SENATOR RICHARD J. GORDON'S SPEECH DURING THE COCOPEA THANKSGIVING TRIBUTE TO THE AUTHORS, REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATORS OF THE 18TH CONGRESS FOR THE PASSAGE OF RA 11635
January 20, 2022

Congratulations on your solidarity for having produced the wake-up call to the senators and to make sure that the government realizes that it has amnesia - nakalimutan na nila na ang pakay ng gobyerno ay palakasin ang edukasyon at pagka dadagdagdan ang buwis tulad nang doon sa CREATE, ibababa dapat ang buwis eh inaangat ang buwis, papaano naman ang mga teachers na susuwelduhan niyo sa private colleges?

Papaano naman ang mga laboratories na gagawin niyo? At yung mga appointments ninyo na kailangang maayos? Papaano tayo makakalikha ng opportunities for the young people of this country, if we are hamstrung by all kinds of taxes that limit our capability to expand our universities and colleges so that we could better come out with the products of the Filipinos that can analyze the problems of our country?

You know, ang isang problema ng ating bansa, the failure to produce students that can actually analyze. Just don't react students that will not be led by the nose by fake news like what is happening right now. Maraming mga millennials na nakikita ang news doon lang sa kanilang mga telepono and that to me, the news is coming fast and furious, you don't really know which to choose or which to trust.

And when you don't have trust, you lose confidence. As you know, our doubts are traitors as Shakespeare said, that makes us fear to do the good that we oft might win by fearing to attempt. So it's important today that we realize that we have become, rather than one of the top nations of Asia, we have gone down.

When I was in grade school, I remembered that the Philippines was only second to Japan. But today, we're number six or seven even in ASEAN. Seventh or sixth in foreign direct investments and even in education we have really gone down dramatically.

So it's important that we all realize that it takes everybody, the solidarity that you have must be shared by the whole country to make sure that we are focused on one vision -- to educate our people well and to come up with laws that must be enforced.

Hindi lang yung nagpapakita tayo na sumosuporta tayo. We do the right thing rather than do the popular thing. Make sure that the enforcement of law is secure and done well. Otherwise, we will forever be slipping and everytime there's a pandemic, other people will try to do a fastbreak and steal from you as in Pharmally.

Or for that matter when there's a typhoon, it will become a forgotten disaster because we have not acted fast enough. We are now concentrating on the political campaign rather than helping over the 1.5 million people that have lost their homes in this typhoon and definitely we must not forget that universities and colleges, especially the private ones, have their roles to play to make sure na makaabante ang mga tao natin sa tulong ng private education.

Because in America or anywhere else, the private education network has delivered and continues to deliver. Marami kayong problema. Yung K-12, maraming nawalan ng trabaho, di kaagad nakabangon. Yung taas ng suweldo ng mga public school, nawala ang mga private school teachers, naglipatan doon sa private school.

So marami kayong problemang hinaharap, nilalapatan pa kayo ng mga buwis na hindi makatarungan, ay talagang mahihirapan tayo. Today, I don't think I should deserve any award really, I spoke up during the committee hearings right away when I saw it, and I thought it was wrong. Just as I spoke yesterday when I saw that they were going to make people who are not vaccinated poorer.

What the government must do is to provide the masks, the support to schools as they would do in education para sa ganoon we do the right things than to discourage. The whole object of the CREATE Bill was to incentivize and what yet what the government gave, it will take away in another form by taxing you at 25 percent. Mabuti na lang, nahagip natin yan at napababa sa 10 percent.

So congratulations to COCOPEA, congratulations to the leadership of Dr. Tamayo and many others who have called me, I thank you because you are not mere spectators. You are not outsiders, you are not watchers, but active in the role not just as educators but making sure to protect your culture of outstanding achievement para nang sa ganoon our country will be a lot brighter, safer, healthier. Certainly, this country can really attain its objective of being one of the most respected countries in the world.

Thank you very much.