Ten Presidential candidates signed the "Social and Political Pledge for Education" yesterday in which they committed themselves first and foremost to comply with the 4% of GDP for Education applicable starting in 2013 and a commitment to increase it gradually during the four years of their administration.

Punctually, at 9:30 in the morning, and to the beat of "Llego Papo", the PRD candidate Hipolito Mejia opened the signing session, which ended at approximately 4pm in the auditorium of the Catholic University of Santo Domingo, at the invitation of some 300 civil society organizations. In his own inimitable style, Mejia promised that in a government of his the pact would not be a dead letter, because it will be fulfilled.

He acknowledged that during his administration, 2000-2004, they did not reach 4% of GDP to Education as required by Law 66-97 on Education, but he did reach 2.9% of the GDP that he said was the highest in recent history. "And we are not going to get into an analysis about whether education is the fastest way to break with extreme poverty (....) this we all know. What is important is the decision, the commitment to translate this money and effective support into a commitment to the whole society," he said.

After Mejia came Pelegrin Castillo, the candidate for the National Progressive Force (FNP), who signed at 10:15am. Castillo said that instead of 4% of GDP for education they should allocate 6%, to compensate for the damage done to the educational system and the time lost because of a lack of investment. However, there was some grumbling from the signers.

Four of the ten candidates signed the commitment but when the time came for saying something, they criticized the fact that things had got to the point of having to sign an agreement to fulfill the law. Julian Serulle was the first to complain. He said that "it was hard to sign a document to commit ourselves to comply with the law." Guillermo Moreno followed that line of thought and said it was "shameful" to have to sign. Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez felt it was an "aberration" to have an agreement in order to fulfill the requirements of a law. Ismael Reyes said that it was really sad that in a democracy "we have to resort to this sort of thing" in order to respect the law. "Anyway, I respect the courage of these organizations so that any candidate who gets elected will be able to fulfill what the law orders," as reported in Diario Libre.

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