August 14, 2008–MANILA, Philippines–To combat the high incidence of death by cardiac arrest in the country, a lawmaker has filed a bill seeking the mandatory teaching of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in public and private secondary schools.

In a statement on Thursday, Alliance for Rural Concerns partylist representative Narciso Santiago III said he filed House Bill 4422 because there is a need to teach young people CPR as most cases of cardiac arrests happen at home.

The CPR is an emergency medical procedure for people whose hearts have stopped due to cardiac arrest caused by heart attack, gas poisoning, drug overdose, head injury, drowning, suffocation, and electric shock, among others.