Leyte 1st District Rep. Martin G. Romualdez and Tingog party-list Reps. Yedda Marie K Romualdez and Jude Acidre have filed a bill that seeks to create a Center for Disease Control (CDC) and modernize the country’s capabilities for public health emergency preparedness and prevention of contagious diseases.
“We hope that with the opening of the 19th Congress, this important measure will again be prioritized by our chamber, and finally be passed into law, so that the country will be better equipped should another pandemic hit us. We have learned our lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, and this measure will ensure our stronger response and preparedness to any public health emergency,” Romualdez said in filing House Bill (HB) No. 9. Romualdez, the House Majority Leader of the 18th Congress, said the proposed measure will better prepare the country against public health emergencies, through health modernization and institutional reforms.
The proposed “Philippine Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) Act” is a consolidation of thirteen (13) House bills establishing the CDC that were referred to the Committee on Health during the previous 18th Congress.
“This bill seeks to modernize the country’s capabilities for public health emergency preparedness and strengthen the current bureaucracy that is mandated to prevent the spread of communicable diseases in the country through organizational and institutional reforms,” the authors said in their explanatory note of the bill.
“The authors acknowledge the need to modernize and reorganize our health system to protect the public from health risks,” it added.
Under the proposed bill, the CDC will absorb the following Department of Health (DoH) units or their divisions or functions: Epidemiology Bureau; Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM); Sexually Transmitted Disease – Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (STD-AIDS) Cooperative Central Laboratory; Select functions of the International Health Surveillance Division of the Bureau of Quarantine such as the passive international health surveillance and development of communication methods for wider and more effective delivery of critical public health information with international importance; Technical and standard setting functions of the Disease Prevention and Control Bureau including that of the Mental Health Division, Cancer Division and Oral Health Division.
Under the measure, it explained that in terms of modernization, the bill proposes the crafting of modernization program which will include the acquisition and upgrading of appropriate technologies, laboratories, facilities, equipment, other needed resources and the needed relocation and acquisition of additional land or location that would house the CDC.
“The bill provides for the submission of the modernization program for the consideration and approval of Congress in a joint resolution of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The modernization program shall be implemented over a period of five (5) years,” the proposed law added.
The bill also allows CDC to solicit, negotiate with, and receive from any public or private domestic or foreign sources legacies, gifts, donations, grants, endowments, contributions or other transfers of ownership and/or possession of real or personal properties of all kinds, which shall be exempt from donor’s tax and shall all be part of the special account in the general fund managed by the Department of Finance.
“Under the bill, Department of Finance shall prescribe the measures necessary for the proper use, maintenance and safekeeping of said donations, grants, endowments, contributions or transfers and the compliance of the terms and conditions thereon, if any, in accordance with pertinent accounting and auditing laws, rules and regulations,” according to the measure.
Members of the previous 18th Congress that include Joey Sarte, Teodorico T. Haresco, Jr., Angelina “Helen” D.L. Tan, M.D., Jose Enrique S. Garcia III, Cheryl P. Deloso-Montalla, Joaquin M. Chipeco, Ferdinand L. Hernandez, Alfred Vargas, Anthony I. Espino, Luis Raymund “LRay” F. Villafuerte, Joy Myra Joy S. Tambunting, Rufus B. Rodriguez, Estrelllita B. Suansing and Horacio P. Suansing Jr. authored the proposed CDC Act.
It was approved on third reading by the House of Representatives and transmitted to the Senate.
Aside from establishing Regional Centers for Disease Prevention and Control or RCDCs in all regions of the Philippines, the bill mandates CDC to perform the following powers, functions, and duties: Policy and Standards Development; Capacity Building and Technical Assistance; Sectoral and Local Engagements: Surveillance; Technical guidance on the monitoring and evaluation framework for disease prevention and control; and Certify the existence of an epidemic which shall be treated as a public health emergency, among other functions as may be mandated by law, or as may be duly delegated by relevant authorities.