The powerful House Committee on Appropriations, which handles and approves the country’s national budget, has approved the budget provisions of the substitute bill, subject to amendments, that would create a National Citizens Service Training Program (NCST) in all public and private tertiary...
The push to legalize and regulate motorcycle taxis has formally begun in the House of Representatives. Antipolo 2nd district Rep. Romeo Acop (Facebook) This, after the House Committee on Transportation chaired by Antipolo 2nd district Rep. Romeo Acop tackled in a hearing on Monday, Dec. 12 several...
Hidilyn Diaz celebrates her victory at the 2022 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Weightlifting Championships in Bogota, Colombia. (Photo from Monico Puentevella) Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo, the Philippine's first Olympic gold medalist, added another accolade to her name by winning...
A measure aiming to grant cash incentives plus other non-monetary benefits to filmmakers, literary writers and performing artists who have won formal international acclaim has moved forward in the House of Representatives. (Mari Gimenez/ Unsplash) Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte, a...
Nineteen (19) senators have signed the committee report endorsing the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) Equality Bill which mandates the government to address all forms of discrimination and violence on the basis of SOGIESC. “I am ecstatic that...
The Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC), an inter-agency body tasked to set the government’s macroeconomic assumptions, assured that the planned sovereign wealth fund will have enough safeguards. Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman, who chairs the DBCC, assured that enough...
Gabriela Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas is up in arms over the restoration of the P10-billion budget of the controversial National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) in the proposed 2023 national budget, which is nearing enactment. Gabriela Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas...
Senator Risa Hontiveros on Monday night, December 5, expressed her frustration at the way Congress failed to demonstrate its “power of the purse” with the full restoration of confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs) that have been slashed during the budget deliberations at the Senate....
The Senate Blue Ribbon committee has set its initial investigation into the COVID-19 vaccine procurement contracts worth billions of pesos on Wednesday, December 7. The hearing was set by Senator Francis Tolentino, committee chairman, and has called on officials of the Department of Health (DOH) to...
House Speaker Martin Romualdez has expressed high hopes on the proposed P5.268-trillion national budget, which moved one step closer to enactment Monday, Dec. 5, after Bicameral Conference Committee meetings on the measure were concluded. House Speaker Martin Romualdez (Speaker’s office) “With...
The Bicameral Conference Committee hearings on the P5.268-trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) have wrapped up, with the leader of the House of Representatives contingent calling the measure "a very good budget". Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co (Screenshot from YouTube live) The approval...
President Marcos’ economic team narrowed its growth outlook for next year given the global headwinds, the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) said. On Monday, Dec. 5, the inter-agency body tasked to set the government’s macroeconomic assumptions revised downwards its gross domestic...
