Duterte asks Congress to amend Continuing Professional Development law

Published July 27, 2020 09:31 PM By VIRGIL LOPEZ,GMA News

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday asked Congress to amend the law that requires Filipino professionals to take additional formal and non-formal learning before they can renew their licenses and identification cards.

In his fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA), Duterte expressed opposition to the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Act of 2016 (Republic Act 10912), which was authored by his staunch critic Antonio Trillanes IV when he was still a senator.

“In this time of great pandemic and forthcoming reconstruction, requiring our professionals to undergo seminars is burdensome and not realistic. This must end,” Duterte said.

“May mga profession na they would require—I think it’s the nurses— they would require them to come to Manila to retrain and for another round of expenses. Itong mga seminar-seminar na ito dapat mahinto.”

After the SONA, Iligan City Representative Frederick Siao assured the President that the House Committee on Civil Service and Professional Regulation, which he chairs, will work on an amendment to fix the deficiencies of the law.

"The PRC and the professional boards should be able to distill to the essential elements the necessities for professional updating," Siao said.

Siao proposed a suspension of CPD training for three to five years.

“Then after the suspension, new and lightweight CPD updating programs must be in place," he said.

Duterte also used the occasion to renew his call for Congress to pass laws on the restoration of the death penalty, land use, the establishment of a Department of Overseas Filipino Workers, among others. — DVM, GMA News

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