Continuing Professional Dev’t hitches rued, inquiry sought
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV yesterday sought a legislative inquiry on the implementation of Republic Act 10912 or the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Act, which has been the subject of numerous complaints and serious concerns raised by professionals from various fields.
Trillanes, chairman of the Senate committee on civil service government reorganization and professional regulation, said foremost of the concerns on the law was the affordability and accessibility in acquiring CPD units.
‘The struggle is real’ “More than a year after the said law took effect, numerous stakeholders have raised pressing issues regarding its implementation, foremost of which are the affordability and accessibility in acquiring CPD units,” Trillanes said.
According to Trillanes, prior to the issuance of the General Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) by the Professional Regulation Committee, he proposed measures on how they can implement the law “without it becoming a burden to our professionals.”
This includes offering affordable online courses, so that professionals won’t have to travel in order to gain their units.
The law also mandated the inclusion of annual seminars of teachers and other professional annual conventions in their CPD units and providing additional leaves to professionals so they can attend training and seminars for their units.
Good intentions, but… “But to my dismay, I have been informed that the training and seminars they provide remain costly and limited to few accredited training institutions,” Trillanes noted.
“Obviously, these problems are not the intention of the CPD law. It was created to help our professionals cope with their respective globalizing field; thus, we want to call the attention of the PRC and Professional Regulatory Boards, so they can review and amend their implementing or operational guidelines, which should not be burdensome to our professionals,” the senator said.
He explained that the CPD law was enacted to upgrade the practice of Filipino professionals in line with the integration of economies of the member countries of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as required by the ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangements, the Philippine Qualifications Framework, and the ASEAN Qualifications Reference Framework.
The law mandates all professionals to take additional formal and non-formal training through CPD for the renewal of their Professional Identification Card every three years, effective July 1, 2017.
‘Costly upgrade’ But there were some problems raised on its implementation such as allegations the PRC-accredited CPD providers are limited to current providers, which are private institutions.
Trillanes also said there were reports the Accredited Integrated Professional Organizations (AIPO) were allegedly offering expensive training and seminars.
On top of this, he said there were also allegations the PRC does not recognize in-house training offered by the Department of Education (DepEd) and other companies which are already instituted and are usually free of any charges.
“Some stakeholders added that the application process alone is costly especially for those not in major cities, who have less access to PRCaccredited training and development institutions,” Trillanes said in the explanatory note of Senate Resolution No. 441.
Moreover, he said professionals assigned in far-flung areas would be compelled to travel back to Metro Manila and/or other urban centers to process their applications and complete the required CPD units.