Creation of disease control center, health emergency council proposed
ALBAY REPRESENTATIVE Jose Maria Clemente S. Salceda filed on Wednesday a bill seeking to create the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which will have “broader policy making, implementation, surveillance, disease and control and prevention powers” over communicable and infectious diseases. The proposed CDC will be a separate agency under the Department of Health (DoH). “My bill essentially lifts our communicable disease control and prevention units out of the depths of the DoH bureaucracy and into the more visible levels of decision-making and policy making,” Mr. Salceda said in a press statement. House Bill 6096 , among other provisions, also provides necessary “institutional and policy reforms to expand the country’s health emergency response mechanism.” He added, “(T)he current approach, the way we organize ourselves to confront outbreaks will no longer suffice, will not make us safer, will not convince our people to trust public institutions.”
COUNCIL
Meanwhile, Muntinlupa Rep. Rozzano Rufino B. Biazon has refiled his proposal to create a Public Health Emergency Council, which will manage and respond to public health emergencies. “In my proposed bill, the Public Health Emergency Council will convene once a public health emergency is declared, to implement a Public Health Emergency Plan (PHEP) that should be formulated within six months after the passage of the law,” Mr. Biazon said in a press statement. House Bill 6081 was previously filed in the 12th, 13th and 14th Congress “but was unable to get enough attention to become a law,” Mr. Biazon said. — Genshen L. Espedido
Less than half of Filipinos feel their lives improved in 2019
FOUR in 10 Filipinos consider that their lives improved in 2019, based on the fourth quarter survey by Social Weather Stations (SWS). The results released on Wednesday show 39% of adult Filipinos said their lives got better while 21% said their lives worsened. The last quarter’s 18+ net gainers score is seven points higher than the third quarter. Net gainers among the self rated-poor “has been historically lower,” according to SWS, than those among the non-poor with eight and 30 points, respectively. Meanwhile, net personal optimism also increased by three points to 44 from 41 between the two quarters. The survey indicated 48% of respondents expect their quality of life to improve in the next 12 months while 4% expect theirs to worsen. Net economic optimism, or expectations on the Philippine economy, for 2020 increased by 10 points to 38 from 28 in September, with 47% anticipating an improvement while 9% see it worsening. The survey was conducted Dec. 13-16, 2019 with 1,200 respondents. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas
0ver 100,000 voter applications processed in 1st week of registration
MORE THAN 100,000 voters, including new applicants and those updating their information, were processed during the opening week of the registration period, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) reported Wednesday. In a statement, the poll body said it attended to 105,676 applications nationwide from Jan. 20 to 25. These applications included those for “registration, transfer of registration records, change/correction of entries in the registration record, reactivation of registration record, and reinstatement of name in the list of voters.” The biggest number was in Metro Manila with 19,438. The registration period will be until Sept. 30, 2021. — Gillian M. Cortez
