MANILA – The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine will not be abolished should a proposed bill creating the country's Center for Disease Control will be signed into law, the Department of Health said Friday.

According to DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire, the RITM will be absorbed into CDC’s center for reference laboratories and center for health evidence.

"I'd like to assure all our personnel in the RITM na hindi po natin bubuwagin ang RITM," she said in a press briefing.

"Wala rin hong katotohanan na merong mga tao from RITM na hindi maa-absorb o mawawalan ng trabaho. There is no truth to that."

By subsuming RITM to CDC, the health research facility will be further strengthened due to having more funds, more support and more experts, Vergeire said.

In fact, she said the RITM wrote the DOH and lawmakers on November 12, pledging "full support" for the establishment of CDC.

"There is no truth to that [allegation]. Again, we assure our personnel in RITM that nobody will lose their work," Vergeire said.

Health workers have previously held protest over the possible abolition of RITM to give way to the creation of CDC.

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