Press Releases

Longer jail time and higher fines await Customs and other government employees who will pilfer balikbayan boxes or extort money from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in exchange for the release of handcarried or shipped cargo. Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said these

A bonus equivalent to one month pay is scheduled to be given to government workers in June, highlighting the need for the House and the Senate to break their impasse over a pay hike bill for state workers, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said today. Recto said the

Despite the deadlock in the House-Senate negotiation on the proposed government pay hike, there was, however, “tripartite agreement” on a provision guaranteeing that so-called Magna Carta benefits of government workers will not be taken away. This was disclosed by Senate

Senate of the Philippines Ralph G. Recto Senate President Pro-Tempore January 18, 2016 Sen. Antonio F. Trillanes IV Chairperson Committee on Civil Service and Government Reorganization Senate of the Philippines Financial Center, Roxas Blvd., Pasay City Dear Senator Trillanes:

No to ‘magna cutting’ of benefits – Recto Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto today appealed to the Palace to consider endorsing his proposed amendments to the Salary Standardization Law IV (SSL IV) in order to thwart the possible scrapping of Magna Carta benefits being

Death penalty must be imposed for those involved in large-scale drug trafficking, including military and police officials who coddle and conspire with them. Although I am fundamentally against capital punishment, the impunity by which men in uniform coddle and align themselves

Instead of a pay hike, 99 percent of Department of Science and Technology (DOST) personnel will get a pay cut on the first year of the implementation of the proposed Salary Standardization Law IV (SSL IV), due to a provision there which threatens to repeal all Magna Carta for

Not just a balikbayan box, but can also be a balikbayan van. Overseas Filipinos returning to the Philippines for good are also entitled to ship home tax-free up to P350,000 worth of personal and household effects, Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto, author of the Balikbayan

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto today hailed the passage of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) which raises to P150,000 the tax-exempt value of pasalubong cargo brought in or sent by overseas Filipinos. Although the provision on the tax treatment of