GORDON: GOV'T TO GENERATE P73-B FOR EDUCATION
AND HEALTH BACKLOGS

The government will generate some Php 73 billion that would address the country's ballooning backlogs in education and health infrastructures once a measure requiring telecommunication companies to share 50 percent of their net revenue earnings arising from local text messages is passed into law, Senator Richard J. Gordon said yesterday.

Gordon, chairman of the Senate government corporations committee, said the measure, logged as Senate Bill (SB) 2402, will help generate the much-needed funds from text messaging revenues of telecommunication companies (telcos) to spearhead the rehabilitation and acceleration of education system and health programs in the country.

"It is a reality that our country's educational system today is in a critical condition. Given the scarce government resources, there is a need to be innovative in our approach in harnessing investments for education and health modernization programs," he said.

Gordon's committee is scheduled to resume its second public hearing on SB 2402 Monday next week. Representatives from big telcos, including Smart Communications, Globe, and Sun Cellular , are expected to attend in the hearing.

Under SB 2402, also known as the Health and Education Acceleration Program (HEAP) Bill, every commercial mobile service provider shall be required to remit to the HEAP fund half or 50% of its net revenue earnings arising from text messages.

Gordon projected that from an estimated 400 million text messages sent per day with each text message at the cost of P1.00, half of which or P0.50 would go to the HEAP Corporation, the government would collect P73 billion in one year alone.

Gordon said the amount is more than enough to help the government fund a comprehensive enhancement program for education and health.

"In its first year, HEAP can build all the classrooms and hire all the teachers we currently lack. That will be the end of our perpetual shortage in classrooms and teachers. The Department of Education will be completely focused on academic concerns and not be distracted with building infrastructure and logistics," he said.

The country suffers from an existing classroom backlog of 12,418 rooms at the cost of P6.95 billion; provide the needed 1,744,237 school seats at P1.39 billion; and 44,200,000 textbooks for all students at P2.78 billion.

The fund is also enough to hire 12,733 teachers with a cost of P2.48 billion and fund for their training at P25 million; employ 24,709 principals at the cost of P4.43 billion; and feed 12,202,297 school children in all grades for 120 days at the cost of P58.5 billion.

Gordon said that aside from improving the educational system, there is also a need to enhance the country's school health profile, which in itself is equally in a similar dismal condition.

Department of Education's figures show that 21% of schoolchildren are malnourished; 11.4% of students ages 6-12 are iodine deficient; 37.4% between ages 6-12 suffer iron deficiency anemia (IDA), while 36% suffer from vitamin A deficiency.

Moreover, 67% of schoolchildren suffer intestinal helminthiases (intestinal worms); 97% have dental caries; 6.2% have hearing impairment; and 2.54% have visual impairment.

Gordon said the HEAP Corporation can address all these student health concerns with the large sum of money that can be generated from the estimated fund. He explained that it is for these reasons that the HEAP Bill must be enacted into law.