JV Ejercito backs creation of center for disease control
February 13, 2024
Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito on Monday
said the country needs its own disease control and prevention center to prepare
Filipinos for public health emergencies that may ensue in the future.
During his co-sponsorship speech for Senate
Bill No. 1869, which consolidated several measures seeking to create a center
for disease control, Ejercito credited the effective COVID-19 response of
several developed countries to the initiative of their disease control
agencies.
“More than ever, prevention is indeed better
than cure. The COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed the way governments
respond to a health crisis. Everyone was caught off-guard. Not even the
wealthiest of countries were able to immediately contain the spread of the
virus,” he said.
“Most countries that decently curbed the
transmission of the virus and minimized its health and devastating economic
effects have a strong foundation, an institution dedicated to handling
infectious diseases,” he added.
As vice chairman of the Senate Committee on
Health and Demography, Ejercito filed Senate Bill No. 1163, which seeks to
create a Center for Disease Control and Prevention and establish new mechanisms
for epidemic control.
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, Senate
President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda, Senator Majority Floor Leader Joel
Villanueva, and Senators Bong Revilla, Francis Escudero, Sherwin Gatchalian,
Jinggoy Estrada, Grace Poe, Bong Go, Pia Cayetano, and Robinhood Padilla
authored similar measures.
Ejercito explained that the proposed center
for disease control and prevention will go beyond the distribution of vaccines
and initiate research and development programs that can strengthen the
country’s response to any infectious or contagious disease.
“Some of those who oppose the passage of this
bill expressed their fear that this is a measure solely about vaccination. The
CDC is beyond vaccination; it is research and development of finding cures and
finding ways to prevent diseases,” he said.
Under Ejercito’s bill, the said center will be
the main government agency “tasked to deal with identifying and containing the
spread of communicable diseases” and “formulate regulations and submit
recommendations to the Secretary of Health on concerns related to quarantine
protocols and procedures.”
Several bureaus under the Department of
Health, such as the Disease Prevention and Control Bureau, Epidemiology Bureau,
and Disease Emergency Management Bureau, will be subsumed under the said
center.
