Senator-elect Imee Marcos on Wednesday called on the Department of Trade and Industry and LGUs to roll out Kadiwa stores for school supplies in cooperation with traders to help poor families send their children to school.
“Libre ang mag-aral sa public schools, pero hindi libre ang school supplies. Madalas, ang presyo ng school supplies hindi kaya ng mga mahihirap nating kababayan. Hindi rin lahat ng LGUs, kayang magbigay ng libreng school supplies sa mga nangangailangan,” Marcos said.
“Every year, the DTI releases its SRP for school supplies to keep prices at affordable levels. But still, prices are often higher than the SRP. So I am appealing to the DTI and our LGUs to also initiate Kadiwa stores for school supplies together with traders to help keep prices of school supplies affordable for low-income families struggling to send their children to school,” Marcos explained.
Marcos appealed to traders and retailers not to jack the prices of school supplies beyond the SRP. “Mas maganda sa negosyo ang tamang presyo—mas maraming mamimili, mas lalago ang negosyo, nakakatulong pa tayo sa tao, ” Marcos said.
As a long-term solution to ease the burden of parents every school opening, the senator-elect renewed her call on government to remove the value added tax (VAT) on basic commodities including school supplies.
“Removing the VAT on school supplies is a sound investment on our youth together with the free tuition and the 20 percent discount on transportation fares for our students,” Marcos said. “Kinabukasan ng bayan ang kabataan. Kung mas konti ang gastos, mas maraming makakapag-aral, mas uunlad ang ating bayan,” she said.
Marcos made the statement following reports that in Cebu, the DTI recorded 6 to 12 percent increase in the prices of school supplies from last year.
DTI Cebu senior development specialist Dinah Oro said the price increases ranged from 25 centavos to P11 per item.
An econo-bond type of notebook with 80 leaves, for example, is priced at P17, up from P14 last year. Prices of pencils, according to the SRP, should only go up by P2 while pad papers should only increase by P3 to P5.