Press Release
October 1, 2008

Gordon undeterred by oppositions to "text-for-change" proposal

Independent Senator Richard J. Gordon today said he will remain undeterred by initial reservations by telecommunication companies (telcos) over his proposal requiring them to apportion part of their net profits to reduce the backlogs in health and education.

Gordon said he believes that the telcos will have "a heart and a conscience" for the poor school children who have long been suffering from the pitiful state of the country's educational and health care systems due to lack of government resources.

"I expect a David-and-Goliath fight here, but I shall remain unperturbed and undeterred by initial reservations. I believe that people would soon realize we need to pull our resources together to address the shortages in our education and health system," he said.

"We have waited for years and nothing seems to happen. We must therefore make a tough decision now if we genuinely want our country to compete in the global market and become what we hope it to be, that is at par with the first world countries," he added.

Under Senate Bill 2402, also touted as the "text-for-change" measure, Gordon has proposed that telcos are required to set aside a portion of their net profits from local text messaging to bankroll financial requirements for public school infrastructures.

Based on estimates, the telcos, notably Smart, Globe and Sun Cellular, have been raking in two billion pesos or more from local text messaging, or Short Messaging System (SMS), sent daily by more than 60 million mobile phone subscribers nationwide, alone.

Gordon explained that it is not only the responsibility of the national government to uplift the country's educational and health care systems, but also of the private businesses which shall stand to benefit once investments in the country's education and health care infrastructures are set well in place.

"Under our modern democratic system, our demands and expectations for access to quality of education and health care should be equally matched with our responsibility to contribute in investing for the future of our nation and our children," he said.

"While I share the frustration of millions of people over the inefficient tax administration and collection system, I also empathize with the cries and pleas of millions of public school children who do not even have decent classrooms, seats or text books. We have to translate our ideals into concrete actions, and I think my proposal provides a concrete solution to the problem plaguing our country for decades," he added.

The country suffers from an existing backlog of 12,418 classrooms at the cost of P6.95 billion; 1,744,237 school seats at P1.39 billion; 44,200,000 textbooks at P2.78 billion; 12,733 teachers at P2.48 billion and an additional P25 million for their training; and 24,709 principals at P4.43 billion.

According to Gordon, he is inviting the leaders of big businesses, not only limited to telco giants, to heed the pleas of millions of poor public school pupils and their teachers by supporting his measure than passing brunt of it to the already-burdened consumers.

The Senate government corporations and public enterprises committee chaired by Gordon will resume public hearing on "text-for-change" bill next week to thresh out a revenue-sharing scheme with the telcos leaders and all other stakeholders.

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