MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday to certify the proposed legislation to create the country’s own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as urgent.
The DOH said it is working with the Presidential Legislative and Liaison Office to fast track the passage of the Philippine CDC bill, which was approved by the House of Representatives on third and final reading earlier this month.
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A counterpart measure is currently pending at the Senate health and demography committee. Bills that are certified urgent can be read, debated on and passed on the same day.
"We have requested the [CDC bill] to be certified as urgent by the president," the DOH said.
The creation of the Philippine CDC was included in the list of priority legislations mentioned by Marcos in his first State of the Nation Address.
READ: These are the 19 measures Marcos Jr. asked Congress to pass
"Once passed into law, the CDC Act shall serve as legal basis for the continued and uninterrupted implementation of the government’s COVID-19 vaccination program and response for other future public health emergencies, without the need for the declaration of a state of calamity," the health department said.
On Thursday, Marcos said he was "very, very hesitant" to extend the declaration of the state of calamity due to COVID-19 “because we are not in a state of calamity anymore, technically speaking."
The state of calamity declaration, which is set to expire on December 31, will allow the continued implementation of measures to combat the pandemic.
In the House version of the Philippine CDC bill, the center will be the technical authority on “forecasting, analysis, strategy, and standards development for the prevention and control of all diseases of public health importance and health security events, whether domestic or international in origin.”