Through three terms in the Lower House and two terms here, Mr. President, he has earned the reputation as a lawmaker with a head for numbers, and an … - Francis Escudero

• Special Provisions on unfilled positions, which provide that the unexpended amount for unfilled positions will revert to the unappropriated surplus for those agencies with fiscal autonomy, were deleted.

Agriculture development is an activity very close to my heart because my father, now congressman Sonny Escudero, served as Secretary of Agriculture under 2 presidents.

I urge the Commission on Elections to ditch its plan to use a combination of manual and computerized elections next year and exert all efforts instead to ensure that the 2016 national polls will still be fully automated. Returning to manual polls is a cause for serious concern due to its dangerous implications on the country’s electoral process and a step backwards after having fully automated the elections previously. The proposed "hybrid polls" raises the chilling prospect of a wide-scale electoral cheating similar to what happened during the 2004 presidential elections and brings back memories of "Hello Garci."