Minority seeks cuts in budget for travel, utilities, representation, non-essential overhead 

24 November 2016, Comment are Off
Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto is pushing for a minimum 10 percent cut in the bureaucracy’s cellphone, electricity, travel, gasoline, advertising, and other non-essential expenses, which he said would free billions for health and other social services. Recto manifested this...

Use OP intel fund in finding Abu Sayyaf, killers of top revenue officials

22 November 2016, Comment are Off
If they were killed by scalawags out to sabotage your anti-corruption program, then please use the presidential intelligence fund in finding their killers. In making this unsolicited advice to President Duterte, Senate Minority Leader stressed that the recent brazen killing of...

No more en-DOH for thousands of nurses after minority cites funding sources

22 November 2016, Comment are Off
The Department of Health will no longer hand out pink slips to thousands of nurses and other field personnel next year after its officials assured senators that it will observe the status quo in its Rural Health Practice Program (RHPP), which was originally programmed to shed...

Just 1 in 3 ‘Doctors to Barrios’ slots taken, Recto bats for ‘1 town, 1 doctor’ scholarships

22 November 2016, Comment are Off
Because only a third of the slots in its Doctors to the Barrios program are filled for lack of applicants, government has no choice but to produce its own doctors under a program in which scholars will repay tuition and other schooling expenses by serving in their hometowns for...

Minority wants Malampaya billions firewalled from Bataan nuke project

21 November 2016, Comment are Off
The Senate minority wants the P188 billion unspent government share from Malampaya and other energy projects “firewalled” from being used to finance the restarting of the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP). Minority Leader Ralph Recto said there should be “no funding...

‘ERC needed to police power industry. Change the people, don’t abolish it’

21 November 2016, Comment are Off
Change the people, but do not abolish the body. Improve it, reform it, but do not dismantle it. Change the software, upgrade the hardware. Then reboot. The ERC must stay to police the electricity market. Somebody should blow the whistle on anti-competitive practices in an...

Crossing party lines, senators give PNP equipment budget P5 billion boost

20 November 2016, Comment are Off
Senators have crossed party lines to boost the Philippine National Police’s equipment budget next year by P5 billion, so that policemen, in the words of Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto, “will be able to meet its guarantee of a 15-minute maximum response time to all distress...

‘Fire-hit villages which look like mini-Hiroshimas must get Calamity Fund’

19 November 2016, Comment are Off
Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto is urging Malacañang to extend Calamity Fund assistance to thousands of homeless families in fire-razed communities in Metro Manila. “When an entire community is burned to the ground, then it should qualify for national assistance,” Recto said,...