Fifteenth Congress
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILLNO.___ 3506

Introduced by Hon. SIGFRIDO R. TINGA

EXPLANATORY NOTE

This bill seeks to require internet shops and cafés to be used as
distance education centers to stream online secondary course instructions,

lessons and course materials for public high school students.

Section 1 of Article XIV of the Constitution mandates that the State
shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all

levels and shall take appropriate steps to make such education available to
all.

Every Filipino has a right to quality education. Distance education
(DE) is one approach to ensure that quality education is made accessible to
all. The main feature of DE is a pre-dominance of an independent self-
learning style which takes place outside a formal classroom. It is a two-way
communication between teacher and student exists through electronic
communication like the use of computers with internet access to specially
designed learning instructions and materials. This means that students and
teachers do not have to sit in the classroom but instead they learn from

anywhere in the world and in anytime.

This bill seeks to use the internet shops and cafes as distance


accessed free of charge by the public high school students on designated
time slots. This measure will include the provision of tax incentives for the
internet service providers who provides free transmissions of the course
instructions, lessons and materials from the school website to the internet
shops and cafes. Also, the government will subsidize the internet service
fees charged by the internet shops and cafes for the use of its establishments

as distance education centers.

It is expected that through this proposed measure, there will be
substantial improvement in the performance of students in the public high
schools. A 2009 U.S. Department of Education Study revealed that on
average online students out performed those receiving face-to-face
instruction. It is a good bet that in 10 years time students will not be getting
their education in a classroom. At the same time, the problem of shortage of
teachers and classrooms will be properly addressed if we tum to ICT to
provide us a solution. It should stand to reason that computer shop and
intemet cafes can be turned into classrooms, to help address the shortage of

teachers and classrooms.

In view of the foregoing, immediate approval of this measure is highly

recommended.



Fifteenth Congress
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL NO. 3506

Introduced by Hon. SIGFRIDO R. TINGA

AN ACT
ALLOWING FOR THE USE OF INTERNET SHOPS AND CAFES AS
DISTANCE EDUCATION CENTERS TO STREAM ONLINE
SECONDARY COURSE INSTRUCTIONS, LESSONS AND
MATERIALS FOR PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AND
APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines

in Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Short Title. — This Act shall be known as the
“Distance Education Centers Act of 2010.”

SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. — It is hereby declared policy of the
State to widen access and further democratize educational opportunities for
our people in a more effective and accessibility through utilization of
innovative online education. Toward this end, the State shall require all

internet shops and cafés to allow their establishments to be used as distance


education centers to stream online secondary course instructions, lessons and

materials to be accessed by public high school students.
SEC. 3. Definition of Terms. — As used in this Act:

a) Accredited Internet Shop or Café — refers to an internet shop or
café that has been authorized and approved by the Distance Education
Commission to serve as a distance education center;

b) Internet Service Provider (ISP), — also sometimes referred to as
an Internet Access Provider (IAP) - refers to a provider of the necessary

technical means:

Online services or network access, or the operator of facilities
thereof, including entities offering the transmission, routing, or
providing of connections for online communications, digital or
otherwise, between or among points specified by a user, of electronic
documents of the user’s choosing; or

ii, The necessary technical means by which electronic

documents of an originator may be stored and made accessible to a

designated or undesignated third party;

c) Distance education — refers to a method of learning and teaching
employing print, radio, television, computer-based communications, satellite
broadcasting, teleconferencing or other educational technologies that allows
students to study on their own without having to regularly attend classes in
conventional classrooms;

d) Internet shop or café — refers to a place of business that has a

number of networked personal computers with access to the internet for


surfing, chatting, e-mailing and research and available for use by customers
for a fee by the hour or fraction of an hour; and

e) Internet — refers to the worldwide system of computer networks in
which a user at any one computer can directly get information from any
other computer in the network.

f) Commission — refers to the Distance Education Commission

which will be created by virtue of this Act.

SEC 4. Accreditation Process. — The internet shop or café desiring to
participate and avail of incentives as set forth below shall go thru the proper
accreditation process as determined by a special Distance Education

Commission which will be created by virtue of this Act.

SEC. 5. Distance Education Centers. — All accredited internet shops
and cafés shall be used as distance education centers to stream online public
secondary course instructions, lessons or materials posted by the teachers or
instructors on their respective school website for their high school students
to have free access to the public course instruction, lessons and materials on
the internet.

For this purpose, the internet shop or café shall be required to reserve
time slots as determined by the Commission to be used exclusively by the

public high school students.

SEC. 6. — Distance Education Commission. - A special Distance
Education Commission is hereby created to administer and implement the
provisions of this Act, formulate the materials, tools and protocol on the

implementation of electronic learning, and to monitor and ensure

5


compliance of the distance educations centers with the standards to be set by
the Commission. The Commission shall be attached to the Department of
Education. The Commission shall be have as its Chairman an
Undersecretary of the Department of Education, and will have 6 other
members; 3 coming from the Department of Education; and 3 coming from
the Commission on Information and Communication Technology.

Upon accreditation as a Distance Education Center by the
aforementioned Commission, the said internet shop/café shall be exempt

from payment of any and all national and local fees and taxes.

SEC. 7. Student Instruction. — Internet shops and cafés shall be used
as distance education centers by the public high school students only during
the scheduled time reserved for the purpose to be determined by the
Distance Education Commission in consultation with the Bureau of the
Secondary Education of the Department of Education. Any high school
student who shall enter such distance education centers is required to present
a school Identification Card and class schedule. The class schedule must be
issued by the school registrar’s office.

In order to monitor and record the attendance of the students, the
internet shops and cafés shall be required to maintain a logbook in which the
students are required to log-in their attendance, the number of minutes or
hours they used the internet service and other entries to be determined by the
Distance Education Commission.

During the conduct of the class, the internet café as a Distance
Edueation Center shall prevent the usage of the computers for social

networking as well as economic transactions online. The students’ online


activity shall be limited to the course instruction and materials and research

only.

Section 8. — Presence of Instructor/Teacher. - A teacher accredited
by the Commission must also be present during the school hours of the
Distance Education Center. The teacher may come from the private schools
and may be paid through the Teacher Salary Subsidy (TSS) as provided by
Republic Act 8545(amending R.A. 6728), otherwise known as the
“Expanded Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private
Education” (GASTPE).

SEC. 9. Internet Service Fee. — The regular internet service fee
charged by the accredited internet shops and cafés to its customers, used as
distance education centers shall be paid by the Department of Education
distance education centers through its Educational Voucher System as
provided by Republic Act 8545 (amending R.A. 6728), otherwise known as
the “Expanded Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private
Education” (GASTPE). The fees to be charged by the Distance Education
Center per student, shall be determined by the Distance Education
Commission.

SEC. 10. The Internet Service Providers. — The internet service
providers shall provide free transmissions of the course instructions, lessons
or materials from the school website to the accredited internet shops and
cafés during the time slots reserved for high school students so as to have
free access to their respective class instructions, lessons and course materials

posted by their instructors or teachers in their school website.


SEC. 11. Tax Deductions. — The internet service providers may claim
the total expenses incurred in providing free transmissions provided in
Section 8 of this Act as tax deductions: Provided, That the total expenses
shall be allowed as deductions from the internet service providers’ gross
income for the same taxable year as expenses incurred for the free internet
service: Provided, further, That the total amount of the claimed tax
deductions net of VAT, if applicable, shall be included in their gross income
or revenues from their business of internet service for tax purposes and shall
be subject to proper documentations and to the provisions on allowable
deductions covered by Chapter VII of the National Internal Revenue Code
(NIRC) as amended.

SEC. 12. Regular Inspection or Visit. — The inspection team
composed of representatives from the Distance Education Commission and
the Commission of Bureau of Secondary Education of Department of
Education, with assistance if needed from the Office of the City or
Municipal Mayor and the local Philippine National Police; shall conduct
regular inspection of the internet shops and cafés during the time they are
operating as distance education centers.

In case of complaints from any high school student or any concerned
citizen against the internet shop or café who violates the provisions of this
Act, the inspection team shall act within seven (7) days and submit a report
to the Distance Education Commission and the Department of Education for

appropriate action not later than fifteen (15) days from the first inspection
day.


SEC. 13. Penalties. — Any person or owner of internet shops or cafés
who shall, willfully or unlawfully refuse to allow their establishments to be
used as distance education centers, upon conviction, be punished with
imprisonment of not less than three (3) years but not more than five (5) years
or a fine of not less than Ten Thousand pesos (Php10,000.00) but not more
than Twenty Thousand pesos (Php20,000.00), or both at the discretion of the
court.

Any person, firm, partnership or corporation engaged in this business
of internet service provider who shall violate the provisions of this Act be,
upon conviction, punished with the following penalties:

a) Fine of Fifty Thousand pesos (Php50,000.00) for the first offense;

b) Fine of One Hundred Thousand pesos (Php100,000.00) for the
second offense;

c) Imprisonment ranging from one (1) month to six (6) months and a
fine of One Hundred Thousand pesos (Php100,000.00) for the third offense;
and .

d) Revocation and cancellation of the business license or franchise
of the firm, partnership or corporation and a fine of Five Hundred Thousand
pesos (Php500,000.00) for the fourth offense.

The penalty of imprisonment shall be imposed on the president,
general manager, treasurer or other duly appointed officer of the firm,
partnership or corporation.

Finally, if the offender is an alien, he shall be deported immediately,
without further proceedings, after service of sentence.


SEC. 14. Implementing Rules and Regulations. — The Secretary
of Education shall, in consultation with the Commission on Information and
Communication Technology (CICT) and the Department of Trade and
Industry and Bureau of Internal Revenue, promulgate the necessary rules

and regulations for the effective implementation of this Act.

SEC. 15. Appropriations. ~ The amount necessary for the effective
implementation of this Act shall be charged to the current appropriations of
the Department of Education. Thereafter, such sum as may be necessary for
the continued operation of the free internet service to the public high school

students shall be included in the annual General Appropriations Act.

SEC. 16. Separability Clause. — If, for any reason, any part or
provision of this Act is declared invalid or unconstitutional, the remaining
parts or provisions not affected thereby shall remain in full force and effect.

SEC. 17. Repealing Clause. — All laws, decrees, executive orders,
rules and regulations or parts thereof inconsistent with the provisions of this
Act are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.

SEC. 18. Effectivity. — This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days
after its publication in at least two (2) national newspapers of general
circulation.

Approved,