Speech of Vice President Sara Duterte for the 48th Philippine Business Conference and Expo Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industries Fiesta Pavilion, Manila Hotel

Assalamualaikum! Maayong adlaw kanatong tanan. Magandang araw sa ating lahat.

Congratulations to the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industries — and may I express my admiration for your courage and commitment to the interest of the business sector and its contribution to the growth and development of the nation.

The holding of this 48th Philippine Business Conference and Expo is a glowing proof of that courage and commitment. Efforts like this complement government’s efforts to bring about growth and development across the country — and benefit all sectors, especially the underprivileged and those lacking economic opportunities, access to livelihood, and employment.

May I also point out the importance of the participation of everyone here, including our foreign visitors. It highlights our collective optimism for the greater things to come.

As you may well know, in August this year, despite lingering fears and apprehensions by some sectors, the Department of Education took a bold step to open our schools once again to in-person learning. We welcomed over 28 million children and youth into our schools who have suffered learning loss as a result of the school closures during the pandemic.

As we speak, our schools are aggressively implementing their learning recovery programs. It is not enough to just bring them back to school; we also need to accelerate learning by conducting remedial and enrichment classes to avoid long-term damage to our future workforce’s skills and productivity.
As we transition to five days of face-to-face classes this November, we welcome the support of education stakeholders, parents, our local government units, civil society organizations, and private sector partners who have all contributed to strengthening our basic education system in the past years.
These days, I am happy to share that the private sector has once again come to our aid.

These are in the form of classroom building construction, teacher training, school grants, student competitions and awards including robotics and ICT talent competitions, nutrition education, school supplies distribution, reading materials, school preparedness advocacy, security, and mental health resources.
Under the leadership of our president, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., we are committed to the goal for all Filipinos to realize their full potential and contribute meaningfully to a cohesive and productive nation.
The government is aware of the poor performance of our schools in international education assessments. We are now in the process of completing our review of the K-12 program. The previous administration finished the review of the K to Grade 10 program. Under my administration, we are set to review Grades 11 and 12.
Recently, DepEd issued an amendatory Department Order (DO) to DO 34, s. 2022 allowing private schools to offer blended learning modality and full distance learning options to their students. DepEd is cognizant of the current situation of private educational institutions due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic — the amount of investment in online learning technologies, the development and institutionalization of best practices on blended learning, and the unfortunate closure of small private schools because of losses.

DepEd will leave the discussion on the learning modality to be implemented by private education institutions to the schools, the parents/guardians, and the learners. However, we hope that parents/guardians of private school learners would not miss the abundance of scientific studies available on the advantages of in-person classes over online learning.

We have also just signed the First Time Jobseekers Assistance Act – Joint Operational Guidelines with the Department of Labor and Employment. The operational guidelines is a crucial step in the implementation of RA 11261, or the First Time Jobseekers Assistance Act. We expect more first-time jobseekers, especially our K-12 graduates, to be given the opportunity to process their pre-employment requirements immediately and cost-free.
We are a nation comprised of young, able, and ambitious human resources. Each year, thousands of graduates join our workforce. Our goal is to facilitate job opportunities for them so they can start to earn and contribute to their families, build their dreams, and grow into valuable assets for nation-building.
Our programs and plans for the next eight years are laid out in our Basic Education Development Plan 2030. This is the first long-term plan for basic education in the country. The BEDP 2030 is also a promise that we will continue to find ways to improve basic education in terms of access, equity, quality, resiliency, and governance.
I invite you to come sit with us during our education stakeholders’ convergence next month to uncover opportunities for collaboration and public-private partnerships.
We need transformational leadership from the business sector. There is a growing consumer consciousness to support businesses with a demonstrated commitment to sustainability and social impact.
I hope this conference and expo will bring to the table multiple options for collaboration and new and renewed investment opportunities. With great optimism, we are ready for greater collaborations to achieve this administration’s economic and social development goals.

Once again, congratulations on the success of this event.

Patuloy nating mahalin ang Pilipinas.

Shukran.