Bill seeking to abolish CPD Law filed in Senate

Senator Recto finally filed a bill that will abolish the controversial CPD Law.

As what he previously announced, Senator Ralph Recto has formally filed a bill that seeks to repeal the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Law of 2016.

The Senate President Pro Tempore introduced Senate Bill No. 2703 entitled “An Act Repealing Republic Act 10912, Otherwise Known as the ‘Continuing Professional Development Act of 2016′”. The bill was filed October 11, 2018.

The CPD Law, authored by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and enacted into law in 2016, requires professionals under PRC to submit CPD units as mandatory requirement for the renewal of Professional Identification Cards (PIC) every 3 years.

In his bill, Recto cited that PRC has already received many complaints regarding the operational guidelines of the CPD Act. An online poll also revealed that 9 out of 10 Facebook users agreed to abolish it.

Also, Certified Public Accountants (CPA) challenge the practicality and reasonableness of extensive CPD requirements imposed on them, while nurses lament that they have to cough up P15,000 to P30,000 in order to earn the required 45 CPD units, a considerable amount of money given their low salary.

Recto said that “the CPD Act has only made the process [of PRC license renewal] costly, more bureaucratic, and unnecessarily regulative.”

“While further training is needed to continuously grow and learn as professionals, it does not come cheap especially to professionals who are just starting to practice their respective careers and earn meager incomes.”

Recto also cited the problem of inaccessibility of training programs, especially to professionals in the countryside and to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

“The CPD Requirement becomes an even bigger problem for those who temporarily resort to accepting jobs…other than their profession in absence of job opportunities,” he also pointed out.

Recto’s Senate bill complements the one filed by ACT Partylist in Congress which also aims for the repeal of the CPD law.

He said earlier that he hopes that Congress could find a better system for professional development “without the disruptions, inconveniences, and the high expenses the present one causes.”