The Situation Report
The Situation Report Page 4 of 14
Parents of child vloggers can only spend 20% of earnings, while 80% must go to child’s welfare: DOLE
Parents of child content creators including vloggers, bloggers, and child entertainers can only use 20% of their child’s earnings for family expenses, while 80% must be set aside for the child’s education, healthcare, and overall welfare, under a labor advisory recently issued by the Department of…
Tolentino wants DOLE to pay more attention to small businesses, where nearly all Filipino workers actually are
Ninety-eight percent of Filipino workers and their employers are in micro, small, and medium enterprises rather than large corporations, yet labor inspection and compliance resources of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) have historically been concentrated on big companies, a mismatch…
DOLE conciliators settled 219 out of 249 labor cases in 2026, sparing thousands from prolonged court battles
The Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) settled 219 out of 249 labor cases handled so far in 2026, an 88% settlement rate that resulted in ₱112 million in payouts to approximately 7,500 workers who were spared from years-long court…
Free legal help for workers coming should Congress OK creation of Labor Attorney’s Office: Tolentino
Filipino workers who cannot afford a lawyer when filing labor complaints may soon have access to free legal representation through a proposed Labor Attorney’s Office, should Congress approve Secretary Francis Tolentino’s request for 64 government-funded lawyers deployed across Luzon, Visayas, and…
DOLE says employers will not be allowed to let AI make the final call on hiring workers
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will not allow employers to let artificial intelligence or AI make the final decision on who gets hired in their companies, Labor Secretary Francis Tolentino said Thursday. Tolentino said his department is already preparing to issue a labor advisory…
Mindanao is years ahead of Luzon in agriculture, says Manny Piñol
Mindanao’s agriculture is more modern and more productive than Luzon’s, and life on the island is more peaceful, more affordable, and full of more opportunity than Metro Manila, making it the better place to live and work for any Filipino willing to go back, former Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel…
It is cheaper for Mindanao to ship bananas to Japan than to Manila, says ex-DA chief
The Philippines’ chronic failure to solve its geographic fragmentation has produced one of the most absurd realities in Philippine agriculture: it costs more to ship bananas from Mindanao to Metro Manila than to export them to Japan and China, former Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol…
With two years left, BBM must stop imports from flooding markets before they wipe out what’s left of PH farming
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. still has two years to act on the most urgent threat facing Philippine agriculture: the flood of imported food that is wiping out local farmers one sector at a time. This was the assessment of former Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol, who stressed that the…
Former Duterte cabinet secretary says PH’s corruption crisis requires a president willing to play hardball
Corruption in the Philippines has penetrated every layer of society, from the lowest traffic enforcer to the highest offices, and the only way to reverse it is a president with no corruption record, strong enough not to be influenced by vested interests, and willing to enforce accountability…
PH’s real agriculture crisis is logistics and connectivity, not production capacity: ex-DA chief
The Philippines can produce enough food to feed its entire population, but the real crisis is that tomatoes rot in Cavite while sardine makers in Zamboanga import tomato paste from China, and fish pile up unsold in Tawi-Tawi while the same island lacks vegetables and chicken. This is because no…
Duterte’s greatest legacy in Mindanao was peace with MILF, says Manny Piñol
Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s greatest and most lasting legacy in Mindanao was not just infrastructure or economics but peace—specifically, the framework peace agreement he reached with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front that has since undergirded the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, former…
Manny Piñol warns PH hog industry is dying under import pressure
The Philippine hog industry is collapsing under the weight of imported pork from Brazil flooding the local market, with live hog prices crashing from over ₱200 per kilo to ₱110-130, and former Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol is warning that when hog raisers quit, the corn farmers who…
‘Ayuda’ culture breeds indolence; what farmers need are fair prices, working logistics: Manny Piñol
The government’s approach of giving farmers cash assistance and handouts as its primary agricultural intervention is wrong, counterproductive, and breeds dependence rather than productivity, former Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol said Wednesday. The former Agriculture chief made the…
Manny Piñol bets on wagyu beef and breadfruit to future-proof Philippine food supply
Former Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol is promoting two unlikely food crops as the future of Philippine food security—wagyu beef cattle, which he says can be raised profitably even in backyard farms, and breadfruit, a native tree that provides food for generations from a single…
Manny Piñol accuses Marcos economic team of ‘miscounting’ agriculture’s contribution to the Philippine economy
The Marcos administration’s economic team is systematically undercounting agriculture’s contribution to the Philippine economy by ignoring food processing and manufacturing, former Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol said Wednesday. Piñol claimed that this error that makes the Philippine…