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Pia seeks more time to study Virology Institute Bill: Sen. Pia Cayetano, vice chairperson of the Committee on Health tasked to hear bills on the creation of the Virology Institute of the Philippines, seeks more time to study the bill aimed at creating the Virology Institute of the Philippines. During Monday’s plenary session, December 12, 2022, Cayetano informed her colleagues that in the course of the hearings, she had asked the experts on the need to abolish the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in order to create the Virology Institute, which will have the same functions and a few added ones. “Being a lawyer, not a doctor, not a scientist, I asked a simple question; in other words the Virology Institute in addition to covering what the RITM covers, which is viruses affecting humans, will also study viruses affecting animals and plants. Their answer was yes,” Cayetano said. The lady senator proposed to amend the mandate of the RITM instead of “killing the institute,” whose importance was seen and felt during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Bibo Nueva Espana/ Senate PRIB)