Despite the slower than expected growth recorded in the third quarter of the year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is still optimistic that the country’s economy will be able to expand by at least the government’s low-end target.

“We may be able to meet the lower end of the 2009 GDP target," said Amando M. Tetangco Jr., BSP governor.

Last week, the National Statistical Coordination Board announced that the country’s gross domestic product, the sum of all goods and services produced within the country, was at 0.8 percent, the low-end of the between 0.8 percent and 1.8 percent target pegged by economic managers for 2009. REad more of the full BSP news.

The full list of Miss World 2009 contestants have been released and out a few months ago. The pageant is now ongoing and I have my personal bet amongst all the beautiful and talented women in the competition. Of course who else will I bet for but Marie Ann Umali of the Philippines.

We all wish you good luck in this stage of the pageant and we wish that you get the crown for the Philippines and the Filipinos. God bless you, Miss Philippines World Mary Ann Umali!

MANILA, Philippines - Approached by public and private road workers, street sweepers and the unemployed to help them find a respectable place in the society, Ka Jun Ebdane ignored their pleas at the start to run in next year’s presidential elections.

But the persistence of these groups eventually convinced him to try his luck in the 2010 presidential elections. Read more about the full story.

Don’t count on Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to hunt down the killers and rapists responsible for last week’s massacre of at least 57 people, many of them women, around half of them journalists. The massacre in a Muslim-dominated region of the southern Philippine island of Mindanao confronts Arroyo with a political and moral dilemma: will she, amid an international outcry, pursue decisively the killers when those who apparently ordered the massacre were her close political allies? Read more about what Donald Kirk wrote here.

Last month, the UN food summit in Rome stated that 1 billion people will go to bed hungry and the Philippines, the world’s largest importer, contracted to buy 1.5 million tons of rice equivalent to 5% of the total annual trade in the grain. The world, especially developing countries like the Philippines, is facing a food crisis that could result in a spike in food prices and seasonal shortages in basic commodities like sugar, rice, and even meat.

As the nation approaches the 2010 presidential elections, it is vital that each candidate should advance a clear food policy together with a program whose primary objective would be to ensure that the poor would be the primary beneficiary of any government policy. Read more about this story here.

The UFC 104 fight is through by this time and some of you might want to watch the UFC 104 replay video. Here is a good tip for those who are looking to watch the fight again. If you haven’t seen it for some reason, this could be your chance.

Try to visit first and seek for the Machida vs Shogun fight review at ufc.com. While there, you can try to see if there is already a replay video available for the fight. If not, you can also try YouTube  or other video sites out there like Hulu. Just try your luck though.

FHM Philippines Magazine is now having the most beautiful woman as their cover this September 2009. This is also the second time that Cristine Reyes has become the cover of this magazine in the Philippines.

This very moment while I write this post, it is also revealed that Cristine is busy with her stints in Bedspacer and her new Cristine Reyes drama special at ABS-CBN. We can recall from the news last week that she also signed in her contract renewal with ABS to do more appearances for the said network.

Erano "Ka Erdie" Manalo died at 84 due to cardio pulmonary arrest according to his doctor. The Iglesia Ni Cristo died last Monday but it was not revealed to the public for proper handout of the incident to their INC spiritual organization to know about the truth.

The news was revealed today but the whole case was also revealed later for some reasons. Ka Erdie is the executive minister of Iglesia Ni Cristo after the loss of his descendant Ka Felix Manalo.

This is a short post declaring the release of the nursing exam result 2009 as released by the Professional Regulation Commission. I am glad that finally, the PRC had the time to release the said result for the NLE result 2009 they gave this year to nurses.

I’d also like to say congratulations to all the nurses who took the examination and passed. May this serve as your new inspiration to make a better life out of what you started by passing this year’s examination launched by the PRC. Goodluck!

Boys over Flowers is now a mania here in the Philippines and I believe that this will continue as the episodes get more and more exciting each and everyday. Me and my daughter enjoys watching this koreanovela so we get together everyday just to enjoy a few minutes of our time together each day. My wife on the other hand is the one who is suffering because she cannot make us move over to the next channel where she wants to watch another tv program.

Sometimes what she does is to go down the stairs in another room we have so she can watch there because we won’t allow her to disturb our viewing pleasure. Sometimes what we do is to turn to the other channel when the television program is out and there is a commercial going on. Well, at least that is what we are each and everyday of our lives living together happily.