REP. FREDERICK W. SIAO | Lone District of Iligan City | Chair, Committee on Civil Service & Professional Regulation
As Chairman of the House Committee on Civil Service and Professional Regulation, I assure President Duterte that the House will work on a compassionate amendment bill to cure the deficiencies of the Continuing Professional Development law.
In the same way the DepEd was able to boil down to the essential learning competencies the K to 12 curriculum, the PRC and the professional boards should be able to distill to the essential elements the necessities for professional updating.
But during these pandemic times, suspending the CPD seminars and updating training is justified to relieve our professionals of this heavy regulatory burden. I believe the suspension of CPD training should be three to five years. Then after the suspension, new and lightweight CPD updating programs must be in place.
The committee will also approve bills to complement the Ease of Doing Business Act, so that this landmark law will have better implementation on the part of civil servants at the national and local government levels.
I support the yearend deadline of the President to the telecom giants and the correction of onerous contracts of public service utilities. The people deserve much better public service than what they get now from these companies.
The National Telecommunications Commission being a part of the civil service, I believe, needs an updating and refocusing of its charter and related laws so it can regulate the telecommunications sector better.
Although this is a matter with primary jurisdiction to the Committee on Government Reorganization, the NTC is made up of civil servants, engineers and technicians, all of whom are in the jurisdiction of the Committee on Civil Service and Professional Regulation.
In particular, we need to have institutionalized and transparent systems to weed out graft and corruption, to uphold professional credibility, and to foster industry integrity standards and benchmarks.
Lastly, enforcement power to ensure compassionate treatment of renters and leaseholders by their landlords and lease owners would be best implemented by the DILG and local governments, with the deputization of the PNP and the NBI.
Mayors, governors, and barangay chairpersons are the first line of defense of renters against abusive and unjust business practices of landlords. Congress can require LGUs to enact ordinances protecting all renters.