JV Ejercito files bill repealing Continuing Professional Development Act
Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito has filed a bill seeking to repeal Republic Act No. 10912, also known as the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Act of 2016.
Ejercito said that while the CPD Act seeks to develop and maintain professional competencies, compliance to the said law “does not come cheap, particularly for struggling professionals.”
“(It) has been in effect for more than five years already but Filipino professionals are continuously challenged by exorbitant fees and confusing processes in completing their CPD requirements,” Ejercito said in the explanatory note of his Senate Bill No. 1162.
RA 10912 established CPD programs for all regulated professions and made CPD a mandatory requirement for the renewal of personal identification cards of all registered and licensed professionals under the regulation of the Philippine Regulatory Commission (PRC).
But in recent years, the said law has drawn flak for making license renewals more tedious and expensive.
Ejercito noted the CPD Act has inflicted a “costly burden” on Filipino professionals as the country struggles with rising inflation, citing a recent PRC resolution that extended the acceptance of license renewals without CPD units.
“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 additional costly burden of complying with their CPD requirements,” the senator said.
“Thus, the CPD Act needs to be repealed,” he reiterated.