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OCT
25
2016

With Yolanda anniversary days away, Recto scores low utilization of P19 B rehab fund

With the third anniversary of the onslaught of Yolanda days away, Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto said reconstruction pace seems to crawl based on the low utilization of the P18.9 billion appropriated this year to repair damages wrought by the strongest typhoon in history.
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OCT
24
2016

No need for foreign aid; P37 B of Calamity Fund unspent as of Aug. 31 – Recto

The Calamity Fund posted an unspent balance of P37 billion as of August 31, foreclosing the need to solicit foreign aid to help victims of typhoon Lawin, Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto said today. “The challenge is to open the floodgates of domestic aid funds and not to ask
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OCT
23
2016

Recto: Cut red tape in the request, release, use of calamity funds

Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto is urging the Duterte administration “to hack away” at the red tape slowing down the flow of rehabilitation funds to disaster-hit areas. Recto said “complicated rules” governing the request, release and use of national calamity funds result in
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OCT
22
2016

Bill raising teacher’s ‘chalk allowance’ to P3,500 now on Senate floor

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
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OCT
21
2016

On the ‘end’ of US relations, joining Russia-China ‘axis’

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
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OCT
19
2016

The Humor, Humility, Honesty Needed in the Little President

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
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OCT
19
2016

Time to Erase and Change the Chalk Allowance

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
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OCT
17
2016

Speech delivered by Senate Minority Leader Ralph G. Recto – Centennial Session

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
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OCT
12
2016

“Of ‘ADD’ and a DOLE on Auto-Pilot”

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
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OCT
12
2016

Senator Recto on DOTr projects for 2017

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