It will be approved before the end of the year – Recto The Senate has started floor debates on a bill more than doubling the public school teacher’s yearly “chalk allowance” from P1,500 to P3,500. Sponsored on the floor last Wednesday, October 19, was Senate bill 812, which

Foreign policy rebalancing should not mean that we swing the pendulum to the other extreme, that we dump old friends for new suitors. We should practice big-tent diplomacy, welcoming all, and shunning no one. The national interest is served by extending amity to all, and

On the Confirmation of the Appointment of Executive Secretary Salvador “Bingbong” Medialdea Senate Minority Leader Ralph G. Recto Mr. President, fellow members of the Commission. I have always maintained the view that the President’s choice of Executive Secretary is a “privilege

Mr. President: Like anything written on the blackboard, we can erase and change the amount of “chalk allowance” our public schools teachers get. Which is what this bill precisely sets out to do – erasing “P1,500” and replacing it with “P3,500.” “Chalk allowance” is the popular

The burden of being a senator is that we are not only answerable to the present and to the future, but also to the past. And we are reminded of our being trustees of a proud heritage when we walk past the names of our predecessors etched on the plaques that hang on the corridor

On the confirmation of Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III   Mr. President:   The nominee is our real peace czar. He is waging peace in two fronts: labor and rural insurgency. This has forced him to be our first Labor secretary in history to moonlight in another job, or work two

Excerpt from the Senate hearing last October 12, 2016 on the proposed emergency powers for President Rodrigo Duterte to address the traffic problem in the Philippines. Senator Ralph Recto questions some provisions in the DOTr’s proposed bill, titled “Traffic and

Excerpt from the Senate hearing last October 12, 2016 on the proposed emergency powers for President Rodrigo Duterte to address the traffic problem in the Philippines. Senator Ralph Recto questions the Section 3 & 8 of the DOTr’s proposed bill, titled “Traffic and

Excerpt from the Senate hearing last October 12, 2016 on the proposed emergency powers for President Rodrigo Duterte to address the traffic problem in the Philippines. Senator Ralph Recto questions the Section 7 of the DOTr’s proposed bill, titled “Traffic and

Excerpt from the Senate hearing last October 12, 2016 on the proposed emergency powers for President Rodrigo Duterte to address the traffic problem in the Philippines. Senator Ralph Recto questions some provisions in the DOTr’s proposed bill, titled “Traffic and