware of new HIV cases passively because compulsory testing is prohibited by law, with a few exceptions, to discourage acts of discrimination against people living with the virus, Ty said.

Citing statistics from the National Epidemiology Center of the Department of Health, the lawmaker said the 388 new HIV cases recorded in April were 67 percent higher compared to the 233 recorded during the same month in 2012.

He said the April cases – 368 males and 20 female

Except for 32 drug users who were infected due to needle sharing, all new cases acquired the virus through sexual contact, with male-to-male sex accounting for 81 percent, according to Ty.

He said the new cases brought to 1,477 the number of HIV cases reported from January to April this year, or 43 percent higher compared to the 1,032 cases documented during the same period in 2012.

The National HIV and AIDS Registry, which began surveillance of the disease in 1984, now lists an aggregate of 13,179 cases, of which 93 percent or 12,240 cases were contaminated through sexual transmission.

Ty said 8,755 of the cases in the registry, or 66 percent, were reported from 2010 onward.

The Philippines is one of seven countries in the world struggling to cope with rapidly increasing new HIV infections. While the spread of HIV has decreased in many parts of the world, it has been growing at an alarming rate in the Philippines, Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, according to the World Health Organization.

HB 6751, which seeks to overhaul the outdated 1998 AIDS Prevention and Control Law, directs the Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC) to draw up a bold six-year program with specific targets to reverse the average 45 percent annual increase in new HIV cases since 2010.

The PNAC has warned that up to 46,000 Filipinos could be diagnosed with HIV by 2015.

Source: http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/06/02/949178/388-new-hiv-cases-discovered-april

DAILY MINIMUM WAGE RATES National Capital Region (NCR) a/ Per Wage Order No. NCR-18 b/ (Effective: 4 October 2013)

DAILY MINIMUM WAGE RATES National Capital Region (NCR) a/ Per Wage Order No. NCR-18 b/ (Effective: 4 October 2013) Upon Effectivity: Sector/Industry Basic Wage Basic Wage Increase New Basic Wage COLA New Wage Rates Non-Agriculture P 426.00 P10.00 P436.00 P30.00 P 466.00 Agriculture (Plantation and Non Plantation) P 389.00 P10.00 P399.00 P30.00 P 429.00 Private Hospitals with bed capacity of 100 or less P 389.00 P10.00 P399.00 P30.00 P 429.00 Retail/Service Establishments employing 15 workers or less P 389.00 P10.00 P399.00 P30.00 P 429.00 Manufacturing Establishments regularly employing less than 10 worker P 389.00 P10.00 P399.00 P30.00 P 429.00 Effective 01 January 2014: Sector/Industry New Basic Wage COLA Integration Effective 01 January 2014 Basic Wage After Integration COLA New Minimum Wage Rates Effective 01 January 2014 Non-Agriculture P 436.00 P15.00 P 451.00 P15.00 P 466.00 Agriculture (Plantation and Non Plantation) P 399.00 P15.00 P 414.00 P15.00 P 429.00 Private Hospitals with bed capacity of 100 or less P 399.00 P15.00 P 414.00 P15.00 P 429.00 Retail/Service Establishments employing 15 workers or less P 399.00 P15.00 P 414.00 P15.00 P 429.00 Manufacturing Establishments regularly employing less than 10 workers P 399.00 P15.00 P 414.00 P15.00 P 429.00

a/ Covers the Cities of Caloocan, Las Piñas, Makati, Malabon, Mandaluyong, Manila, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Parañaque, Pasay, Pasig, Quezon, San Juan, Taguig, and Valenzuela and Municipalities of Navotas and Pateros.  b/ Grants the following to all minimum wage workers in the private sector in the region: a. Upon effectivity: P10.00 per day basic wage increase b. Effective January 2014: Integration of P15.00 COLA from the P30.00 COLA under W.O. No. NCR-17 W.O. issued September 6, 2013, published at Philippine Star on September 19, 2013.   Posted 20 September 2013

Source: http://www.nwpc.dole.gov.ph/pages/ncr/cmwr_table.html

What’s the difference between a Regular Holiday and a Special Non-Working Day?

Source: http://www.gov.ph/whats-the-difference-between-a-regular-holiday-and-a-special-non-working-day/

Philippine 5th AIDS Medium-Term Plan

Pnac Secretariat (Your opinion is greatly valued. Please join the survey.) PHILIPPINE STAKEHOLDER SURVEY ON THE HIV RESPONSE As part of the ongoing review of the Philippine 5th AIDS Medium-Term Plan (Fifth AMTP) 2011-2016, we are conducting a survey of Key Stakeholders to obtain your opinion on the management of the country’s AIDS response.