Prohibited Acts of Republic Act No. 11332

On April 26, 2019, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signed into law Republic Act No. 11332 or otherwise known as the "Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Concern Act".

Section 3 of this Act gives the definition of a disease which refers to an illness due to a specific toxic substance, occupational exposures or infectious agent, which affects a susceptible individual, either directly or indirectly, as from an infected animal or person, or indirectly through an intermediate host, vector, or the environment.

As provided, this Act shall prohibit the following:

1.  Unauthorized disclosure of private and confidential information pertaining to a patient's medical condition or treatment;

2.  Tampering of records or intentionally providing misinformation;

3.  Non-operation of the disease surveillance and response systems;

4.  Non-cooperation of persons and entities that should report and/or respond to notifiable diseases or health events of public concern; and

5.  Non-cooperation of the person or entities identified as having the notifiable disease, or affected by the health event of public concern.

Note:  Disclosure of confidential information will not be considered violation of this Act under this section if the disclosure was made to comply with a legal order issued by a court of law with competent jurisdiction. (Section 9)

The penalties for its violation is provided in Section 10.  Thus:

Any person or entity found to have violated Section 9 of this Act shall be penalized with a fine of not less than Twenty Thousand (P20,000.00) Pesos but not more than Fifty Thousand (P50,000.00) Pesos or imprisonment of not less than one (1) month but not more than six (6) months, or both such fine and imprisonment, as the discretion of the proper court.

The Professional Regulation Commission shall have the authority to suspend or revoke the license to practice of any medical professional for any violation of this Act.

The Civil Service Commission shall have the authority to suspend or revoke the civil service eligibility of a public servant who is in violation of this Act.

If the offenses is committed by a public or private health facility, institution, agency, corporation, school, or other juridical entity duly organized in accordance with law, the chief executive officer, president, general manager, or such other officer in charge shall be held liable, in addition, the business permit and license to operate of the concerned facility, institution, agency, corporation, school, or legal entity shall be cancelled.

Source: lawphil.net