Francis Escudero

"Government must provide the hardware - classrooms, desks, chairs, and the software - books, teacher retraining."

"The reported backlog of 40,000 classrooms is unjustifiable. At a cost of P500,000 per classroom, it would cost only P20 billion to build everything. That's only one year's income of PAGCOR. I am incredulous how the future of millions of Filipino children has been irretrievably lost because of the insatiable greed of those in power."

"In California, the entire net income of its grant California Lotto has been exclusively earmarked for its schools."

"We should align government subsidies to private and public colleges with courses that meet the demands of the market. Like engineering and computer sciences."

"McKinsey and Company has a new study that shows that the persistent gap in academic achievement between children in the United States and their counterparts in other countries deprived the U.S. economy of as much as $2.3 trillion in economic output in 2008 alone. Can we imagine how much that academic gap has cost us in potential income?"

"Fourth, we must be self sufficient in producing our basic food staples such as rice and corn and fish."

"Agriculture development is an activity very close to my heart because my father, now congressman Sonny Escudero, served as Secretary of Agriculture under 2 presidents."

"While the average Malaysian or Thai household spends only 34% of its income on food."

"By lowering their expenditure on food, we would be awarding every family with an increase in disposable income, and mitigate labor demands for wage increases."

"Let us be reminded that the poorest families belong to the agricultural sector. 40% of our labor force is directly dependent on agriculture. Another 20% are indirectly dependent."

"Increasing research and development budget to 5 percent of the agricultural production (GVA=P1.17trillion) would bring about better varieties and more efficient farming methods which would increase yields and give the farmer higher incomes even while farmgate prices go down to benefit the consumer."

"We should try to make seamless the transport of agricultural products from Mindanao to the Visayas and NCR; from the Cordilleras and the Cagayan Valley to Manila. From farms to bagsakans or markets or seaports."

"Fifth, we must fast track our infrastructure development."

"Aside from pump priming our economy, we would be bringing down the cost of transportation and opening up those areas of our country which have not been developed."

"We must prioritize projects already partially built. Half a bridge is equivalent having no bridge at all. Then we have to focus on widening our major arteries. Especially where traffic jams occur daily. The wastage of people's time and fuel runs into billions not counting the inefficient use of trucks which deliver goods."

"We already spoke of lowering costs of food, labor, and transportation."

"Now we must move heaven and earth to lower energy costs. We must complete the sale of NAPOCOR generating plants and PPA contracts to the private sector to generate more competition. Thus far, only about 40% have been privatized."

"It is unconscionable that this government charges more royalty on the sale of our very own natural gas from Malampaya than it taxes imported coal and fuel. We pay P1.40 per kilowatt hour for electricity from generated from natural gas and only P.17 per KWH from coal. Does that make any sense to you?"

"We should consider lowering our income tax rates to equal Hongkong or Vietnam or Thailand. One of the major reasons why many locators do not like the Philippines is because they would have to pay their executives more takeout to equalize take home pay. For example, Hongkong has a tax rate of 17% while our marginal income tax rate is 32%."

"Lastly, we must lower bureaucratic costs. This refers to "under the table" payments."

"Most business executives accept that bribes and grease money are costs of doing business in "soft "states."

"You bring in a container, you pay P200, 000 but only get a receipt for P60,000. Meaning that P140,000 goes to the bureaucrats and tong collectors."

"We sign a contract for a North Rail that cost $17 million per kilometer while the equivalent cost in Shanghai is $7M."

"We witness the President approve a contract with ZTE for $328 million which turned out to be overpriced by as much as 60%."

"All such shenanigans bring up the cost of doing business in this country."

"These are our six priority areas. But I should add the Environment and Tourism."

"The former will guarantee a healthier life for future generations and upholds the principle of stewardship - that we are merely caretakers of the world which we presently inhabit - And that we must hand on to our children the land and waters in as good a condition as when we inherited it from our fathers."

"Tourism is an economic activity that leverages on the beauty that our Creator willed to us. It will also encourage development of the far reaches of our country. And it would complement efforts to protect the environment."

"What can I say about the peace efforts with our Muslim brothers and the NPA?"

"Let's begin with one principle: it is better to talk, than to shoot."

"But these two have been intractable problems for decades, even a century. Their root causes have been social injustice and economic injustice. Brilliant minds and experts have been harnessed to tackle these problems. And still the problems persist."

"I possess no silver bullet or magic wand. But this much I can promise - we will ensure that each and every rebel shall realize that he or she owns a part of this land we love, that whatever our creed or color, our political beliefs or ethnic group, we are first and foremost Filipinos."

"This is where I would like to bring up the subject of equity. Economic statistics show that although there has been GDP growth over the past 23 years, the number of families living in poverty has increased - up to about 5 million families or 27.6 million people. This demonstrates that benefits of that growth have accrued to the wealthy. The rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer. This is clearly unacceptable to all of us."

"It is particularly galling to read a United Nation country report released in April 2008 that "poverty reduction in the Philippines has logged far behind that of Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and China."

"These are countries that started with higher levels of poverty incidence than our country but have successfully managed to lessen, if not virtually eliminate, extreme poverty."

"Whoever gets himself elected President in 2010 will have a steep mountain to climb."

"Which bring us back to my original question: What is wrong with us? Why do we Filipinos always shoot ourselves in the foot?"

"Perhaps the answer can be found in an old African adage: "If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.""

"Whoever wins, whoever gets to lead our country, let us pledge to work together and rally behind him. By working as a team, by going together, it is a certainty that we will go farther."

"I pray that that common commitment would be the result of these debates."

"I view with utmost concern the imposition of martial law in Maguindanao province, especially after the reported discovery of arms caches and documents related to past elections. I hope that this is not the case of "Maguindanao today-the Philippines tomorrow.""

"The current state of emergency would have sufficed to address the clamor for justice for the massacre victims and restore the rule of law in the province. For the longest time, this government has tolerated and promoted the culture of warlordism in Mindanao. Now, it seeks to be a warlord to undo what it has done."

"In the meantime, I urge all military and police commanders to make sure that human rights are respected during this period."

"I will oppose any attempt to use this tragic and reprehensible incident to prevent the truth about these illegal arms caches and documents that may related to electoral fraud from coming out through the imposition of martial law. I call on the people to be vigilant and to resist moves by those who seek to rule beyond 2010."

"It’s the oldest trick in the book. If you are being criticized, create a diversion. Invent tales so that from an aggressor you become the aggrieved party and people will start casting their sympathies at you."

"Politicians do not have the monopoly of leadership. It has always been convenient for politicians to take charge in past protect actions, but it is already high time that we let the private citizens hold the rein and make their will take over."

"I still have the butterflies whenever I talk in public. It's a healthy feeling, instead of feeling cocky. You got to think/guard about what you're gonna say, you don't end up being nonchalant about what you say and end up regretting it later on. It keeps you in check."

"I learned to speak Bicolano too; I never spoke the dialect when I was in the country. My roomie in Georgetown was Che Carpio, a UP Law graduate from Naga and a former seminarian. He gave me a Bible in Bicolano, by the time I returned from the US I was speaking the dialect instead of speaking in English. My father couldn't believe that I was able to speak Bicolano when I returned to the country. It's easy to learn another language using the Bible, because you roughly know the stories and if you have any doubt with the secular translation all you have to do is get an English or Tagalog version and compare. It's a verbatim translation of what was written there (the Bible)."

"At the end of the day, when you look back, no matter what you are, who you are and what you do, you'll always go back to the basics or the undeniable. History is the best judge; when your epitaph is written you're just a day or a week old six feet under. Stick with the basics, stick to what you're sure of, and stick to something that cannot be judged as being either false, ambitious or arrogant."

"This ruling has finally nailed down the coffin of what was from the beginning an ill-penned accord. This should make all those who authored and had a hand in writing the accord to get red in the face and immediately turn in their resignation from the government for trying to bungle our Constitution."