Albay: Albay 3rd District Representative-elect Raymond Adrian Salceda announced his intention to advocate for the extension of professional license validity and the reduction of compliance burdens on professionals.
According to Philippines News Agency, Salceda revealed that the bill, along with supporting economic impact studies, has been finalized and is ready for formal filing. The proposed ‘Professional License Rationalization and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Access Act’ aims to extend the validity of professional licenses issued by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) from the current three years to either five or ten years, depending on the profession’s nature.
Salceda emphasized targeting unnecessary bureaucratic procedures, stating, “The law should distinguish between fast-changing professions and those with long-established practices. A blanket three-year renewal cycle is wasteful and unfair.” He explained that dynamic professions like healthcare and information technology would renew every five years, while established professions such as teaching, librarianship, and criminology would renew every ten years.
Additionally, the bill mandates that CPD programs be free or subsidized for professionals serving the public interest, including teachers in the Department of Education, government nurses, and uniformed personnel like the Philippine National Police. Salceda stated, “As the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) president in Albay, I’ve already helped deliver free CPD to our professionals. But we can’t keep solving this piecemeal. We need structural reform. That’s what this bill does.”
Under the current setup, many professionals, especially those in the public sector, spend up to PHP15,000 over ten years to maintain their licenses due to renewal fees and CPD expenses. The proposed reform could reduce this cost to less than PHP2,000. Salceda asserted, “This isn’t about weakening standards; it’s about removing senseless burdens. Professionals should focus on their work, not on chasing certificates and receipts every three years.”
Salceda also cited international examples to support the reform, mentioning Canada, where aircraft maintenance engineers hold 10-year licenses; New Zealand, which offers extended certification validity for teachers; and Germany, where doctors are licensed for life with strict CPD and ethics systems. The bill also includes a mandatory five-year ethical review to ensure accountability.
“We’ve benchmarked this against global systems. We also ran economic modeling. The numbers show this reform is a win-win: professionals save money and time, and the government can focus on real regulation,” Salceda concluded.
