House panel pushes for creation of PH center for disease control

MANILA – A measure seeking to modernize the country’s public health emergency preparedness through the creation of the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) has hurdled committee level at the House of Representatives.

During a virtual hearing on Monday, the House Committee on Ways and Means, chaired by Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, approved the tax provisions of the unnumbered substitute bill providing for the establishment of the CDC, which is a priority legislation of President Rodrigo Duterte during his 2020 State-of-the-Nation Address.

House Health Committee chair Angelina Tan, in her sponsorship speech, raised the urgency of the bill’s passage in the light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Tan said the bill recognizes that the Philippines is ill-prepared in addressing the challenges of the pandemic, more so with the continuous large influx of patients.

The bill seeks to advance health modernization and institutional reforms to protect the public from further health risks.

The CDC would absorb the appropriate units under the Department of Health (DOH), including the Epidemiology Bureau, the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, and selected functions of the International Health Surveillance Division, among others.

The bill seeks the creation of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as a separate agency under the control and supervision of the DOH, but with broader policymaking, implementation, surveillance, disease control, and prevention powers.

The bill also proposes a comprehensive health emergency management framework that includes provisions for vaccination and treatment, isolation and quarantine, and disease surveillance.

Apart from these, the bill also provides for mechanisms for the declaration of the state of a public health emergency, and a coordinating council for the same.

The panel likewise passed the tax provisions of the substitute bill to HBs 6793, 6798, 6808, 6838, 6873, 6913, 6992, 7494, 8934, and 9199, which would establish the Philippine Virology Science and Technology Institute (VIP).

The proposed VIP would have the authority to solicit, negotiate, and receive donations, grants, gifts, legacies, endowments, as well as contributions for the benefit of the institution.

These would be exempted from donor’s tax and considered as allowable deduction from gross income for purposes of computing taxable income.