Marcos certifies bill creating disease control center as urgent��

PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. has certified as urgent a Senate bill seeking to establish a center for disease control and prevention in the country, according to the Department of Health.����

“It is among the priority bills of the current administration,” Health officer-in-charge Maria Rosario S. Vergeire told a news briefing streamed live on Facebook.��

The measure is pending at the Senate committee on health demography.��������

A bill certified as urgent can be approved on second and third readings on the same day.������

A counterpart bill in the House of Representatives, titled Philippine Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) Act, was approved on final reading on Dec. 12.������

The proposed CDC would help the government address the weaknesses in the country’s public health system, Ms. Vergeire said as she dismissed claims that the bill would lead to a so-called “medical martial law.”����

“The CDC bill is not a medical martial law. The CDC bill has been proposed for us to be prepared in future pandemics or future threats to the public health of a nation.”����

Ms. Vergeire said the proposed CDC would boost the country’s surveillance system, improve information systems, and strengthen public health laboratories to ensure rapid response during health emergencies.������

Under the Senate version, the center is also mandated to assess and support local government units in preventing communicable diseases and determine whether a public health emergency should be declared an epidemic.������

“Nowhere can you find within this CDC draft bill any provision that will state that we are going to have a medical martial law. In fact, this CDC bill will be an attached agency of the Department of Health,” she said. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza��