Department of Finance Secretary Ralph Recto (File photo)
MANILA – All the members of the Commission on Appointments (CA) agreed on Wednesday to approve the ad interim appointment of Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Ralph Recto.
As chairperson of the CA Committee on Finance, Senator Ramon Revilla Jr. endorsed his former colleague's appointment after a short panel deliberation.
"With him at the helm, we know that the Department of Finance is in good hands," Revilla said.
"Through his great attention to detail and relentless pursuit of the greater good, many of the measures that this institution has produced have been cultivated and refined for the benefit of the nation," he added.
During the deliberation, Recto said the Marcos administration is eyeing to boost investments by reducing the cost of doing business, ease of doing business, improving the regulatory regime, and ending constraints.
"In my mind, the best way to inculcate tax obedience is still to promote ease of payment and to show that taxes efficiently collected are effectively spent," he told the panel.
With the help of legislators, Recto said strategies can be developed to efficiently mobilize fiscal resources and prevent leakages to finance growth and manage debt.
"All of these while sustaining investments in infrastructure and human capital development," he said.
He also assured that the DOF would continue to employ measures that will shield consumers from inflation which is an "unlegislated tax that the people should not bear."
Recto served his first three terms as a member of the House of Representatives from 1992 to 2001 by focusing on economic reforms and poverty alleviation.
He was eventually elected as the youngest senator of the 12th Congress at the age of 37 where he chaired the Committee on Ways and Means, as well as the Committee on Trade and Commerce from 2001 to 2007 and from 2010 to 2022 as Senate Minority Leader and Senate Pro Tempore.
Recto also had the opportunity to serve briefly as chief of the National Economic and Development Authority during the Arroyo administration in 2008.
He was representative of Batangas' 6th district and House Deputy Speaker before President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. decided to appoint him as DOF chief. (PNA)
