Ni NOEL ABUEL
Iginiit ni House Ways and Means chairman at Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda na walang magaganap na abolisyon o mass layoff sa Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM) sa sandaling maging batas ang panukalang Center for Disease Control (CDC).
Ayon kay Salceda, na pangunahing may akda at sponsor ng naturang panukalang batas mula pa 18th Congress, at unang naghain ng kahalintulad na panukala noong Enero 2020, na hindi intensyon ng CDC na agawin ang trabaho sa RITM.
“I don’t know where it comes from but let me categorically say, on record, that the RITM will stay, it will continue to perform most of its functions, and there will be no layoffs,” sabi ng kongresista.
Ginawa ni Salceda ang pagtitiyak kasunod ng pagprotesta ng mga empleyado ng RITM dahil pagtatatag ng CDC.
Ang charter ng CDC ay inaprubahan na ng House Committees on Health, Ways and Means, at Appropriations, at ngayon ay handa na para sa mga deliberasyon sa plenaryo ng Kamara.
Ang panukala ay prayoridad ng administrasyong Duterte at kasama rin sa SONA bill ni Pangulong Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“The CDC will be primarily a national health emergency management, public policy, and research center. The RITM is, and will continue to be, its own research center with a hospital, a testing center, the country’s central reference laboratory, and will continue to perform its existing role over many diseases, including perennial ones like tuberculosis and malaria,” paliwanag pa ni Salceda.
Idinagdag pa nito na sa ilalim ng CDC, ang RITM ay magiging bahagi ng isang “total disease prevention ecosystem, sa halip na isang epidemic prevention sa ilalim ng kasalukuyang istruktura ng pamamahala sa kalusugan.
“Simply put, it will be a tree that’s part of a forest, rather than something more solitary as it currently stands. You can quote me on this: As champion of the CDC charter, we will not defund the RITM because of the new agency,” ayon pa kay Salceda.
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