COMSTE SIGNS MOA WITH UP LAW CENTER; PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE LAWS TO BE STUDIED - ANGARA

Senator Edgardo J. Angara today announces that the Congressional Commission on Science & Technology and Engineering, (COMSTE) has forged a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the University of the Philippines Law Center to study professional practice laws.

"Our laws on professions were quite traditional. In the sense that even those laws, for instance in medicine or in seafarers - the law even prescribes the subject matter to be subject of examination. In the simpler days, we can do that, we can enumerate the essential subjects that it should be subject of examination, of professional examination. But that can no longer be the case now," said Angara who chairs the Congressional Commission on Science & Technology and Engineering.

He added, "Because disciplines develop so fast and disciplines that may not have existed five years, ten years, or a decade ago, may be already a well developed discipline right now."

The Congressional Commission on Science & Technology and Engineering, (COMSTE) through its Executive Director Fortunato dela Pena, and the UP Law Center, through UP Diliman Chancellor Sergio Cao, signed the MoA. The MoA commissions the UP Law Center to study and recommend changes to laws that govern professional practice, an area that has hindered Philippine competitiveness in S&T for many years.

Angara, who also chairs the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, said that laws on professional practice are acting as roadblocks for Philippine competitiveness. He cited an example where the law enumerated the subjects that should be in the professional licensure exams.

"This will not work in this day and age", said Angara, because "the pace of technological change is so fast".

Laws that need to be revisited include the Medical Act of 1959, and other laws that govern the practice of engineering and the sciences. It is hoped that the MoA will be the start of long needed changes to these professional practice laws, to allow Filipinos to respond to the fast changing needs of the times.

"I hope that this is not just a terminal short time bound project but ought to be a continuing project of the Law Center Reviewing the professions and the development of science and technology in a world that is becoming more technologically advanced as we are now," added Angara.

President Emerlinda Roman of the University of the Philippines was also on hand to witness the signing of the MoA between COMSTE and the UP Law Center.

COMSTE, a creation of Angara and currently co-chaired by him and Cavite Representative Joseph Emilio Aguinaldo Abaya - is expected to introduce or amend legislation that will make the Philippines more globally competitive, particularly in Science and Technology.

It is composed of six (6) expert panels from different sectors in Science and Technology namely Gregory Tangonan, PhD (semicon/electronics), Joaquin Quintos (ICT/ICT services), William Padolina, PhD (food and agriculture), Reynaldo Vea, PhD (basic science, math and engineering education), Ramon Arcadio, MD (health), and Francisco Viray, PhD (energy and environment).