While it’s been overshadowed by the more headline-hungry public health issues, the National Integrated Cancer Control Bill—now pending in the two houses of Congress—has finally been garnering long-overdue support and momentum.
When passed, it will strengthen the government’s support toward the prevention and treatment of cancer, for both patients and their families. It is also envisioned to expand the rights and privileges of cancer patients, to elevate them alongside those given to persons with disabilities.
Specifically, the envisioned law will pave the way for the setting up of a Cancer Care Infrastructure and Service Delivery Network, including all-important Regional Care Centers that will make high-quality cancer services accessible, including separate units and facilities for children and adolescents with cancer. The bill will also advocate for oncology-related academic curricula for higher educational institutions.
The latest data from the Philippine Cancer Facts and Estimates from the Department of Health points to an alarming increase in the incidence of cancer of up to 11 new cases and seven deaths every hour for adult cancers and 11 new cases and eight deaths per day for childhood cancer.
This translates to 110,000 new cancer cases and over 66,000 cancer deaths per year. These crippling figures don’t even include the unreported cases. And beyond numbers, it is heartbreaking to describe the difficult plight of families who have to deal with the failing health of a loved one on one hand and the financial catastrophe typically spelled by the treatment, especially for the poor, on the other.
The Philippine experience is also alongside a global trend in which cancer is now the second leading cause of death, with approximately 70 percent of deaths recorded in low- and middle-income countries such as the Philippines. There is little question then that cancer is a public health issue.
In the Senate, the critical piece of legislation has found a champion in Committee on Health Chairman JV Ejercito, who recently submitted for plenary consideration Senate Committee Report No. 399 effectively moving for the approval of Senate Bill No. 1850, or the National Integrated Cancer Control Bill.
Throwing their support behind the bill are 15 other senators aside from Ejercito: Loren Legarda, Nancy Binay, Sonny Angara, Frank Drilon, Migz Zubiri, Ralph Recto, Francis Pangilinan, Richard Gordon, Grace Poe, Sonny Trillanes, Win Gatchalian, Risa Hontiveros, Cynthia Villar, Joel Villanueva, and Panfilo Lacson.
In the lower house, the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Health, Rep. Helen Tan, has also approved the consolidated version of the Cancer Control Bill, en route to referral to the Committees on Appropriations, chaired by Rep. Karlo Nograles, and Committee on Ways and Means, chaired by Rep. Dax Cua.
As in the Senate version, the house bill initially filed by Rep. Alfred Vargas has garnered immense support with nearly 200 sponsors, with more signing on potentially making this a landmark legislation of Congress.
On the ground, patient groups, medical societies, and other health advocates have long pushed for the bill, in particular, the Cancer Coalition Philippines, a broad national coalition of cancer patient support organizations, medical societies, and health advocates.
The group had long emphasized that only a holistic, integrated approach to cancer control can address the complexity of the phenomenon, a continuum that ranges from prevention, detection, and diagnosis to early and proper treatment, survivorship, and palliative care.
CCPh believes that the proper response to this urgent health issue should be an integrated approach, to cover all aspects of cancer care, and at the same time be national in scope so that no cancer patient will be left behind. Several gaps are identified by medical experts such the need for more pathologists, oncologists, nurses trained in oncology and the lack of cancer centers.
The key provisions of the bill include the creation of a National Cancer Assistance Fund, expanding the availability and accessibility of essential medicines, establishment of a national cancer registry and surveillance system, and support for persons with cancer and cancer survivors similar to persons with disabilities.
As the 2019 mid-term elections is fast approaching, time is thus of the essence. When regular sessions resume in July, both houses of Congress need to accelerate the approval of the bill. I hope President Rodrigo Duterte would somehow feel the prayers of millions of Filipino cancer patients and their families by wielding his power to certify the bill as urgent. This law will prove to be a great legacy that will benefit the entire spectrum of the Filipino nation.
As an active supporter of this advocacy, I appeal for your support by reaching out to our legislators and government leaders, by social media, email or by any means to help pass this life saving legislation.
Pass the National Integrated Cancer Control Bill into law!