Press Release
February 8, 2009

Senate resumes hearing on 'text-for-change' bill

Independent Senator Richard J. Gordon today urged giant telecommunications companies (telcos) anew to help invest in the education and health of the Filipino children as the Senate resumes its hearing on his "text-for-change" measure.

Gordon, chairman of the Senate government corporations and public enterprises, holds on Monday, 1 pm, a public hearing on his "text-for-change" measure, or Senate Bill 2402, seeking to zero the country's backlogs in education and health.

"Senate President (Juan) Enrile and House Speaker (Prospero) Nograles have already committed their support to the measure, and we hope the telcos would find it in their hearts to help our poor public school children by supporting my bill," he said.

Gordon's call came in the wake of reports that Smart Communications and Talk 'N Text, both under the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), had posted a 20.9 million and 14.3 million mobile phone subscribers in 2008, respectively.

PLDT also announced that it expects its service revenues for last year to hit P142 billion, up by 5 percent from the previous year.

"It would not hurt the telcos if they help the national government in addressing the ballooning backlogs in education and health care infrastructures in public schools because in the long run they would benefit from it," Gordon said.

SB 2402, or An Act creating the Health and Education Acceleration Program (Corporation), seeks to require telcos to remit at least 10 percent of their annual net revenues arising from Short Messaging System (SMS) to the HEAP Corporation.

The HEAP Corporation would spearhead the rehabilitation and improvement of health care and education infrastructures among the more than 43,000 public schools nationwide.

"There are approximately two billion text messages sent a day. If we give 10 percent, that would be P200 million a day or P73 billion a year for education and health. That is more than enough to fill the gaps in health and education infrastructures," he said.

According to the Department of Education (DepEd), the public school system currently lacks at least 12,000 classrooms, four million seats, 63 million textbooks, 39,000 teachers and 8,000 principals. To fill these gaps alone, the government would need at least P23-billion, he added.

Gordon said he expects more positive developments on Monday's hearing where he expects substantial inputs from representatives of telcos--Smart, Globe and Sun Cellular.

Also expected to appear at the hearing are representatives from the concerned government agencies such as DepEd, Department of Health, and Department of Finance.

Text Power Organization, a group of mobile phone users that aims to empower Filipinos both as consumers and as citizens, is also invited to participate in the hearing.

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