To promote a healthier citizenry and a more empowered sector and an environment-friendly atmosphere, a lawmaker is pushing for organic farming, or a chemical-free agricultural method. A bill called Organic Farming Act of 2008 has been filed by Quezon Rep. Proceso Alcala.
The bill seeks to establish a comprehensive organic farming program and designate a dedicated [...]

A new law which was just signed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo grants the Bureau of Food and Drugs more regulatory muscle and at the same time  renaming the agency into the Food and Drug Administration.
The Republic Act 9711 was signed into law on Tuesday by President Arroyo. RA 9711 or the Foods and Drugs [...]

Republic Act 9710 or the Magna Carta of Women has been signed into law by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday. The new law prohibits discrimination against women and recognizes promotes and protect their rights. It also guards them against all forms of violence, including those committed by the state.

The Rent Control Act of 2009 or Republic 9653 was finally signed into law on Tuesday by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The new rent control law aims to protect the more than 1.55 million low income tenants in the country.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said, “The significance of the rent control that was signed by the [...]

A bill has been passed in the House of Representatives that seeks to move the celebration of National Hero’s Day from December 30 to August 19. Sponsors of the bill believe that the birth of the country’s national hero, Jose Rizal, should be commemorated instead of his death.
The chamber has approved on the third and [...]

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the largest and recognized “voice of Philippine business,”  have identified 12 priority reform bills that they want Congress to prioritize and focus on when it resumes session in July. Edgardo Lacson, PCCI president, said they picked the 12 from the 75 bills originally identified by the different [...]

The Department of Health has finally issued a maximum retail price (MRP) for 22 essential medicines in the country, although it only came one year after the Cheaper Medicines Law has been passed.  The list, which was presented during the Senate hearing on the implementation of the Cheaper Medicines Law, is still waiting for the [...]

Don’t look now, but it seems that the controversial right of reply bill will not only affect print and broadcast media. Kabataan party-list Rep. Mong Palatino said that in could lead to Internet censorship since it also cover bloggers, texters, and even iPod users.
Palatino said Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, author of the controversial House Bill [...]

A proposal has been filed in the senate to add an additional ray to the sun in the Philippine flag. Senate Bill 2590 authored by Senator Richard Gordon, proposes that the ray of the sun in the Philippine flag be increased from eight to nine.  Gordon said this is necessary to symbolize the community of [...]

The implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Renewable Energy (RE) Act of 2008 was already signed last Monday, and the Department of Energy (DOE) is expecting more investments  in the renewable power industry to pour in soon.
Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said, “The RE Act is a good law that offers hefty and robust incentives [...]

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago has filed a bill on the senate which seeks to promote transparency in the delivery of automated teller machine (ATM) services. This is because of the complaints they received from users of arbitrary charges imposed on them for various uses of the machine, which includes balance inquiries.

A new bill has been filed in the House of Representatives that aims to help solve the rampant cases of tardiness happening in government offices. With the Philippine Standard Time (PST) still being ignored in some offices, House Bill 5902 will require all government offices to synchronize their official watches and clocks to it.

Recently, Canadian researchers reported that the computer network of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) was one of the websites infiltrated by hackers who are based in China, another report from the National Computer Center (NCC) said that other government websites in the Philippines were vulnerable to computer attacks because of the absence of a [...]

More special holidays have declared in Philippines, as President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo added November 27 and 28 to the list of this year’s nonworking holidays on the eve of her 62nd birthday. According to Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, the president made the decision to declare the said dates as national holidays after consultations with labor [...]

Next week the whole country will observe the Holy Week in the Philippines. It will be a week sandwiched between two long weekends as it will only have two working days for the country’s labor force, this is in pursuant to the Proclamation 1699 signed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in December last year.
Because of [...]

Bacolod City is successful in the implementation of its “no segregation, no collection” policy, if you would base it on the first day the campaign was started, according to Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia.
He happily announced that many barangays in the city have shown support in the campaign. He hopes this optimism would last long, [...]

A series of proposed bills in Congress is met with strong opposition by local government units (LGUs) across the country. Because once approved, the bills would exempt telecommunications companies from paying local franchise taxes, which would result to a loss of up to millions of pesos for LGUs.
“We’ve been swamped with complaints from local governments, [...]

Congress is also reviewing another bill that proposes the reinstitution of the Philippine Inventors Commission (PIC). The proposal was approved by the two House Committees, which would allow the bill to be presented and examined by all congressional representatives.
Approving the proposal were the joint House committees on science and technology chaired by Rep. Joseph Emilio [...]