Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri lauded the Senate’s third reading approval of Senate Bill No. 1513, or the Comprehensive Lupus Prevention Act.

Zubiri said that the landmark measure seeks to create a national program for the prevention, monitoring, and treatment of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, more commonly referred to as lupus.

With its approval, Zubiri said the measure moves closer to becoming law and giving lupus patients and their families the focused national support they deserve.

“I am full of hope. With this measure, we can finally establish a data-driven national plan of action against lupus,” Zubiri stressed.

Lupus is an autoimmune condition where the immune system targets healthy tissues and organs instead of protecting them, and when undiagnosed and untreated, it can lead to serious organ damage, with the kidneys being particularly vulnerable.

There is currently no cure for lupus, but it can be safely managed through proper treatment and medication plans, making early detection and sustained care crucial for patients to live better and longer lives.

“So much of the fear around lupus is in how little we still know about it. We don’t know the cause. We don’t know the actual number of lupus cases in the country. We don’t know the most affected groups. We don’t know what age it begins to manifest. We don’t know what to look out for,” Zubiri noted.

“Most of what we know are anecdotal – stories of friends and family members who suffer from it.”

Zubiri had previously disclosed that his seventeen-year-old daughter has been diagnosed with lupus, a personal reality that reinforced his push for a stronger national response that goes beyond scattered awareness and isolated treatment.

Under the Comprehensive Lupus Prevention Act, the Department of Health (DOH) is directed to implement a National Program for Lupus Prevention and Treatment, which covers awareness campaigns, screening, referral services for proper diagnosis, research and development, best practices and knowledge transfer and support networks for patients and families.

The DOH is also mandated to establish an Information and Monitoring System on Lupus, to ensure that the government has an accurate record of lupus prevalence across the country.

“With proper information, we can more readily manage lupus on both the individual and the national level,” Zubiri emphasized.

“We can come up with proper policy and direct sufficient resources based on the Information and Monitoring System,” he added.

To ensure equitable screening, the Comprehensive Lupus Prevention Act also requires the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation or PhilHealth to cover the cost of lupus screening for its members.

“One of the reasons we know so little about lupus is because of misdiagnosis and underdiagnosis. So we hope to address that by having the PhilHealth shoulder lupus screening costs,” Zubiri explained.