Likewise, the vote on the project that seeks to create the Certificate of Business Ethnic Responsibility was postponed, after the decision was made to hear representatives of the National Government in the next session.
By: María Fernanda Villegas Forero
Bogotá DC, April 6, 2021 (Senate Press) .-This legislative cell began the discussion of Bill 321/2020 Senate – 259/2019 Chamber that seeks to establish timely measures in matters of promotion, early detection, comprehensive treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care of breast cancer in Colombia, so that the Senator Gabriel Velasco (Democratic Center) and speaker of this initiative assured that “this project is born from the concern of the increase in cases in Colombia and in the world today there are 1.67 million cases a year in the world and it is the second cancer in Colombia.”
Likewise, Senator Velasco exposed the structural obstacles found when addressing the disease of breast cancer such as:
1. Access barriers and little continuity in treatment.
2. The concentration of the supply of oncological services in the cities of Barranquilla (city with the highest incidence rate of this disease in Colombia), Bogotá, Bucaramanga, Cali and Medellín, and the other municipal capitals, leaving aside access to these services for rural Colombia.
3. Lack of specialized and subspecialized human resources in oncology, mastology, gastroenterology, hemato-oncology.
4. Little development in palliative care and family health.
5. Little interrelation between prevention and care, as well as low emphasis on prevention and early detection.
6. The low income of many of the patients, which limits their ability to have comprehensive treatment or adequate conditions for care and self-care.
In turn the Senator Mila Romero (Democratic Center Party) He stated that «given the importance of this bill that we are processing, where what it seeks is to prevent breast cancer, it is important that the government participate in this Commission, but that we are not the ones who truncate this hope for the women of the country ».
For his part, Senator Carlos Fernando Motoa (Radical Change Party), He stressed the importance of the project having the favorable opinion of the Ministry of Finance: “We are in the third debate and it would be very frustrating for this initiative to be approved and then for the Court to declare it unenforceable due to procedural defects.”
“In the Seventh Commission when they are issues that concern health, I think that we all move so that the best comes out and so that these new laws are of real benefit for Colombians,” the Senator Aydeé Lizarazo (Mira Party).
After the interventions, the initiative advances with the approval of the proposal with which the report of the presentation ends, the articles that did not have a proposal and the articles that had proposals accepted by the speaker.
Finally, unanimously a subcommittee was created, made up of senators Gabriel Velasco, who will act as its coordinator, the senator Carlos Fernando Motoa and Senator Laura Fortich in order to reach a consensus on articles 6, 7, 8 and 12 of the bill.
Postponed project for the creation of the Certificate of Business Ethnic Responsibility
This initiative, which seeks to create the Certificate of Business Ethnic Responsibility, which will be awarded by the Ministry of Labor to those companies that link within their staff the black, Afro-Colombian, Raizal or Palenquera population at the management levels, supervision in an equal percentage or greater than 15% of its staff, whose rapporteur is the Senator Manuel Bitervo (Indigenous Authorities Party of Colombia), It was presented and debated in the session, however some members of the commission asked to clarify some doubts regarding the project, through the interventions of representatives of the national government.
Therefore, it was cited for a session this Wednesday, April 7, starting at 9:00 am where this initiative will be first for discussion, on the agenda, to continue with its discussion and approval.
(Reference photo: Ministry of Health)
Relive the session of the Seventh Commission in this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=togcpdtKz8k
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