Continuing Professional Development Act of 2016

TWENTIETH CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES ) AUG -7 P4:33 First Regular Session ) RECEIVED BY SENATE 1134 S. No. _ INTRODUCED BY SENATOR JV EJERCITO AN ACT REPEALING REPUBLIC ACT NO. 10912, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 2016 EXPLANATORY NOTE Republic Act No. 10912 or the "Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Act of 2016", was enacted by Congress with the noble intention of uplifting professional standards and ensuring the global competitiveness of Filipino professionals. But after nine years since its enactment, the law has become an enormous burden for Filipino professionals in many fields and sectors. Instead of promoting professional progress, the CPD provisions have hampered professional advancement by imposing financial burdens, increasing bureaucratic complexity, and undercutting pre-existing, self-initiated development efforts. Undeniably, Filipino professionals now face a heavier financial burden as a result of complying with the CPD Act. One of the main points of contention at present is the cost of attending accredited seminars, training, and conferences, which includes registration fees, travel expenses, and even hotel accommodations. Given the state of the economy, where our people are already struggling with growing living expenses, this financial strain is especially burdensome and problematic. Many find it increasingly difficult to meet these mandatory requirements without jeopardizing their household budgets due to the current upward trend in inflation rates, which the

Philippine Statistics Authority reports increased to an overall rate of 1.4% as of June 2025*. Professional groups also continue to express concerns that the bureaucratic complexity has caused confusing and time-consuming processes for fulfilling CPD requirements that imposes not just a financial burden on many of our professional workers, but also detracts from their productive time and undoubtedly creates unnecessary frustration. This is a challenge that no less than President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself acknowledged during the 123 Labor Day celebrations last May 2025.2 It is important to note that Filipino professionals have long been engaged in robust, self-initiated professional development and continuing education activities even before the enactment of the CPD Act. The unintended effects of the CPD law have added a rigid, often expensive, and redundant layer of requirements to existing professional growth mechanisms. This has turned the voluntary and passionate pursuit of knowledge into an exercise of compliance that has become driven by the pursuit of profit for some companies and organizations. Fundamentally, the Continuing Professional Development Act of 2016 has not met its noble goals and has instead become a dubious cross that is unnecessarily borne by our professionals, and thus, must be repealed. In view of the foregoing, approval of this bill is earnestly sought. JV EJERCITO 1 Philippine Statistics Authority (2025). Consumer Price Index and Inflation Rate 2 Philippine News Agency (2025). PBBM wants to revisit Continuing Professional Dev't Act

TWENTIETH CONGRESS OF THE ) REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES ) First Regular Session ) AUG -7 P4:33 SENATE RECEIVED EN S. No. 1134 INTRODUCED BY SENATOR JV EJERCITO REPEALING REPUBLIC ACT NO. 10912, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 2016 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:

Section 1. Republic Act No. 10912, otherwise known as the "Continuing

2 Professional Development Ad of 2016': is hereby repealed.

Sec. 2. All other laws, executive orders, resolutions, rules and regulations, and

other issuances or parts thereof, which are inconsistent with this Act are hereby 5 repealed, amended or modified accordingly.

Sec. 3. This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in the

Official Gazette or in at least two (2) newspapers of general circulation. Approved,