(Eagle News) – The Philippines will soon have its own Center for Disease Control and Prevention as well as a vaccine institute to better prepare the country in view of more global health emergencies.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., assured this on Monday, July 26, during his first State of the Nation Address (SONA), pushing the creation of these agencies that were first called for by his predecessor, former President Rodrigo Duterte.
He called on both houses of Congress to help him in this endeavor so that the country could fight lethal viruses like the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Sa pakikipagtulungan ng Kongreso, itatatag natin ang ating sariling Center for Disease Control and Prevention at isang vaccine institute,” he said.
The United States has its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which is the national public health agency tasked to protect public health and safety through the control and prevention of disease, injury, and disability in the US and worldwide. It is under the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Marcos said that the Philippine CDC once established would be under the Philippines’ Department of Health, while the virology or vaccine institute would be under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
In fact, the creation of these agencies is among the priority bills he had enumerated during the SONA.
He cited the bill pertaining to the National Disease Prevention Management Authority that will create the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), attached to the DOH.
The bill on the creation of the Virology Institute of the Philippines “will create the Virology Science and Technology Institute of the Philippines (VIP) as an attached agency of the DOST.”
“All offices and units under the DOST with functions related to virology shall now be transferred to the Virology Institute of the Philippines,” he said.
It was former President Rodrigo Duterte who first called for the creation of such an institute in 2021 in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, and what is foreseen as more pandemics and health threats that the world would face in the future.
Duterte had also called for the creation of the CDC, and pushed for the bill’s enactment into law.
Former DOST Secretary Fortunato de la Peña emphasizes how Filipinos may benefit from the Virology and Vaccine Institute of the Philippines, which is “envisioned to be the country’s foundation of research and innovation on human, animal, and plant viruses in the next 10 to 15 years.”
In June last year, the House of Representatives approved on second reading House Bill 9559, which proposes the creation of VIP under the DOST, with a proposed fund of about PHP983 million.
Former President Duterte had wanted bill enacted into law before he stepped down in June, according to Palace officials then.
Former Presidential Legislative Liaison Office Undersecretary Orville Ballitoc reiterated in February that then President Duterte then supported the passage of measures establishing the Virology Science and Technology Institute of the Philippines (VIP) and the Philippine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Duterte also mentioned this during his sixth and last State of the Nation Address delivered last July 26, 2021.
Senator Christopher “Bong” Go is the author of Senate Bill No. 2155 which seeks to create a national virology laboratory that will study and investigate viral diseases in the country. The overall goal of the VIP is to help develop vaccines against highly pathogenic emerging viruses, Go said in February.
The bill, most notably, provides guidelines for the establishment and operation of testing, reference and biosafety levels 1, 2, 3 and 4 research laboratories. It likewise grants the VIP the authority to regulate the operation of the existing virology laboratory network in the country.
“These efforts are intended to avoid similar situations where poorer nations are left with fewer medical resources, particularly vaccines, to address pandemics as compared to their more developed countries that have early on invested in health sciences and medical research,” Go previously explained.
Aside from SBN 2155, the senator had similarly pushed for the passage of SBN 2505 which will create the Philippine CDC. The bill is the consolidated version of an earlier measure he authored and filed in May 2021.
(Eagle News Service)