An additional P22 cost-of-living allowance (COLA), effective 26 May 2011, is granted to workers in the National Capital Region (NCR). The P22 COLA is contained in Wage Order No. NCR-16 (full text) issued on 9 May 2011 by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-National Capital Region (RTWPB-NCR) and published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer [...]

If you’re frustrated that you still can’t use the online verification and reservation system of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), maybe you’re not alone. It has been weeks that the system is down, which means that the SEC is back to the slower manual mode. Well, I’m not really that frustrated because we were [...]

The last day to avail of tax amnesty is 5 May 2008. Now, before you get excited because you may happen to have failed to file your income tax return by 15 April 2008, this tax amnesty refers to all national internal revenue taxes for the taxable year 2005 and prior years that have remained [...]

Just recently, the World Economic Forum released its Global Competitiveness Report for 2007-2008. The Philippines is ranked 71 in the Global Competitiveness Index rankings. This is definitely not something to be happy about, as the Philippines is 71 out of 131 countries/economies ranked, and lagging behind its neighbors, including Korea (11), Taiwan (14), Malaysia (21), [...]

One concern of creditors in filing a case for collection is the possibility of getting nothing in the end because the debtor has no properties to satisfy the judgment award, while spending more money for legal fees. A pyrrhic victory, so to speak. In fact, I often come across debtors dropping the hint of filing, [...]

Well, not exactly like the old amnesty. The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has extended, until 22 December 2006, the “One-Time Administrative Abatement” of all penalties/surcharges and interest on all delinquent accounts and assessments. The guidelines are spelled out in Revenue Regulation 15-2006. We will discuss this later at the Forum.