The country’s largest associations of private schools thanked President Rodrigo Duterte for signing into law Republic Act No. 11635 that aims to save the education sector from excessive taxes and collapse amid the pandemic.
“On behalf of the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA), which represents over 2,500 private educational institutions with over 300,000 school personnel; and Davao Colleges and Universities Network (DACUN), Association of Private, State Colleges, and Universities in Region XI (APSCUR XI), Bicol Association of Private Colleges and Universities (BAPCU), CESAFI Association of Cebu Private Schools, we express our profound gratitude to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte for signing into law of RA 11635 on December 28, 2021,” said Dr. Anthony Jose M. Tamayo, chairman of COCOPEA.
“The enactment of this landmark legislation comes at a critical time when schools are in the middle of preparations for re-opening to face-to-face classes. For many of these schools, the enactment of RA __ gives them the needed boost for sustainability in the school years ahead, and this allows them to fully focus on the Learning Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic that our country is currently grappling with,” said Dr. Tamayo.
COCOPEA also thanked senators and congressmen who supported the passage of the Senate and House bills that became RA 11635.
Atty. Joseph Noel M. Estrada, managing director of COCOPEA, said the enactment of RA 11635 extends the lifeline to struggling private schools during the pandemic to ensure the continuity of learning for Filipino students, secure the jobs of teachers and personnel and provide livelihoods for the many small businesses such as carinderias and tricycle drivers who are dependent on the schools.
The new law amends Section 27 ( of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 and secures with finality the grant of preferential tax rate of 10 percent for proprietary schools, including the temporarily lowered rate of 1 percent during the pandemic, under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE Act).
It makes private schools qualified for a concessionary tax rate of 1 percent under CREATE Act, instead of the 150-percent increase imposed by a recent regulation by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
“The millions of stakeholders of the private education sector and the linked ecosystem that depend on the continuity of our schools, celebrate this momentous event not only for the education sector but for our entire country, no less,” said Estrada.
“Certainly, this newly enacted law in providing stability to education not only in this time of pandemic but also for generations to come, is both crucial and complementary to any economic measure to revive our battered economy,” he said.
