Aquino predicts big win
By TJ A. Burgonio
Confident of getting a majority in Congress, President Aquino is looking to tighten his grip on the Senate and House of Representatives to push for his legislative agenda in his last three years in office.
Confident of getting a majority in Congress, President Aquino is looking to tighten his grip on the Senate and House of Representatives to push for his legislative agenda in his last three years in office.
President Aquino will name a new chief presidential legal counsel in January 2013, and lawyer Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, who was Aquino’s classmate in Ateneo, is being considered for the post.
Farmers on a hunger strike at the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) building on Friday accused Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes of deceiving the public when he said his department would be able to distribute 160,000 hectares of land by the end of 2012.
He may well be the Grinch who stole Christmas for a lot of government employees, but Budget Secretary Florencio Abad on Monday had to clarify that only government those workers who rendered exceptional service this year would be entitled to the performance-based bonus (PBB) announced by Malacañang on Friday.
Some 785,000 public school teachers can again avail themselves of benefits from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) after Malacañang started settling almost P7 billion in unpaid premiums covering three and a half years.
With the Supreme Court under a friendlier force, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad on Wednesday visited Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno and her court to talk about the once thorny issue between the two branches of government: the judiciary’s P17.7-billion budget and the control of its special allowances.
Some administration allies are prodding Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo to run for the Senate, but the widow of the late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo has said she is not interested in electoral politics, according to Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.
The Department of Budget and Management is ready to beef up funding for line agencies’ immediate response to the needs of calamity-stricken communities.
An increase in the government’s share in the billions of pesos in revenues from mining and the passage of the sin tax bill are among the laws President Aquino will ask Congress to pass despite fast-approaching midterm elections.
A top Liberal Party leader on Tuesday dismissed the proposed “super coalition” for the 2013 senatorial elections between the ruling party and the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) being floated by San Juan Representative JV Ejercito.
The administration isn’t pirating potential senatorial candidates from the United Nationalist Alliance as alleged by former President Joseph Estrada, a Liberal Party stalwart in President Benigno Aquino III’s Cabinet said on Saturday.
President Benigno Aquino III on Wednesday said he was committed to the full implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
Budget Secretary Florencio Abad has allowed the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to use a portion of its P4.733-billion savings for 2011 to fund the holding of a plebiscite in Camarines Sur on the proposed creation of the province of Nueva Camarines (NuevaCam).
