The “Build, Build, Build (BBB)” program of the government has provided close to 1.5 million jobs to Filipinos despite the restrictions due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said on Friday. Citing the latest data from the agency, Secretary Mark Villar said the projects under the BBB prompted the hiring of a total of 1,482,119 workers nationwide from March 2020 to August 2021. “As announced before, BBB will be one (1) of our key drivers towards economic recovery. We are glad that indeed infrastructure projects across the country were able to

Pandemic-related factors continue to drive the weaker growth in bank lending, but a ranking Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) official said an improvement has been noted on business-related loans since last July. In a virtual briefing on Friday, BSP Senior Assistant Governor Illuminda T. Sicat said bank lending data as of last July showed that amount of loans remains weak “but the contraction is diminishing.” “In other words, there are already increases in the volume of loans being borrowed by the business sector,” she said. BSP data show that outstanding loans of universal and commercial banks (U/KBs), excluding placements in

The Civil Service Commission (CSC) has recognized the Development Academy of the Bangsamoro–Center of Training and Assessment (DAB-CTA) as a learning and development (L&D) institution. “This was confirmed by the CSC in a communique sent to us,” DAB Executive Director Hisham S. Nando said in a statement here Friday. He said the CSC communique dated September 22 placed at par the DAB-CTA with other government training institutions in the country such as the Civil Service Institute (CSI), the CSC Regional Offices, the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), TESDA, and other instrumentalities of the University of the Philippines. “This acknowledgment