Dela Rosa wants to give relief to Filipino professionals, pushes for CPD Law repeal

SENATOR Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa has sought to scrap a law which mandates registered Filipino professionals to take up and complete additional formal and non-formal learning before they can renew their professional license with the Philippine Regulatory Commission (PRC).

In filing Senate Bill No. 2344 (SBN 2344), Dela Rosa proposed to repeal Republic Act No. 10912 (RA 10912), otherwise known as the "Continuing Professional Development Act of 2016," to unburden the professionals of undergoing the additional study.

The PRC, an attached agency of the Department of Labor and Employment, is tasked to regulate and supervise the practice of profession in the country. In the performance of its mandate, it issues and renews the Professional Identification Card for teachers, nurses, engineers, and architects, among others.

The Mindanaoan Senator said that while the goal of RA 10912 is to keep all professionals abreast with the developments in their respective professions and promote their competencies and qualifications, many professionals are lamenting its practicality and the difficulty of complying with it.

For instance, he said, Filipino professionals have to spend money to enroll in graduate schools or online classes, or attend seminars to acquire the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) units to comply with RA 10912 and be able to continue to practice their profession.

?"However, many of our professionals cannot afford to attend these seminars and trainings because of their meager resources. At this time of global health crisis, the repeal of this law is well-timed and will immensely unburden our professionals," he said.

Dela Rosa further claimed that Filipino migrant workers abroad have been complaining about the costly online CPD courses as they need to pay $40 to $50 for courses offered by universities abroad as well as additional expense to the PRC for the review of their compliance.

In addition to exorbitant fees, he said the professionals are also losing income as they have to skip work for one or two days in order to attend CPD classes.

He noted that another dilemma of the professionals is accessibility because of limited CPD providers, which forces those in far-flung areas to process their applications and complete the mandated requirement in major cities and incur additional expenses.

Moreover, the PRC recognized the difficulty to fully implement the law due to their limited capacity and inadequate funding from the national government.

"Adding to these problems, the PRC admitted that they have limited capacity to monitor the implementation of the law. Like the Filipino professionals, they are also claiming inadequate or lack of funding," Dela Rosa noted.