FEB
26
2020

Explanation of Vote for SB 1233: Expanding the use of the Legal Assistance Fund

I vote ‘Yes’ to this measure, Mr. President.  In reality, the main challenge is not to expand the coverage of the Legal Assistance Fund, but to increase its funding.  It is not about having more slices out of the pie, but how to make that pie bigger. Because the current
FEB
26
2020

Sponsorship Speech on SB 1365: Alternative Learning System

SPONSORSHIP SPEECHSB 1365: Alternative Learning SystemSenate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto26 February 2020 The sheer number of people—nearly 7 million—who stands to benefit from this bill makes it a policy necessity. And the massive good it will bring to individuals and to
FEB
18
2020

Sponsorship Speech on SB 1341: Motorcycles as Public Utility Vehicles

Mr. President: Throughout history, legislation has always marched behind technology. It has always been innovation first, regulation later. And most often, government’s intervention follows this Reagan doctrine: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it
JAN
20
2020

Bangon Batangas!

Mr. President, my dear colleagues: Sabi nila ang Bulkang Taal daw ay ang puso – at pusod – ng Batangas. And that umbilical cord has not been cut off. No other force, nature or nurture, has shaped Batangas history more than this “riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an
DEC
10
2019

Sponsorship Speech on Salary Standardization Law of 2019

Mr. President, dear colleagues, fellow workers in government: This bill is not a gift of one person, nor the result of the generosity of one institution. It springs from the grace of taxpayers who will ultimately pick up the P310 billion, four-year tab of this bill. It will come
DEC
09
2019

SEAG medalists, coaches should get cash incentives before Christmas

Explanation of VoteCommending Hon. Juan Miguel F. Zubiri for Leading the Philippine National Team for Arnis to Resounding Victory in the 30th Southeast Asian Games Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto Mr. President: There is one canon in politics that was preached by Teddy
COMMENT Off
DEC
09
2019

An agency that will explain the whys and the hows of crashes

Explanation of Vote on Senate Bill No. 1077Creating a National Transportation Safety Board Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto This bill, like our traffic-delayed planes and buses, may have been late in coming. But the alternative of it not arriving at all would have been
DEC
09
2019

Streamline the permit process but don’t lower the bar of ownership

Explanation of Vote on Senate Bill No. 1155Amending the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto When rules are complicated and the process in securing permits are complex, it leads not to compliance, to but to evasion. This
NOV
11
2019

Time to erase and increase the amount of our teachers’ Chalk Allowance

SPONSORSHIP SPEECH SBN 1092: Teaching Supplies Allowance Act by Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto Mr. President: It has been said that what the teacher writes on the blackboard of life can never be erased. But we, on the other hand, can erase and change the amount of