Media

Press Release  23 August 2023 A barangay may be the basic government unit but together they occupy a big budgetary footprint, bigger than what is spent for public hospitals and colleges, House Deputy Speaker Ralph Recto said. For 2024, the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of...

Press Release  20 August 2023 The good news is that the Marcos administration is seeking an almost half-a-billion peso increase – or to P2.02 billion – for cancer control and cancer patient assistance funds in the proposed P5.76 trillion national budget for 2024, House...

Press Statement of Deputy Speaker and Batangas Rep. Ralph G. Recto August 17, 2023 Teddy Locsin is the kind of diplomat “who can tell you to go to hell in such an elegant way that you’ll look forward with pleasure to making the trip.” But he will not be there to rabble-rouse, but...

Press Statement of Deputy Speaker and Batangas Rep. Ralph G. Recto August 10, 2023 Every policy has a reverse gear. By pausing Manila Bay reclamation activities, the President, as of the moment, merely placed it on neutral. This will give him time to sift through the mountain of...

Press Release  6 August 2023 The proposed 2024 national budget of P5.767 trillion translates to average daily spending of P15.8 billion, but only P11.7 billion of which is supportable by revenues, leaving a P4 billion hole which must be plugged by debt. “To fully grasp the...

Press Release  5 August 2023 The budget for the DepEd’s “School-Based Feeding Program” will double from the current year’s P5.68 billion to P11.71 billion under next year’s P5.76 trillion national budget. And if the proposed P4.1 billion for the DSWD’s “Supplementary Feeding...

Press Statement of Deputy Speaker and Batangas Rep. Ralph G. Recto August 3, 2023 Mag hunos-dili sana ang LTO. Ito’y kung totoo ang balita na nagbabalak itong pagmultahin ang mga may-ari ng mga sasakyang hindi pa kinukuha ang plaka mula sa ahensya. Kay tagal hinintay ng mga...

Press Statement of Deputy Speaker and Batangas Rep. Ralph G. RectoAugust 2, 2023 These are the four elephants in the room that the congressional scrutiny of the 2024 national budget will have to confront. Disasters, of the natural kind, have now graduated as a macroeconomic...

Mr. President: I have been advocating for a PhilHealth-based national ID card long before I was elected to this body. Years ago, when the plan to create a national ID system was driven by security concerns, I countered that such an ID will only garner high social acceptability if...

The last time I stood here, I exhorted us to use, so to speak, our coconuts to drop the perpetual approach in rehabilitating the coconut industry and opt for a faster reconstruction timetable with a fixed deadline. I said that if an industry is in crisis, efforts to revive it...

Remarks of Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto Mr. President: When it comes to diagnosing the ills of the coconut industry, I share the same findings with my esteemed colleagues. Nine out of 10 live below poverty line. The irony of their penury is best captured by this...

Mr. President: There is a saying that in making laws, it is the politicians who write the bill, but it is the people who foot the bill. Campaign promises are free; redeeming them is what is costly. Lawmakers get the credit, but it is the taxpayers who raise the cash. Yes, the...

Explanation of Vote: Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018 by Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph G. Recto I am voting in the affirmative, Mr. President, with the manifestation that to further improve the bill, three provisions should be...

Mr. President, my dear colleagues: The nominee is my seatmate in the Arroyo Cabinet, which was when I saw how good a doctor he is. When I dug into a bag of chicharon, he never lectured me about cholesterol; when wine was served, he saw to it that my glass was always full; and...

National Child Feeding Program: One Recipe Against Rising GNP – Gutom na Pilipino Explanation of Vote Speech on Senate Bill 1279: Masustansyang Pagkain Para sa Batang Pilipino by Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto* The good news is that our GDP is increasing. The bad...

Our soon-to-be man in Washington DC is no babe in the woods in US affairs. Though principally based in Manila, he has enough contacts in the American capital that he can be considered a Beltway insider. So wide is his network, I was told, that should Trump drain the swamp, those...