HOUSE Ways and Means Chair Joey Sarte Salceda (Albay, 2nd district), who is also the principal author and sponsor of the charter of the Virology Institute of Science and Technology, called on Congress to “send a bill to the President for his signature as soon as possible” in response to appeals from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) this week.
“We need to send a Congress-approved measure as soon as possible, because there are no pending issues. There is a budget for the construction of the VIST in the 2022 National Expenditure Program. There is also already an initial team of scientists. Besides, this is also an urgent priority of the President in the State of the Nation Address,” Salceda said.
The House of Representatives already sent to the Senate its approved version, House Bill No. 9559, which the lower house voted on with 198 yes votes and no members voting no or abstaining.
“The measure is still pending in the Senate. I believe one of the contentions was the supposed synergy with the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM). The mandate of the RITM is to supervise, plan, and successfully implement research programs to prevent and to control prevailing infectious and tropical diseases in the Philippines. As an institute under the DOH, it is centered on human transmission,” Salceda said.
“In other words, RITM’s mandate includes such non-viral diseases as tuberculosis, malaria, meningitis, and cholera. These are infectious tropical diseases. Non-human viruses such as the African Swine Fever, tungro in rice, among others do not fall under the scope of the RITM. They will fall under the VIP’s ambit,” Salceda added.
“While there is no central virology institute to focus on these areas, we are very poorly equipped to deal with them. That’s a problem.”
“The Virology Institute will focus squarely on research and practical work on viruses in general, whether in humans, animals, or plants. Now that virus research has become so sophisticated that it is now at the level of the mRNA, our scientific agencies cannot go blind on this field. We really need our own virology center,” Salceda explained.
“With this clarification, I hope the Senate Committee on Science and Technology can fast-track the approval of the measure. The bill is still there at the moment. I hope they can proceed to the Technical Working Group stage and draft the Committee Report already. Time is of the essence for this bill, which we need now and will continue to need in the future,” Salceda added.
“Since the Senate President is a principal author of the House version, I hope that chamber can expedite its approval.”
The Virology Science and Technology Institute of the Philippines will be located at New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac. Five hectares of land have been allocated. The institute will include lecture halls, offices, greenhouses, and laboratories, including a BSL-4 lab, the first in the country. The project is part of President Duterte’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ program.
Duterte also identified the proposed charter for the institute as an urgent priority in his 2021 SONA.