Go files bill creating PH Center for Disease Control

Senator Bong Go on Tuesday filed Senate Bill 2158 seeking to create a government agency that will “assume the responsibility of protecting the lives of millions of Filipinos by monitoring, tracking, responding to, and mitigating outbreaks of infectious diseases and other public health emergencies in the country.”

This, according to the Senate health committee chair, is one of the priority measures mentioned by President Rodrigo Duterte in his State of the Nation Address last year.

“Over the course of this pandemic, marami tayong mga natutunan. Nakita natin ang mga aspeto ng sistema na dapat maisaayos at mabigyan ng sapat na pansin,” Go said.

“Nakita natin ang mga kailangan ayusin sa ating disease surveillance and control capabilities,” he added.

“Kung magkakaroon tayo ng ganitong ahensya, mas mapapaigting natin ang ating kahandaan at kapasidad na rumesponde at mamahala kapag may krisis pangkalusugan. Hindi natin masisiguro kung may susunod pang pandemya tulad ng Covid-19. Ngayon palang, maging mas handa na dapat tayo,” he added.

The bill states that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention shall serve as the lead agency for developing and applying communicable disease control and prevention initiatives. It will be primarily responsible for controlling the introduction and spread of infectious diseases in the country.

The center will also actively work to reduce threats to the nation’s health by providing consultation and assistance to other countries and international organizations to help improve their disease prevention and control systems and practices.

Under the bill, the CDC shall serve as an attached agency of the Department of Health. It will subsume the functions and activities of the DOH’s Epidemiology Bureau, Disease Emergency Management Bureau, and Disease Prevention and Control Bureau.

A Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Bureau will also be created under which the following divisions will be clustered: the Infectious Diseases for Elimination Division (IDED) and Infectious Disease of Prevention and Control Division (IDPCD).

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)