MANILA (UCAN): The Philippine government’s Department of Budget and Management announced that more than 1.5 million qualified government employees would receive their year-end tax-free bonus, equivalent to a month’s basic salary along with a US$100 ($780) cash gift starting November 15. A “productivity enhancement incentive” for government workers will be released on December 15.
 
The government has allotted about US$680 million ($5.3 million) for the year-end bonus, and about US$138 million ($1.4 million) for the cash gifts.

Manila (UCAN): The Catholic bishops of the Philippines want a total ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to countries that do not have laws to protect migrants.
 
Bishop Ruperto Santos of Balanga, chairperson of the Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People, said on March 26 that it is high time the government said no to countries where workers are abused and that a total ban is a preventive measure against human rights violations and loss of lives.
 

MANILA (Agencies): Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo of Manila, said that the commitment of the Philippines to human rights in the international community cannot just be set aside by the president alone, CBCPNews reported on March 15.
 
Commenting on the move by the Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, to withdraw the country from the International Criminal Court (ICC), the bishop said, “This shows that there is basis for the investigation on him. They are afraid of accountabilities. Duterte should be investigated.”
 

MANILA (SE): A Filipino migrant worker, Jakatia Pawa, was hanged in Kuwait on January 25 after being found guilty of murdering the 22-year-old daughter of her employer.

Pawa had maintained her innocence right through her long ordeal, saying that she had no motive whatsoever for killing the woman.

MANILA (Agencies): Bishop Ruperto Santos of Balanga has condemned the beheading of a Canadian tourist held hostage for months by the Abu Sayyaf in Mindanao.

The bishop, who chairs the bishops’ Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People, expressed outrage over the execution of a 68-year old Canadian man, John Ridsdel, who was abducted from a resort along with three others in September last year.