Ejercito cites costs in bill canceling Continuing Professional Development Act 

A SENATOR has filed a bill that seeks to repeal the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Act to ease the process of renewing licenses. 

“While the CPD Act aims to develop and maintain professional competencies by serving as a gateway in gaining new skills and knowledge in their professions, compliance to the said law does not come cheap, particularly for struggling professionals,” Senator Joseph Victor “JV” G. Ejercito said in Senate Bill 1162’s explanatory note. 

The law established CPD programs for all regulated professions that are required for the renewal of licenses issued by the Philippine Regulatory Commission (PRC). 

Mr. Ejercito said that in recent years, the law has “drawn flak for making license renewals more tedious and expensive.”  

With the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, PRC had eased the policy by allowing compliance to the required CPD units after renewal.   

The senator, however, said this delay does not address the financial burden of undertaking further training. 

“Professionals who have incomplete or no CPD units are required to sign an Undertaking in the renewal form that they will comply in the next period,” he said. “This means that Filipino professionals will again be confronted with the difficulties of renewing their licenses in the face of rising inflation.” 

Inflation accelerated to 6.9% in September, its fastest pace in over 13 years, or since the 7.2% in February 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis. Higher prices of food, utilities and transport were among the main drivers.   

“At this time, when inflation has risen yet again and Filipinos struggle with soaring food prices, the 2.56 million registered Filipino professionals do not need the additional costly burden of complying with their CPD requirements,” Mr. Ejercito said. “Thus, the CPD Act needs to be repealed.” — Alyssa Nicole O. Tan