CALOOCAN Mayor Enrico Echiverri has instructed Liga ng mga Barangay President, Councilor Ricojudge “RJ” Echiverri, to form risk reduction teams in all barangays of the city as a way of preparing for any possible disaster that may hit the country.

He said this is necessary so each barangay may immediately respond to the need of residents wherever fires, typhoons, earthquakes or any other type of disaster strike.

Echiverri said the volunteers who would be picked from each barangay will underg...

METROPOLITAN Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis N. Tolentino clarified that its speed guns used to monitor overspeeding vehicles along Commonwealth Avenue could be used to monitor and apprehend overspeeding vehicles even at night. 

This clarification was made in the wake of an erroneous statement uttered by MMDA Deputy Chairman Alex Cabanilla during a House committee hearing on Wednesday (May 25). Cabanilla reportedly said the speed guns could not work at night because photos...

DEPARTMENT of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje on Wednesday ordered the department's lawyers to start summary proceedings against personalities behind the smuggle try of some P35-million worth of turtles and corals seized from two container vans last May 1 aboard a vessel that came from Cotabato province.

Paje gave the order as he condemned the poachers and their financiers who, he said, “have practically robbed the present and future generations of Filipin...

THE government will tap the private sector and encourage volunteerism in a move to meet its target of halving the country’s 3.6 million housing gap by the time President Benigno S. Aquino III bows out of office in 2016.

“Since the resources of government are limited, we will fast-track the implementation of our sustainable communities, including the immediate development of other proclaimed sites for housing under PPP (Public Private Partnerships)schemes,” Vice President and Development ...

WITH the onset of rainy season, Senator Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero urged the Department of Education (DepEd) to immediately insure all school buildings and properties in the country’s northeastern seaboard where disasters usually strike.

Escudero made his call as he pursued this plan together with the DepEd and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), who will serve as the education department’s insurance underwriter.

“When disaster ravages the country, one of the first to go down...

FORMER President and now Pampanga 2nd District Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wants the government to address the problem of compulsive gambling, calling it a “growing public health concern that needs immediate attention”.

In line with this, Arroyo has filed author of House Bill 3599, which seeks to lessen the social impact of the problem of gambling in the country by providing counseling support and information dissemination on its condition and treatment.

“Compulsive gambling is character...

SENATOR Manny Villar has proposed to reduce the working hours of all public school teachers to a six-hour per day or a total of a 30-hour workweek to make them more effective and productive.

“Teachers clamor for higher pay but shorter working hours. Their work schedule leaves them stressed out and exhausted. Reducing their number of working hours will allow them to have more time to innovate and enhance classroom teaching and result to a more productive workforce,” Villar said.

Villar filed...