Pinasalamatan ni House Ways and Means Chair at Albay, 2nd district Representative Joey Salceda si Pangulong Ferdinand Marcos Jr., sa pagpapalabas ng certificate of urgency para sa Senate Bill No. 1869, na bersiyon ng Senado ng Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) bill, na unang nai-file noong Enero 2020 sa Kamara ng mambabatas.
Unang inihain ni Salceda ang panukalang House Bill No. 6096 noong 18th Congress, at muling inihain bilang House Bill No. 46 noong 19th Congress.
“I thank President Marcos for boosting this measure, which will protect us from the pandemics that will inevitably happen again in the future. Pandemics are now cyclical – and our preparedness must be permanent,” pahayag ni Cong. Salceda.
Ang sertipikasyon ni Pangulong Marcos ay nagpapahintulot sa Senado na talakayin ang panukalang batas sa plenaryo at aprubahan ito sa ikatlong pagbasa sa parehong araw.
“I filed this bill in January 2020, on the afternoon of a meeting with members of the Sin Tax Coalition. We celebrated the passage of the Duterte administration’s Sin Tax measures, but we also knew that something big was looming,” pahayag ni Salceda.
Dagdag pa ng House Tax chief na sa kaniyang paunang bersiyon, naglalaman ito ng ilang mga probisyon na may kaugnayan sa health emegencies.
“I also tried to separate sudden onset health emergencies and regular or chronic health issues that should be resolved in a more normal fashion. The CDC’s original objective was to be a pure health emergency institution,” wika ni Salceda.
Ipinunto ni Cong. Salceda, ” But the institution is also worth pursuing, beyond broader quarantine and disease surveillance powers. Although I would have wanted greater focus on health emergencies, the CDC as it is now crafted would still be much better than the very ad-hoc nature of the RITM.”
Sinabi ni Salceda na sa pamamagitan ng certificate of urgency mula kay Pangulong Marcos, inaasahan niyang mapapabilis ng Senado ang pag-apruba sa panukala.
“It got stuck last time due to some fundamental disagreements on the structure of the institution. But now that the Presidential imprimatur is clear and undeniable, I am almost certain President Marcos will have the law in his desk right before his first SONA,” dagdag pa ng economist solon.
