TOPIC: Do you agree on House Bill No. 7171 seeking to repeal CPD Law implementation?

(AGREE: Anti-CPD)

House Bill No. 7171 is an act introduced by ACT Teacher’s Party List Representatives Antonio Tinio and
France Castro, and numerous other party list representatives, who embodies the Filipino community in
the Philippine Congress. They seek to repeal Republic Act 10912, otherwise known as the “Continuing
Professional Development Act of 2016”, or commonly, the CPD Law.

In the bill’s explanatory note, they wrote: “Since its enactment, RA 10912 has imposed multiple
financial, logistical, and psychological burdens on professionals. It requires them to accumulate credit
units (from 15 or 45 for most professionals to as high as 120 for certified public accountants) every three
years by attending seminars, training courses, and other professional development activities. Only then
can they renew their licenses and continue practicing their professions. Along the way, they are forced
to spend thousands of pesos, take unpaid leaves from work, endure long queues, and go through a host
of other hardships.”

But, how does this law begun in the first place? RA 10912 or the CPD Law, authored by Senator Antonio
Trillanes IV, was enacted in response to the ASEAN integration and its demand for greater labor
migration, whereby Filipinos are exported as cheap providers of professional services. This further
promotes the labor export policy, which already sends thousands of Filipinos, professionals among
them, out of the country. This also exacerbates the so called “brain drain” problem leading to a lack of
trained professionals to serve the needs of Filipinos in our own country. Let’s face it, this law is geared
to benefit foreign corporations — not the professionals themselves nor the Philippine economy.

And ever since the enactment of the CPD Law, professionals had to deliberately attend these, outside
their national and regional conventions, and taking time out of their professional service, just to earn
points instead of earning expertise through the practice of their profession. And the fact that these
conventions are not exactly affordable for it costs thousands of pesos, plus unpaid absences, only to be
disappointed for the unsatisfactory service that they will give you.

Imagine paying a large lump of money, only to wait in a long queue under the hot sun, and right after
you got inside the venue, you will be left with no other choice but to sit in the floor because of the
inadequate seats. And then after, when you’re going to claim your points, the system will fail you and
not recognize you? Breaking news, wasted time, isn’t it?
Let us not make the Philippines' professional industry a ground for capitalization. Let us not let these
people treat professionals as milking cows for profit.

It is high time to “unburden” the 3.2 million registered Filipino professionals who wants to grow as a
professional, but not with this kind of inconvenience.

It is high time to heed the cry of the 95 percentile of professionals who voted to abolish the CPD law in
the survey conducted by the PRC.

Because learning, in the first place, should not be inconvenient. Learning, should not be a burden. And
most of all, learning and growing, should not be coercive. Because that’s when we start to hate and
dread learning. And we, as an aspiring professional, should put an end to this.

(DISAGREE: Pro-CPD)

House Bill No. 7171 is an act issued to repeal RA 10912 or the “Continuing Professional Development Act
of 2016”, otherwise known as the CPD Law.

The grounds for the revocation is plausible, but only to those who do not fully understand the depths of
this law. For starters, what does this CPD even implies?

According to RA 10912, Article 1, Section 3-f, Continuing Professional Development or CPD refers to the
inculcation of advanced knowledge, skills and ethical values in a post-licensure specialization or in an
inter- or multidisciplinary field of study, for assimilation into professional practice, self-directed research
and/or lifelong learning.

In an ever-increasing globalized and competitive society, the importance of CPD cannot be overstated.
The world’s industries are forever evolving, which creates exciting opportunities but which also comes
with challenges. CPD enables an individual to regularly apply attention to important areas of
development and takes appropriate action to reduce any shortfalls in knowledge. Equally, an individual
must see Continuing Professional Development as a way to remain competitive with his or her peers,
and as an opportunity to differentiate themselves at moments where this may be required, such as in
job interviews or in tenders for new work and business acquisition. As more people become
professionally qualified with similar qualifications, CPD becomes more important as a means of
separating yourself from the pack.

A planned approach to Continuing Professional Development allows an individual to put themselves in-
charge of their own career development and work-related ambitions. A personal empowerment of
learning brings with it an increase in confidence and resulting abilities, all of which correlate to an
improvement of capability for their employment environment.

According to Article 1, Section 3 and Article 2, Section 5 of the RA 10912, the CPD Programs consist of
activities that range from structured to non-structured activities, which have learning processes and
outcomes. These include, but are not limited to, the following:

(a) Formal learning;

(b) Nonformal learning;

(c) Informal learning;

(d) Self-directed learning;

(e) Online learning activities; and

(f) Professional work experience.

Definitions:

(k) Formal learning refers to educational arrangements such as curricular qualifications and teaching-
learning requirements that take place in education and training institutions recognized by relevant
national authorities, and which lead to diplomas and qualifications;

(l) Informal learning refers to learning that occurs in daily life assessed, through the recognition,
validation and accreditation process, and which can contribute to a qualification;

(o) Nonformal learning refers to learning that has been acquired in addition or alternatively to formal
learning, which may be structured and made more flexible according to educational and training
arrangements;

(p) Online learning activities refer to structured or unstructured learning initiatives, which make use of
the internet and other web-based Information and Communications Technology solutions;

(w) Self-directed learning refers to learning activities such as online training, local/international
seminars/nondegree courses, institution/company-sponsored training programs, and the like, which did
not undergo CPD accreditation but may be applied for and awarded CPD units by the respective CPD
Council.
This means that the accumulation of the required points are not limited to regional or national
conventions. There are numerous other ways to earn your units that will cost less than what you think.
An example of online learning is through online seminar. You can just visit www.cpdphilippines.ph to
browse for virtual lectures and seminars, and pay for 600 pesos more or less. Each material they offer
provides lectures, quizzes and assignments that may help you not just to earn units, but also to learn
new things.

The problem with most of us is we whine before we even think of it. Let’s face it, even as a student, we
don’t even attend seminar unless we have to. In a matter of fact, In our 5 year-stay in this university,
some of us only registered for multiple seminars to accomplish the requirement for our OJT. Which only
goes to show that in order to grow as a professional and as an individual, we do need a little push.

CPD is not the problem. It is how we perceive it that cause it.

Learning is a continuous process. It does not end, and it is not something that will be handed to you
easily. It requires effort, time, and it will cost you something in one way or another, but it is never a
hindrance for us to not seek for learning.

Let us not tarnish something good just because of one fiasco or because of what other people says.
Again, CPD is not the problem.