House panel OKs bills creating Center for Disease Prevention and Control
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — A House of Representatives panel has approved several bills creating the country’s Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), but several lawmakers are divided as to whether non-communicable diseases should be within the scope of the proposed health unit.
During the deliberations on House Bill No. 9 by House Speaker and Leyte 1st District Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and other similar bills on Thursday, Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda and Kabayan party-list Rep. Ron Salo asked why non-communicable diseases would be a focus of the CDC.
READ: House bill creating Center for Disease Prevention and Control refiled
Salo even specified that the proposed CDC, as it is currently framed, is geared towards responding to public health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic — which he surmised are mostly due to communicable diseases.
“I want this to succeed, and I’m just propounding […] to sharpen (the bill). But I have one request Mr. Chair, please do not meddle in defining communicable diseases, that’s my only request, I can give up other observations for that, but please do not include communicable diseases like hypertension in the CDC’s scope,” Salceda said during the earlier part of the briefing.
“So basically, (emergencies) I suppose, one of the key reasons why we’re creating this particular center of the CDC, so I’m just wondering are there public health events and emergencies and disasters relating to non-communicable diseases?” Salo asked later on.
Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Beverly Ho who was present during the hearing answered that there may be events considered public health emergencies but are not necessarily infectious diseases, like spikes in suicide rates.
“For example sir, if our suicide rates are high, so other countries or health systems who have really managed their communicable disease, they already termed their non-communicable diseases as a public health emergency. So I think medyo relative lang din po talaga,” Ho said in reply to Salo.
Malasakit@Bayanihan party-list Rep. Anthony Rolando Golez also spoke out on the issue, saying that it appears the bills on forming a Philippine CDC like what has been used by the United States during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic are oriented towards preventing health emergencies.
According to Golez, it seems the problem stems from the wording of the bill, because the title covers a wide scope but the actual proposal prefers focusing on infectious diseases.
Committee chairperson and Batanes Rep. Ciriaco Gato — a physician by profession — however, believes that non-communicable diseases should be included in the scope of ailments that the proposed CDC would monitor and prevent.
Towards the end of the hearing, Gato reasoned out that when the COVID-19 pandemic — a very infectious disease — hit the country, people who were most affected or died due to the virus were those with lingering ailments or comorbidities like heart disease and hypertension.
As a physician, Gato said that doctors would not only look after infectious diseases but also base their patients’ assessments on a holistic approach.
“Remember during this pandemic, karamihan ng mga namatay sa COVID which is infectious, ay ‘yong mga merong comorbidities na non-communicable disease. So sa approach — and I’m sure most of us doctors and health workers — alam naman natin ang approach natin sa pasyente ay holistic, hindi natin mai-separate ang COVID lang sa heart disease or sa hypertension,” he said.
(Remember, during this pandemic, most of the people who died due to COVID-19 — which is infectious — are those with comorbidities that are non-communicable diseases. So our approach — and I’m sure most of us doctors and health workers know this — towards patients are holistic, which means we cannot separate COVID-19 from heart disease or hypertension.)
“So it does not mean that if we focus on COVID, we forget about the heart condition or the other comorbidities. So it does not mean that we will not be able to focus on infectious if we also include the non-infectious. I think this has to be considered in finalizing the report of the bill,” he added.
Several lawmakers, including Salceda, proposed the creation of a CDC even before COVID-19 cases reached the country. While the past administration did not pursue it, incumbent President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed in his first State of the Nation Address that a Philippine CDC and a vaccine institute would be a priority of the government.
