News & Current Events

Erap did not vote for Binay as Vice President?

Media channels and blogs are currently abuzz with the latest “Erap election scandal.”
Pictures and videos of former Pres. Joseph Estrada while voting during election day are circulating showing that Erap did not vote for his running mate (and now Vice President front runner) Jejomar Binay.
Video: Erap did not vote for Jejomar Binay as VP?
The controversial scene starts at 0:55. At 1:17, Erap’s ballot was again zoomed in and one can see that the Vice President position was not filled up.

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OFWs exempted from paying Travel Tax, Doc Stamps, Airport Fee

Good news to all Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs)!
All OFWs are now exempted from paying documentary stamp taxes (DST) on remittances, travel tax, and airport fee as the new Migrant Workers Act or Republic Act 10022, recently lapsed into law without President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s signature.

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Check SSS member contributions online, via SMS text

My father called me up yesterday asking for help regarding his Social Security System (SSS) member contributions. Apparently, his records were missing six years of supposed SSS payments and he wants me to check with SSS about this.
Of course, I did not immediately rush to the SSS main office in East Avenue, Quezon City, knowing that there’s always a long queue of people there checking and verifying their own member contributions or inquiring about the status of their loans or claims.
Here’s what I did to check my father’s SSS payments.

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Unemployment Rate among US MBA Graduates

In the past, graduates of MBA programs, especially in the US, are almost always assured of a job after graduation. The sad reality now, however, is that this is no longer true.
A BusinessWeek magazine article seems to show that it is a bad time to graduate now since job recruitment has slowed down for most US MBA graduates.
It doesn’t matter if you got the degree from Harvard or Wharton. As you can see in the list below, even renowned MBA schools in the US were not spared from the brunt of the economic recession.
The list compiles the results of a survey conducted among recent MBA graduates showing there is rising unemployment among MBA graduates.

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21% of Metro Manila residents are squatters

If the report of the Metro Manila Inter-Agency Committee on Informal Settlers (MMIAC) is to be believed, one out of every five residents in Metro Manila is a squatter.
The Inquirer quoted a report of the MMIAC saying that there are more than 544,609 households of informal settlers in Metro Manila, representing 21% of the total 2.6 million households population.

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