Returning Taal residents need a “VFA”

27 January 2020, Comment are Off
Now, the hard work begins. Rehabilitation is always harder than relief work. The latter is a sprint, bringing aid to displaced people fast. The latter is a marathon that takes a longer time to complete. Relief is about bringing food and providing food to temporarily displaced...

Recto on Angkas firing: ‘Unemployment is the saddest Christmas gift gov’t can give’

22 December 2019, Comment are Off
Christmas is the season of giving, not of taking away; of spreading cheer, and not sowing unhappiness. But for 17,000 Angkas drivers and their families, they got the saddest and meanest Christmas gift ever: their livelihood being taken away. The gift of unemployment is the most...

Recto: Enough budget space to comply with SC ruling on gov’t nurses pay

20 November 2019, Comment are Off
If the executive branch will not comply, the Senate will. If the Supreme Court has ruled that government nurses should occupy Salary Grade (SG) 15 position and not SG 10 and 11, and if such can only be enforced through an act of appropriation, then the Senate will do its part....

Senate’s ‘united move’ averts mass endo of nurses

20 November 2019, Comment are Off
Not one of the nurses presently employed under the DOH Nurse Deployment Program will lose their jobs next year on account of the projected budget cuts. RN pa rin sila, Retained Nurses. This is the assurance made on record and in the open by Senator Go, the sponsor of the DOH...

Budget lack derails nat’l ID project timeline

19 November 2019, Comment are Off
The administration pressed Congress to pass the National ID Law, designating it a national project of the highest priority, certifying that funds are available for its implementation, and no wonder Congress complied. That was two years ago, when we passed the law certified as...

Recto on the filing of Resolution calling for legal framework on ‘Deepfakes’

16 November 2019, Comment are Off
At a time when a crudely-done images, in which their falsity is obvious, can lead many people to believe them as real, then sophisticated videos in which the likeness of a person is seamlessly integrated can have troubling effects on society if used to foment lies. Ngayon pa lang...

On World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims: Higher MVUC collections should lead to higher spending for road safety

16 November 2019, Comment are Off
Taxes paid for road use must end up in projects seen on the road. Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto stressed this point following the passage in the Senate of a bill setting a day to remember road crash victims and a bill almost doubling the road users’ tax in the Hous...

Where are the 1.7 billion trees in 2 M hectares of land funded by P39 B tree program?

14 November 2019, Comment are Off
Sa ilalim ng proposed 2020 national budget, dodoblehin ang budget for tree planting – mula sa kasalukuyang P2.6 billion to P5.15 billion. The DENR’s National Greening Program is one of the very few programs that will be gifted with almost a 100% budget increase. Budgets for...