Categories
Politics

Limiting Global Warming is Achieving Climate Justice – LEGARDA

Now that the President has acceded to the Paris Agreement on climate change, Senator Loren Legarda stressed the importance of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. Legarda, Chair of the Senate Committee on Climate Change and UN Global Champion for Resilience, said that in President Rodrigo Duterte’s letter to the Senate with the Instrument of Accession, […]

Categories
Politics

House Nears Declaration of Mining-Free Zones – ZARATE

  The House committee on natural resources chaired by Rep. Carlos Isagani T. Zarate (Party-list, Bayan Muna) has approved proposals to declare North Cotabato and Cagayan de Oro City as mining-free zones and to declare as closed to mining applications those areas in the country which have been declared by local government units (LGUs) as […]

Categories
Politics

Government Must Prioritize Labor Measures Amid Unemployment Rate Increase – VILLANUEVA

Senator Joel Villanueva has called for the immediate passage of significant labor measures in light of the current survey results of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) estimating a big increase on the number of jobless Filipinos in the last quarter of 2016. The survey reports that 25.1 percent of the 1,500 adult respondents have no […]

Categories
Politics

Wider Access to Mental Health Care Needed – ANGARA

Senator Sonny Angara has joined the calls for the immediate passage of a bill that aims to establish a national mental health policy in the country to ensure that mental health care is made available even to ordinary Filipinos. In his co-sponsorship speech of Senate Bill 1354, Angara stressed that the government should heed the […]

Categories
Politics

Free Tuition Policy in SUCs Not Anti-Poor -GATCHALIAN

The implementation of a free tuition policy in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) would significantly improve the financial position of working-class households that are struggling to cope with the high cost of tertiary education, Senator Win Gatchalian said on Wednesday as he scored critics for attempting to brand the policy as “anti-poor”. In a statement, […]

Categories
Politics

Protect Integrity, Dignity of the Senate as an Institution -GORDON

Senator Richard Gordon called for greater emphasis on protecting the dignity and integrity of institutions, such as the Senate, as it serves as the vanguard of democracy and a bastion of knowledge and information in which committees investigate issues in aid of legislation. This comes in light of retired SPO3 Arturo Lascanas’ retraction of his […]

Categories
Politics

We Need a Modern, Relevant Citizen Service Act for the Filipino Youth – PIMENTEL

Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III filed a bill for mandatory training of Filipino college students for their possible mobilization in the service of the nation during times of emergencies and contingencies in the form of natural and man-made calamities and external and internal security threats. Senate Bill 1322, filed by Pimentel on February 9, […]

Categories
Politics

Senate Initiates Long-Overdue Review of Local Government Code to Further Strengthen LGUs -ANGARA

The Senate committee on local government, chaired by Senator Sonny Angara, has called for a consultative meeting last week among key stakeholders and experts to conduct a comprehensive review of the Local Government Code. “More than 26 years have passed since Congress enacted the Code. Its review is long-overdue. It is now imperative to institute […]

Categories
Politics

Allow Mobile Phone Number Retention to Spur Telco Competition – PIMENTEL

With the Senate now conducting hearings on Senate Bill No. 1302, which seeks to extend the legislative franchise of Smart, the wireless subsidiary of PLDT, Inc., Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III is urging the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to step in and direct the country’s telcos to adopt Mobile Number Portabilty (MNP) to spur […]

Categories
Politics

Smart Communications to Improve and Upgrade Its Services – EJERCITO

Senator JV Ejercito said he will get the commitment of Smart Communications to improve and upgrade its services for the next five to ten years. The senator, as Vice Chairman of the Public Services Committee, said the extension of the telcos giant’s franchise could have been easily renewed for another 25 years had it refined […]