MANILA, Philippines – The Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Law has been through several major overhauls. Recently, a new set of Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) was released to appease the concerns of the local professionals on the pains of the CPD requirements.
Among the notable provisions of the new IRR is the significant decrease of number of required CPD units to not more than 15 units. While this may seem as cause of rejoice, several professionals are now confused.
Currently, professionals are allowed to renew their Professional Identification Cards (PIC) even without full CPD compliance until December 2021. But this is only possible if they sign an Affidavit of Undertaking. It is a written document attesting that the professional promises to the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) that he/she will fulfill the required number of CPD units in his/her next license renewal.
The new IRR states “Section 15.3 - Professionals who executed an Undertaking prior to the effectivity of this Resolution shall only comply with the required number of credit units as amended pursuant to this Resolution equivalent to not more than fifteen (15) credit units.”
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| The CPD Law's Affidavit of Undertaking document. |
Meaning, those who signed the Undertaking no longer have to follow the previous number of CPD units and should only earn a maximum of 15 CPD units.
What if the professional doesn't want to execute an Undertaking? If the professional refuses to sign an Undertaking, he/she must be able to present the required CPD units (15). If not, the PRC will not process the license renewal.
But here are the exemptions.
With the new IRR, there are now those who are exempted in accomplishing the required CPD units. The Overseas Filipino workers (OFW) and newly licensed professionals are now temporarily exempted from complying the CPD requirements for their licenses.
In a viral post by a certain Ronnel Agoncillo on Facebook, he shared his experience when he tried to renew his professional license for the first time. Much to his surprise, he was asked to sign an Undertaking even if he was a newly licensed professional. Because he was informed with the updated IRR, he insisted that he was exempted from the CPD requirements and don’t need to sign the Undertaking. After several talks with PRC personnel, he was able to successfully renew his license.
However, these provisions are only temporary while a “transition period” is being implemented. PRC will be working with various stakeholders and groups to comply with certain pre-conditions before they fully implement the mandatory CPD law.
PRC Chairman Teofilo S. Pilando, Jr. had earlier said, “Hopefully once all of these things are met then we will be prepared for the mandatory character of the law.”
— Sally, The Summit Express
