Press Release
September 16, 2008

GORDON: CIVIC GROUPS SUPPORT TEXTING INCOME BILL

Civic organizations have expressed their unequivocal support to a proposed measure collecting part of the text messaging revenues by mobile service providers to fund the country's education and health requirements.

Sen. Richard J. Gordon, chairman of the Senate government corporations and public enterprises committee, said that more and more organizations are showing support to Senate Bill (SB) 2402, also known as the Health and Education Acceleration Program (HEAP), which aims to fill the gap in education and health infrastructures in the country.

"I am grateful that Kiwanis openly expressed their support to this bill, because the provisions of this measure are in line with their advocacy of serving the children of the world," he said.

The latest civic organizations that expressed support of the measure is Kiwanis International, represented by Lito Quintana, lieutenant governor of the Cavite-Mindoro-Batangas District of the Kiwanis.

During last Monday's second public hearing on the HEAP bill, Quintana told Gordon that Kiwanis would come up with a resolution supporting HEAP.

Gordon said the Philippine Dental Association had earlier expressed support to the bill, which also aims to address school children's dental problems.

He noted that 97% of schoolchildren have dental caries, a seemingly simple dental problem but, according to studies, may eventually lead to heart ailments.

The senator said that the support of civic organizations and professional associations for the passage of the bill would push telecommunication companies (telcos) to yield to the provisions of the measure.

"I encourage other non-government organizations and volunteer groups, especially those whose advocacy is to improve the life of our children through better education and health programs, to endorse the HEAP Bill. We might just convince telecommunication giants to agree to its provisions," Gordon said.

Once the HEAP bill is passed into law, he explained that telcos shall be required to remit to the HEAP fund half or 50% of its net revenues arising from text messages.

The senator projected that if there are 400 million text messages sent per day at P1.00 for every text message, and half of the earnings, or P200 million a day, are given to the HEAP Corporation, it would be enough to address the country's backlogs in education and health infrastructures.

Government figures show that the country suffers from a shortage of 12,418 classrooms; 1,744,237 school seats; 44,200,000 textbooks; 12,733 teachers; and 24,709 principals at P4.43 billion.

Gordon said a total of P18.28 billion is needed to fund backlogs in education infrastructures alone. But with the P200 million a day or P73 billion a year that will be collected through the proposed HEAP program, there is no way the government cannot address all student health and education concerns.

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