DEC
01
2016

Senate hikes DOLE’s OFW repatriation fund to P100 M, but Recto wants P1.5 B to help distressed Pinoys abroad

The Senate has adopted Minority Leader Ralph Recto’s proposal for the creation of a P100-million “emergency repatriation fund” in the national budget to be used by the Labor secretary to bring home distressed OFWs next year. Recto, however, challenged administration lawmakers to
COMMENT Off
NOV
27
2016

‘Agencies must spend the buck and not pass the buck’

There is an emerging bad habit among agencies to transfer their allocations to other agencies and then report such transactions as fund utilization. In the case of the Department of Transportation, this is the scheme resorted to in its unused budget for airport improvement
COMMENT Off
NOV
26
2016

Recto optimistic on hiked funding to combat malnutrition

Senators spearheading the bicameral push to increase the per meal budget of free school lunches are optimistic that the Senate version of the 2017 national budget would carry their proposal. Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto based his optimism on the admission by heads of the
COMMENT Off
NOV
25
2016

Duterte administration could spend up to P26.7 trillion in 6 years

The Duterte administration is forecast to spend P26.7 trillion in six years in power, and Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto wants government to link the rise in expenditures with the decrease in the number of the poor, the hungry and the unemployed. Recto described next year’s
COMMENT Off
NOV
24
2016

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

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
COMMENT Off
NOV
22
2016

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

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
COMMENT Off
NOV
22
2016

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

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
COMMENT Off
NOV
22
2016

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

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
COMMENT Off
NOV
21
2016

Minority wants Malampaya billions firewalled from Bataan nuke project

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
COMMENT Off