The senator who introduced the amendment to raise to P82,000 the tax exemption cap for 13th month pay and other bonuses says the amount merely restores the value of the peso which has been lost to inflation since 1994. Sen. Ralph Recto, principal author of the bill increasing the

Sponsorship Speech on the 2015 National Budget One hundred years ago the national budget was less than 30 pages long, that when folded, members of the Philippine legislature can carry it around in their pocket. Today, budget documents are hauled by forklifts and sent to Congress

All indigent senior citizens will be covered by the social pension program once a Senate amendment to the 2015 national budget is signed into law. Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said the Senate Finance subcommittee he heads has recommended to increase next year’s

The country’s more than six million senior citizens could now look forward to spending their robust years as bonafide members of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) as President Aquino signed into law last week the measure granting automatic membership to them.

Republic of the Philippines Congress of the Philippines Metro Manila Sixteenth Congress Second Regular Session Begun and held in Metro Manila, on Monday, the twenty-eighth day of July, two thousand fourteen. [REPUBLIC ACT NO. 10645] AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE MANDATORY PHILHEALTH

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will disburse P17.5 billion worth of grants to civil society and local governments next year and a senator wants part of this earmarked for food production and processing projects that will benefit malnourished children.

Budget space can be carved out of the P7.6 billion administrative cost of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in expanding feeding programs for malnourished children, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said today. Recto said the overhead expense of

Co-sponsorship speech on SB No. 2437 under Committee Report No. 84 No tax law is chiseled in stone.  Revenue laws get amended or changed overtime. Economic developments trigger revisions in our tax code. So does technological advancement. For tax laws to be relevant, they must

Unspent royalty payments from Malampaya and other energy projects are expected to reach P180 billion by the end of year making it an abundant source of funds for projects government may undertake once Congress grants President Aquino emergency powers to tackle the looming energy

The Senate on Wednesday has passed on second reading the measure providing mandatory PhilHealth coverage to all senior citizens regardless of their social or economic status. Senate Bill 712, authored by Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto, would automatically enroll all