Pia Cayetano: RITM will be renamed, to stay a whole body under proposed CDC

Senator Pia S. Cayetano sponsors the bill establishing the Philippine Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) on Monday, February 13, 2023. Photo courtesy of Pia Cayetano’s office

MANILA, Philippines — The Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM) “will still be a whole body” under the proposed Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC).

Senator Pia Cayetano said this as she sponsored Senate Bill No. 1869, under Committee Report No. 28, which seeks to establish the CDC, during Monday’s plenary session.

Initially, proposals indicate that RITM’s functions should be dispersed under the CDC bill.

READ: Health workers decry RITM’s ‘imminent’ abolition 

“RITM will still be a whole body, but now under the CDC. So instead of its various divisions being absorbed, RITM as a whole, I repeat, as a whole, will be under the CDC,” Cayetano said.

“RITM, dear colleagues, will now be referred to as the Philippine Research Institute of Medicine. Why? Because RITM stands for Research Institute of Tropical Medicine. We have gone past that, and thus, we need to rename RITM, but given all its accomplishments, we fought very hard for them to be retained as a body,” she added.

RITM will continue to perform its existing functions under Senate Bill No. 1869.

READ: The need for a Philippine CDC

Under the measure, CDC “will act as the technical authority on forecasting, analysis, strategy, and standards development for the prevention and control of all diseases of public health importance and health security events, whether domestic or international in origin.”

The senator pointed out that high-level scientists, among others, will join the CDC as consultants or advisers.

She also highlighted that one of the key provisions of the CDC bill is to consider exempting scientists from standard salary grades.

Cayetano, citing the Center for Global Development, stressed the importance of the CDC as there is a 47 to 57 percent chance of another pandemic.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragilities and gaps in healthcare systems around the world. It posed a great threat to countries with weaker health systems,” she said.

“During these three years, we realized the importance of strengthening our health care system – to protect Filipino families from existing and emerging public health emergencies that could present a threat to our  lives,” she continued.

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