A few weeks after the signing of a law allowing preferential tax treatment to private schools, opposition Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan has stressed the important role that these institutions play in the continuous delivery of quality education to Filipino students amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his acceptance speech during the thanksgiving tribute for the lawmakers who supported the measure hosted by the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations of the Philippines (COCOPEA) Thursday afternoon, Pangilinan said the government has the duty to ensure that students have access to quality education even during a crisis.
“Naging kasangga kayo ng pamahalaan upang magampanan natin ang tungkulin natin sa ating mga anak (You are partners of government in implementing our duties to help our children),” he added.
By virtue of Republic Act 11635, private schools, regardless if for profit or non-profit, are qualified to apply for a concessionary tax rate of one percent through the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act.
This rectifies the previous regulation by the Bureau of Internal Revenue imposing a sky-high 150 percent tax to private educational institutions.
According to Pangilinan, a vice presidential aspirant, the CREATE Law was passed to aid private institutions greatly affected by the pandemic, thus the entire House membership was caught off-guard when wrong interpretations of the law arose.
COCOPEA, through its chairman Dr. Anthony Tamayo, earlier lauded the lawmakers who pushed for the passage of the law, saying the private schools needed the reprieve more than ever.
“Education, as a public good, certainly deserves such significance and priority being given by our honorable senators,” Tamayo said.
In the past two years that the education sector reeled from the ill effects of the pandemic, Pangilinan mentioned that he kept in touch with Tamayo, who personally provided him pertinent information about the situation of some private schools.
Despite these lingering problems, Pangilinan is confident that the private educational institutions would overcome all these as long as they continue working hand-in-hand with the government.
“Sa patuloy na pagtutulungan ng gobyerno at ng pribadong sektor gaya ninyo, malalampasan din natin hindi lamang ang krisis sa kalusugan at ekonomiya, at pati na rin ang krisis sa ating sistema ng ating edukasyon (Because of our continued cooperation, we will be able to hurdle the current health and economic crises and even the crisis affecting our education system),” he added.
Pangilinan also thanked COCOPEA’s leadership along with the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (PACU) for the commendation given to him and his fellow lawmakers who backed the Senate counterpart of the law.
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