DOLE | May 1, 2009 | Labor Day

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) today said that May 1, 2009 (Friday) is a regular holiday nationwide in observance of Labor Day.

Labor and Employment Secretary Marianito D. Roque said that as affirmed under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Presidential Proclamation No. 1699 issued on December 24, 2008, Labor Day is a long-cherished tradition that the Filipino workers celebrate on its exact date.

“It is both a national celebration as well as an international event that our trade unions have fought hard to institutionalize in the country,” Roque said.

He advised the country’s employers on the lawful holiday pay rules to be applied during the nationwide regular holiday of Labor Day on May 1, 2009, as follows:

A. If the day is the employee’s regular workday:

- If worked, [the employee] is entitled to 200% of his [or her] basic wage for the first eight (8) hours and, for work in excess of the 8 hours, an additional 30% of his or her hourly rate on the said day;
- If unworked, the employee is entitled to 100% of his daily rate, provided he or she was present or was on leave with pay on the workday immediately preceding the holiday.

B. If the day is the employee’s rest day:

- If worked, the employee is entitled, for the first 8 hours, to 200% of his or her daily rate for work in excess of 8 hours, plus 30% of his or her hourly rate on the said day;
- If unworked, the employee is entitled to 100% of his or her daily rate, provided he or she was present or was on leave with pay on the workday immediately preceding the holiday.

C. Where the day immediately preceding the holiday is a non-work day in the establishment or the scheduled rest day of the employee, he or she shall not be deemed on leave of absence on that day, in which case he or she shall be entitled to the holiday pay.

source: Information and Publication Service

Rocky Rasonable

A filipino Senior PHP Programmer, Web Developer and Webmaster based in Davao, Philippines. Expert in Joomla, WordPress, Soholaunch, Oscommerce, Drupal, Social Media Sites, and etc.

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DOLE | May 1, 2009 | Labor Day

Swine flu is a respiratory disease which infects pigs.

By Julie Henry

Commuters wear face masks to prevent the infection by the swine flu virus Photo: GETTY

Caused by influenza type A virus, there are regular outbreaks among herds of pigs, where the disease causes high levels of illness but is rarely fatal.

It tends to spread in autumn and winter but can circulate all year round.

There are many different types of swine flu and like human flu, the infection is constantly changing.

Swine flu does not normally infect humans, although sporadic cases do occur usually in people who have had close contact with pigs.

There have also been rare documented cases of humans passing the infection to other humans.

Human to human transmission of swine flu thought to spread in the same way as seasonal flu – through coughing and sneezing.

The outbreak in Mexico seems to involve a new type of swine flu that contains DNA that is typically found in avian and human viruses.

The World Health Organization has confirmed at least some of the cases are caused by this new strain of H1N1.

“We are very, very concerned,” World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesman Thomas Abraham said. “We have what appears to be a novel virus and it has spread from human to human… It’s all hands on deck at the moment.”

It is genetically different from the fully human H1N1 seasonal influenza virus that has been circulating globally for the past few years. It contains DNA that is typical to avian, swine and human viruses, including elements from European and Asian swine viruses

The Mexican government has confirmed 16 deaths from a swine flu outbreak and they are investigating 50 further possible deaths.

The geographical spread of the outbreaks is worrying – while 13 of the 20 deaths were in Mexico City, the rest were spread across Mexico – four in central San Luis Potosi, two up near the US border in Baja California, and one in southern Oaxaca state.

The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is also investigating seven non-fatal cases of human transmission of swine flu that have been reported since March 2009 but there has been no confirmation of a link.

When any new strain of flu emerges that acquires the ability to pass from person to person, it is monitored very closely in case it has the potential to spark a pandemic.

The WHO is concerned but says it is too soon to change the threat level warning for a pandemic. However, it has convened an expert panel to consider whether to raise the alert level or issue travel advisories.

It might already be too late to contain the outbreak, a prominent US pandemic flu expert said on Friday.

Dr Michael Osterholm, a public health expert at the University of Minnesota, said given how quickly flu can spread around the globe, if these are the first signs of a pandemic, then there are probably cases incubating in other parts of the world already.

“Literally hundreds and thousands of travellers come in and out of Mexico City every day,” Dr Osterholm said. “You’d have to believe there’s been more unrecognised transmission that’s occurred.”

There is no vaccine that specifically protects against swine flu, and it was unclear how much protection current human flu vaccines might offer.

However, the CDC says two flu drugs, Tamiflu and Relenza, seem effective against the new strain. Roche, the maker of Tamiflu, said the company is prepared to immediately deploy a stockpile of the drug if requested.

Both drugs must be taken early, within a few days of the onset of symptoms, to be most effective. There have also been concerns that some forms of flu have been developing resistance to the drugs.

Scientists have long been concerned that a new flu virus could launch a worldwide pandemic of a killer disease.

A new pandemic flu virus could evolve when different flu viruses infect a pig, a person or a bird, mingling their genetic material. The resulting hybrid could spread quickly because people would have no natural defenses against it.

The most notorious flu pandemic is thought to have killed at least 40 million people worldwide in 1918-19. Two other, less deadly flu pandemics struck in 1957 and 1968.

Rocky Rasonable

A filipino Senior PHP Programmer, Web Developer and Webmaster based in Davao, Philippines. Expert in Joomla, WordPress, Soholaunch, Oscommerce, Drupal, Social Media Sites, and etc.

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DOLE | May 1, 2009 | Labor Day

The article has generated a lot of noise and controversy that it has since been pulled from the web site. I am posting it here:

The War At Home
March 27th, 2009
The Russians sank a Hong Kong freighter last month, killing the seven Chinese seamen on board. We can live with that—Lenin and Stalin were once the ideological mentors of all Chinese people. The Japanese planted a flag on Diàoyú Island. That’s no big problem—we Hong Kong Chinese love Japanese cartoons, Hello Kitty, and shopping in Shinjuku, let alone our round-the-clock obsession with karaoke.
But hold on—even the Filipinos? Manila has just claimed sovereignty over the scattered rocks in the South China Sea called the Spratly Islands, complete with a blatant threat from its congress to send gunboats to the South China Sea to defend the islands from China if necessary.

This is beyond reproach. The reason: there are more than 130,000 Filipina maids working as $3,580-a-month cheap labor in Hong Kong. As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter.

As a patriotic Chinese man, the news has made my blood boil. I summoned Louisa, my domestic assistant who holds a degree in international politics from the University of Manila, hung a map on the wall, and gave her a harsh lecture. I sternly warned her that if she wants her wages increased next year, she had better tell every one of her compatriots in Statue Square on Sunday that the entirety of the Spratly Islands belongs to China.

Grimly, I told her that if war breaks out between the Philippines and China, I would have to end her employment and send her straight home, because I would not risk the crime of treason for sponsoring an enemy of the state by paying her to wash my toilet and clean my windows 16 hours a day. With that money, she would pay taxes to her government, and they would fund a navy to invade our motherland and deeply hurt my feelings.

Oh yes. The government of the Philippines would certainly be wrong if they think we Chinese are prepared to swallow their insult and sit back and lose a Falkland Islands War in the Far East. They may have Barack Obama and the hawkish American military behind them, but we have a hostage in each of our homes in the Mid-Levels or higher. Some of my friends told me they have already declared a state of emergency at home. Their maids have been made to shout “China, Madam/Sir” loudly whenever they hear the word “Spratly.” They say the indoctrination is working as wonderfully as when we used to shout, “Long live Chairman Mao!” at the sight of a portrait of our Great Leader during the Cultural Revolution. I’m not sure if that’s going a bit too far, at least for the time being.

Chip Tsao is a best-selling author and columnist. A former reporter for the BBC, his columns have also appeared in Apple Daily, Next Magazine and CUP Magazine, among others.

Rocky Rasonable

A filipino Senior PHP Programmer, Web Developer and Webmaster based in Davao, Philippines. Expert in Joomla, WordPress, Soholaunch, Oscommerce, Drupal, Social Media Sites, and etc.

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