Overseas Filipino workers (OFW) and newly licensed professionals are now temporarily exempted from complying with the provisions of Republic Act (RA) No. 10912 or the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Act.
During a Senate hearing on Monday, the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) announced it will be releasing a new resolution within the month relaxing the enforcement of RA 10912 for an indefinite period.
Once implemented, the issuance would also mandate the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Councils to reduce the required CPD credit units in their respective professions “to a minimum, which shall not be more than 15, as provided for under applicable laws.”
Currently, CPD units for each profession vary depending on each profession.
PRC Chairman Teofilo S. Pilando, Jr. said the aforementioned provisions will be in effect until end to the transition period for RA 10912.
“This resolution will take effect after 15 days following its publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation, copy furnished the U.P. Law Center,” Pilando said.
“Hopefully once all of these things are met then we will be prepared the mandatory character of the law,” he added.
Transitory requirements
PRC Commissioner Yolanda David Reyes noted the completion of the transition period will differ for the 43 professions they regulate depending on their compliance to the “deliverables” in stipulated in their amended Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) for the CPD Act.
“We will be implementing it per profession,” Reyes said.
Under the new resolution, Professional Regulation Boards (PRB) and CPD councils will be tasked to update their operational guidelines for the CPD Act.
They will also required to link the CPD units with the career progression track in their respective professions and come out with modules for CPD programs.
“I would like to remind everybody here that with this IRR [after its implementation], we will have one month for the professional boards and councils to meet their stakeholders to operationalize [the IRR],” Reyes said.
The operational guidelines are expected to be enforced by the respective Accredited Integrated Professional Organization (AIPO) and Accredited Professional Organizations (APO).
Fair equivalent units
PRC Commissioner Jose Yabes Cueto Jr. stressed the importance of making CPD units to be “outcomes based” or dependent on the academic or skills achievements of professionals so it will be fair.
He pointed out the current CPD units for each activity or requirements still relies on the discretion of each PRB and CPD.
The PRC official cited the case of wherein the 15 CPD units for a three-day unit is higher compared to the 10 CPD unit for every year of post-graduate training.
As part of the transition process, he said they would also provide capacity building for CPD councils and professional organizations on how to assess learning outcomes.
Based from their preliminary survey, Cueto said 29 of the 43 PRBs regulated by PRC have career progression and specialization programs.
Addressed concerns
PRC issued the new CPD Act IRR amid growing complaints from its stakeholders regarding the alleged cumbersome and costly implementation of the said law.
CPDs units could be mainly gained by attending seminars related to their profession. Additional training or education as well as other related activities related to the professions also contribute certain CPD units.
Despite efforts from PRC to make the CPD programs accessible by accrediting over 2,000 CPD providers as of Feb., many professionals still claim they are unable to easily gain CPD units.
PRC said it is targeting to address all of these concern during the transitory period.
The new IRR is expected to benefit the over 4.5 million professionals registered by PRC as of Sept. 30, 2018. Out of these professionals, 2.8 million have active Professional Identification Cards.
1 comment
As an OFW, this new IRR will definitely benefit a lot of professionals abroad. And, I agree that CPD units must be given fair credit in every profession. This is really a good step by PRC to help its growing professionals in the Philippines or abroad.