Continuing Professional Dev’t hitches rued, inquiry sought

July 30, 2017

By Hannah Torregoza
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Sunday 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) was 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 PRC-accredited 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.

Tags: Antonio Trillanes IV, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Continuing Professional Dev’t hitches rued
inquiry sought, Department of Education (DepEd), guidelines, implementation, Manila Bulletin, reorganization, Senate
Committee

https://news.mb.com.ph/2017/07/30/continuing-professional-devt-hitches-rued-inquiry-sought/
Professionals sign petition questioning requirements for license renewal
By: Mariejo S. Ramos - @inquirerdotnet Philippine Daily Inquirer / 07:35 PM July 31, 2017
At least 43,000 Filipino professionals have signed an online petition that aims to revisit the requirements for renewing their
licenses under Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Act, which took effect last March.

Junven Lavapie, a 23-year-old civil engineer, told the Inquirer that he created the petition on Change.org because he
found the operational guidelines of the CPD Act (Republic Act No.10912) “seemingly unfair” for professionals.

He said these professionals will now be burdened by costly and time-consuming seminars and trainings.

“As professionals in the Philippines, we strive hard to make a living for our families,” Lavapie said. “That small plastic card
we earned through our board exams, which took us four to eight years in college to learn, is an assuring edge for our
tenureship. Honestly, a lot of us now feel that having our licenses is more of a burden than a privilege.”

He said the law would have been acceptable if there had been government subsidized programs for CPD units
prepared before the law was implemented.

The CPD Act, authored by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, requires professionals to earn CPD units before they can renew their
Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) licenses.

The PRC has issued new guidelines regarding the implementation of the law, including a resolution that outlines the
required number of units for each profession under its own regulatory board.

Under the matrix of required CPD units, accountants need to earn 120 units, while other professionals, such as engineers,
architects, and those involved in medical practice, have a requirement of 45 units.

Counterproductive
Lavapie said continuing education might be beneficial, but earning the CPD units appears too much of a burden for
underpaid professionals.

“A lot of people think that our bank accounts are overflowing just because we’re engineera,” he said. “But that’s not the
case. I for one was a victim of contractualization. Upon resignation, higher paying jobs were scarce and difficult even
after gaining work experience.”

He said the law was counterproductive as paid CPD seminars rarely cater to specializations, leaving professionals with no
choice but to take the CPD trainings for the sake of points.

“In civil engineering alone, we have multiple disciplines,” he said. “A few worth mentioning are structural engineering,
water resources, transportation, construction management, among others. Even if a person is currently focusing on
structural engineering. But needed CPD points, he would take whatever seminar there is for civil engineers… So he
spends P5,000 to P8,000 for a seminar that he wouldn’t benefit from, and would forget about in less than a year.”

Costly seminars
Jmar Atienza, a 24-year-old architect who signed the petition, said earning the CPD units would cost professionals a
considerable amount of money since most CPD providers approved by the PRC would not offer their services for free.

“We need to pay for the seminars that would cost thousands of pesos on top of our annual professional tax and
membership dues, considering that a lot of us are in the labor force and find it difficult to find the time to earn units,”
Atienza said.

Consequently, he said the CPD had turned into business forcing professionals to pay as much as P3,000 per seminar just
to earn a single CPD unit, because prices of the seminars were not regulated.

“Employers should organize CPD trainings for their employees,” Atienza said. “But applying with the PRC for accreditation
as a free CPD provider is also a tedious process.”

According to Karlo Tablizo, co-founder of iCPA, the completion of 120 CPD units that accountants are required to
achieve in a period of three years is challenging because of time and cost.

“CPAs are very busy with their regular work so it is hard to spare time away from work to attend CPD trainings. Regular
CPD are expensive relative to the salary levels of many CPAs,” Tablizo said.

In response to this, his organization has filed an application with the PRC as a free CPD provider. He said their group
would solicit for a trust fund that could provide high-quality free trainings for accountants.
According to Lavapie, a copy of the petition will be delivered to the Office of the President and PRC Chairman Teofilo S.
Pilando Jr. /atm

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/919181/professionals-sign-petition-questioning-requirements-for-license-renewal

Senate body to probe holes in Continuing Professional Dev’t Act

By: Pathricia Ann V. Roxas - Reporter / @PathRoxasINQ INQUIRER.net / 10:00 AM August 01, 2017

The Senate will conduct an inquiry next week on the implementation of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
Act amid growing complaints against it.

The Senate committee on civil service being chaired by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV is set to hold the hearing on August
9, his staff member said on Tuesday.

“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,” said Trillanes in a
statement over the weekend.

Republic Act 10912 or the CPD Act, authored by Trillanes, requires professionals to earn CPD units by taking additional
formal and non-formal training for the renewal of their Professional Identification Card every three years, effective July 1,
2017.

But after the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) has issued new guidelines on its implementation, at least 43,000
Filipino professionals have signed an online petition, seeking to review the requirements for license renewal.

The professionals complained that with the new requirements, they would be “burdened by costly and time-consuming
seminars and trainings.”

Trillanes acknowledged that numerous professionals, especially those who are unemployed, underemployed or who
receive low wages, and casual or contractual employees, may not be able to afford the training, seminar, or courses
needed to renew their licenses.

Others, he said, have less access to PRC-accredited institutions, especially those assigned in far-flung areas and are
compelled to travel to major cities just to process their applications and complete the required CPD units.

Trillanes also pointed out other issues of various stakeholders such as “the PRC-accredited CPD providers are limited to
current providers which are private institutions and the Accredited Integrated Professional Organizations (AIPO),
allegedly offering expensive training and seminars; and the PRC does not recognize in-house training by government
agencies such as the Department of Education (DepEd) and other companies, which are already instituted and are
usually free.”

“Prior to the issuance of the General Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) by the PRC, I have proposed measures on
how they can implement the law without it becoming a burden to our professionals,” he said.

“Among these are the offering of affordable online courses, so the professionals won’t have to travel in order to gain
their units; inclusion of annual seminars of teachers and other professional annual conventions in their CPD units; and
providing additional leaves to our professionals so they can attend training and seminars for their units.”

“But to my dismay, I have been informed that the training and seminars they provide remain costly and limited to few
accredited training institutions,” added Trillanes.

These problems, he said, were not the intention of the law, which he said was created to help the professionals cope
with their respective globalizing field.

The senator then urged the PRC and the Professional Regulatory Boards “to review and amend their implementing or
operational guidelines, which should not be burdensome to our professionals.” IDL

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/919304/senate-body-to-probe-holes-in-continuing-professional-devt-act

Understanding the new CPD

By Filbert Tsai - August 6, 2017
Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) are now required to comply with the new continuing professional development
(CPD) requirement to renew their licence. Many were shocked with the sudden increase, from the previous 60-unit
requirement to the 120-unit requirement, prescribed by the Board of Accountancy (BOA) Resolution 358-2016 as a result
of Republic Act 10912, otherwise known as the CPD Act of 2016.
The requirement to comply with the 120-unit of CPD over a period of three years is a requirement of International
Education Standard 7 (IES 7). As a member of the International Federation of Accountants, the global accounting
community, all Filipino CPAs are required to comply with this requirement. IES 7 prescribes for:

Completion of at least 120 hours (or equivalent learning units) of relevant professional-development activity in each
rolling three-year period, of which 60 hours (or equivalent learning units) shall be verifiable;
Completion of at least 20 hours (or equivalent learning units) of relevant professional-development activity in each year;
and
Measurement of learning activities to meet the above requirements.
BOA Resolution 254-2017 provided additional clarification and information on the implication of this new CPD
requirement. The highlights of this resolution are:

The 120-hour CPD requirement is being rolled out over a period of three years with the following staggered adoption:

Basically, 40 percent of the total CPD requirements can be obtained from sources other than the CPD providers. These
can be self-directed learning and/or lifelong learning, which generally can be anything, the January-to-June 2017 cycle
limits these to 20 flexible hours.

The CPD hours are generally flexible, except for 40 credit units that must be in the following CPD learning areas:

Other than the above minimum 40 units, which is required to be within the learning areas to be taken from accredited
CPD providers, the remaining CPD units are considered flexible CPD units.

Section 7 of BOA Resolution 254-2017 provides that a CPA may take learning programs other than those provided by
accredited CPD provider. However, there is a caveat that these are subject to approval by the CPD Council. The fee to
submit these requirements appear reasonable (i.e, P1,000 for every three-year rolling period as long as CPD claims are
made one time).

I am for these CPD measures with a few reservations:

For self-directed learning, it is not clear how much is the required payment for the accreditation of CPD units (i.e.,
whether payment is one time or for each CPD course.). I believe that the cost is just P1,000 for the three years provided
that you list down in one accreditation application all the self-directed learning units that you are claiming. CPD
providers are sprouting like mushrooms everywhere. We need better quality control and pricing control to make sure that
providers are not exploiting the market for this opportunity.

Pruning existing CPD providers matched with an increased barriers to entry for new CPD providers would be crucial to
provide quality updates to our professionals. Further, the BOA has to do more work delivering thought leadership through
free webinars and courses to ensure a consistent message is sent across the profession, instead of relying too much on
the accredited professional organization to deliver.

Earning the remaining 60 percent of the required CPD, through CPD providers, is considered a financially burdensome
process for CPAs. While I recognize the potential opportunity for cost issues to diminish with quality online CPD providers,
this will take time before contents are made available and for prices to become competitive.

These are interesting times with these recent developments in our CPD.

Filbert Tsai is a Filipino accounting advisor in the UK with global and public sector experience. His key areas of interests
are start-ups and MSMEs. His blog and page, Ask the Accounting Advisor, provide relevant insight for start-ups and
MSMEs in the Philippines.

This column accepts contributions from accountants, especially articles that are of interest to the accountancy
profession, in particular, and to the business community, in general. These can be e-mailed to
boa.secretariat.@gmail.com.

https://businessmirror.com.ph/understanding-the-new-cpd/

Nurses slam new law on license renewal

By: Tina G. Santos - Reporter / @santostinaINQ
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 07:25 AM November 13, 2017

A group of nurses has added its voice to Filipino professionals opposing the new requirements for renewing their licenses
under the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Act.
“Given that the laws like RA (Republic Act No.) 9173 — or the Nursing Law of 2002 — and the Magna Carta for Public
Health Workers, which uphold the best interests of nurses, are little implemented and generally disregarded and violated,
now comes another law that will further burden the already weighed down nurses,” the Filipino Nurses United (FNU) said
in a statement.

The CPD Act, authored by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, makes it mandatory for nurses and other professionals to earn 45 CPD
units before they can renew their Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) licenses.

“This would mean a hefty expense for the already underpaid nurses while squeezing the CPD in her already tight
schedule,” the FNU said.

The PRC has issued new guidelines on the law’s implementation, including a resolution that outlines the required number
of units for each profession under its own regulatory board.

‘Unnecessary burden’

“This mandatory CPD is also an unnecessary burden for nurses who are unemployed or in nonnursing jobs or stationed in
far-flung areas. [They] should not be barred from renewing his/her professional ID that has already been rightfully
earned,” the FNU said.

While the aim of the CPD Act of 2016 was to ensure nurses’ competence in the performance of their professional
practice, the group said it was more meant to comply with the requisites of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(Asean) integration.

“[That is] to create a pool of highly skilled but cheap manpower that our country is noted to provide for the global
market,” it said.

As part of Asean integration, citizens of other Asean member countries may practice their profession in the Philippines.
But Filipinos cannot practice their profession when they go to other Asean countries, according to Junven Lavapie, a 23-
year-old civil engineer.

“We’d have to take exams or study for another few years again in their country to do so. The CPD law allows us to ‘fix’
this issue,” Lavapie said.

Review implementation

Like the FNU, the Optometric Association of the Philippines (OAP) is calling for a review of the CPD Act’s implementation.

The OAP earlier raised objections to the operational guidelines drafted by the Board of Optometry that required
practitioners to earn educational units to renew their licenses.

The association said the board was allowing the retroactive application of points earned before the law’s full
implementation.

The group also wondered why CPD units had been issued to practitioners in the last three years when renewal of licenses
had been allowed without such conditions before the enactment of the CPD Act last year.

Apart from the nurses and optometrists’ groups, close to 62,000 Filipino professionals have signed an online petition that
aims to reevaluate the requirements for renewing their licenses under the CPD Act.

Among the concerns raised by those who signed the petition on Change.org include the inaccessibility and affordability
of PRC-accredited CPD providers especially among contractual professionals and those in remote areas, and those who
are unemployed, underemployed or receiving low wages.

Exorbitant fees

Other professionals have also complained about the lack of accredited CPD providers, which has limited their options to
current providers that are mostly private institutions supposedly offering training and seminars with exorbitant fees.

Michael Formoso, an engineer who signed the petition, said “there are a lot channels for learning where 70 percent
come from experience and on-the-job training and 20 percent from direct coaching and technical and management
websites and media.”

Formoso said only 10 percent came from training.

“Leadership and management training should also be considered valid for CPD for engineers like me. I see this as means
of money milking for accredited professional organization. There should be more accredited training institutions that we
can choose from,” he added.

Genesis Tampus, another supporter of the online petition, said that while CPD would help upgrade skills as part of Asean
integration, its implementation should be made reasonable.

Self-paced manner

“Perhaps making it available online on a self-paced manner, thus allowing us to accumulate points through seminars
and making it affordable also so everybody can avail of it,” Tampus said.

Lavapie, who created the petition on Change.org, told the Inquirer in a previous interview that he found the operational
guidelines of the CPD Act “seemingly unfair” for professionals.

He said these professionals would be burdened by costly and time-consuming seminars and training.

He said the law would have been acceptable had there been government-subsidized programs for CPD units.

In an article he wrote on Change.org on Aug. 10, a day after the Senate inquiry into the complaints against the CPD
Act, Lavapie said the intention of the CPD Act was good, “but we need to refine its implementation.”

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/944924/nurses-slam-new-law-on-license-renewal

Anti-CPD professionals give 95% vote for repeal Sunday, February 18, 2018 AN ONLINE survey set up by the Professional
Regulations Commission (PRC) on its Facebook page on February 16 and set to end on the 20th is gathering a near
unanimous vote for the repeal of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Act of 2016, otherwise known as the
Trillanes Law (RA 10912), with 95 percent. The survey question posted is: Do you agree on House Bill No. 7171 seeking to
repeal CPD Law implementation? With 76,000 votes already cast, 95 percent said "Yes. It should be stopped." Only 5
percent said, "No. Professionals need it." HB No. 7171 was filed by Representatives Antonio Tinio and France Castro of the
ACT Teachers Party-List to help abolish the controversial CPD Law. In their explanatory note for the repeal of the CPD
Act, the party-list congressmen 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." Before the Trillanes Law, professional organizations themselves hold national
conventions where they give out continuing education units to their members. But these are voluntary, and because of
these, the professionals choose their subject of interest because of their drive to learn. Not because it is required for their
license renewal. Since the Trillanes 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. Each seminar also costs each participant by the thousands of pesos, creating a
profitable industry at the expense of the licensed professionals. (SAE)

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/local-news/2018/02/18/anti-cpd-professionals-give-95-vote-repeal-589585