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Recto presses release of old, ailing, infirm prisoners Every ailing or elderly Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) prisoner paroled or pardoned will save taxpayers P45,670 in annual costs to guard and feed him. And taxpayers will save P87,178 annually if one Bureau of Jail Management...

The budget for the government’s pension for indigent senior citizens will more than double next year to P18 billion, which would allow the enrolment of an additional 1.613 million 60 year olds and above to a program that grants each a cash aid of P6,000 a year. Senate Minority...

Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto has served notice to heads of agencies who will appear before the Senate hearings on the proposed P3.35 trillion 2017 national budget “to be ready to itemize lump-sums in their budgets.” Breaking down “block allocations,” Recto said, will result...

If the October barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections will be moved one year later then the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) 2017 budget must be increased to accommodate the estimated P3.4 billion estimated cost to elect the officials of the country’s 42,028...

Save and simplify – these the government must first do before it imposes new tax measures that will bring in two-thirds of a trillion pesos in fresh revenues annually. Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto urged the administration to scout for frivolous and unnecessary expenses...

Government should seize its ceasefire with communist guerillas as an opportunity to shift men and material to its fight to bring the resurgent ISIS-affiliated Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) to its knees, Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto said. “If the truce with the New People’s Army...

Earmarking all state gambling income for the purchase of medicines “is the shot in the arm” that will boost anemic government purchases of essential drugs, Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto said. Recto said about P40 billion in Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and...

In selling its tax proposals, the Duterte administration should attach exemptions and safety nets on each, so that a skeptical public would at least give it a fair hearing of its explanations. One of these, Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto pointed out, are the farming and...