SENADO 2016, sino nga ba?

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto is known by many as the author of the Reformed Value-Added Tax (RVAT).

 

The RVAT increased the previous tax rate from 10 percent to 12 percent and included new products in the taxation scheme, such as those related to oil and petroleum.

 

In Recto’s point of view, the RVAT would help solve the budget deficit crisis of the country. In 2006, the Philippines was experiencing slow growth. Because of several super typhoons, an avian flu scare, and problems concerning the mining industry, the economy started to decline.

 

From the point of view of the common Filipino, more taxes meant higher prices in the market – and prices were already high at that time.

 

Due to the unpopularity of this decision, voters didn’t reelect him when the 2007 senatorial elections came.

 

“If I shall end up as a footnote in history, I shall be blissfully content with being remembered as one who chose principles over popularity and did what was right rather than what was expedient,” Recto said in his last speech as a senator that year.

 

Recto is a politician and an economist. He was influenced by his grandfather, former Senator Claro M. Recto, who fought for the Philippines’ political and economic freedom from the Americans.

 

Majority of the laws he has authored up to this day concern tax, revenue, trade and an equitable economy.

 

Recto, like his forebears, entered politics in 1992. When he ran as representative for a Batangas district, he won in all Batangas precincts, proving that people’s support for him was overflowing.

 

In 2001, he was elected as senator, became the chairman for the Committees on Ways and Means and on Trade and Industry, and became the co-chairman of the Congressional Oversight Committees on the Proper Implementation of the National Internal Revenue Code and on the Official Development Assistance.

 

Following his loss in the 2007 senatorial elections, he worked as an independent director at UnionBank of the Philippines. Afterwards, he served as director-general of the National Economic and Development Authority.

 

Under his leadership, the Economic Resiliency Plan was born. This aimed to create more jobs, maintain stable prices, and assist the poor and the OFWs.

 

Recto has already filed 101 bills in Congress for this term. He has also authored 35 laws and co-authored nine laws.

 

Some of these laws include the Sin Tax Law which taxed items like tobacco and alcohol to lower people’s demand for them, the PAGASA Modernization Act of 2015 which improved the technology and facilities of PAGASA, the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons which aimed to enhance skills and provide opportunities for people with disabilities, and Enhancing the Philippine Basic Education System (K to 12 Program).

 

Recto also created the Increasing the Tax Exemption Cap for the 13th Month Pay, Christmas Bonus and Other Benefits from P30,000 to P82,000 Law.

 

He also pushed for the PhilHealth Coverage for All Senior Citizens Law. This gave senior citizens discounts, free services from the government, tax exemptions, social pensions and other benefits.

 

In addition, he is behind the Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act and Comprehensive Tax Reform Law.

 

Today, Recto’s main platform can be summed up in one word: HEARTS. This stands for health, education, agriculture, roads, transportation and social security. He encourages medical missions in several provinces, has created a Recto Educational Assistance Program which has hundreds of scholars in 24 schools, pushes for the proper use of agricultural funds and road user’s tax, and has made PhilHealth available to all senior citizens.

 

In 1989, Recto graduated from De La Salle University with a bachelor’s degree in Commerce, major in Business Administration. He then proceeded with studying more economics-related courses in other universities in the country. He studied Public Administration at the University of the Philippines for his master’s degree but did not finish the course. He also studied Strategic Business Economics at the University of Asia and the Pacific and earned a certificate in 1994.

 

Recto ranks fourth among senatorial candidates, according to the March 2016 Social Weather Stations survey.