Happy birthday, Idol. You can be assured that, as one of your movies says, "Hindi Pa Tapos Ang Laban!" - Francis Escudero

If you look at the history of the United States, which has a long history of democracy, you would see they committed the same mistakes over and over until they finally learned from them. The same, I think, goes for the Philippines. Even you look older democracies in Europe, the same story would be true.

We must raise the quality of government service. We must work together and help one another to forge into reality our collective dream of a progressive, developed, orderly, and happy nation, where justice prevails and peace reigns! A country where every Filipino is treated equally, where no one is left behind.

• Amended provision under the Unprogrammed Fund earmarking P472.485 million to cover the terminal leave benefits of the Philippine Postal Corporation (PhilPost) employees when they were still under the defunct Bureau of Post;