Gordon pushes revenue sharing scheme with telcos

Sen. Richard Gordon is urging the country’s telecocomunications companies (telcos) to set aside a portion of their net profits from local text messaging to help fund public school infrastructures.

Gordon, chairman of the Senate government corporations and public enterprises committee, said he filed Senate Bill 2402 or “Text-For-Change” to help pull the country’s resources together and address the shortages in education and health system and other social needs.

In a media forum, 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 private businesses which shall stand to benefit once investments in the country’s education and health care infrastructures are set well in place.

“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 said.

“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.

He urged leaders of big businesses, not only telecom firms, 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. — Wilma Yamzon