Short answer. The Dangerous Drugs Board must meet at least once a week, or more often if the Chairman decides it is necessary or if any four other members call a special meeting. For any meeting to validly transact business, at least nine of the seventeen members must be present, since nine constitutes a quorum.
What the law says
The Board shall meet once a week or as often as necessary at the discretion of the Chairman or at the call of any four
RA 9165, Section 79 — Meetings And Quorum. Read the full provision →
What the law says
(9) members shall constitute a quorum.
RA 9165, Section 79 — Meetings And Quorum. Read the full provision →
The weekly meeting schedule
The law sets a floor, not a ceiling, on how often the Board convenes: it must meet at least once a week, but it can meet more frequently whenever the Chairman decides circumstances call for it. This keeps the Board able to respond quickly to urgent dangerous-drugs matters rather than waiting for a fixed monthly or quarterly cycle. Because the seventeen-member Board includes cabinet secretaries and agency heads with full-time duties elsewhere, this flexible minimum lets meetings scale up during active policy reviews and scale back when there is little pending business.
Calling a meeting outside the regular schedule
A meeting can also be called on the initiative of the members themselves rather than only the Chairman. Any four of the Board's other members may jointly call a meeting, which prevents a single Chairman from indefinitely postponing action that a meaningful bloc of the Board wants addressed. This shared authority to convene is a check built directly into the statute's meeting rule. It also means the Board cannot become inactive simply because the Chairman chooses not to schedule anything, since the members retain a standing right to convene themselves.
What counts as a quorum
Because the Board has seventeen total seats, the law fixes the quorum at nine members present, just over half. Decisions reached without nine members physically or otherwise validly present are vulnerable to challenge for lack of quorum, so anyone relying on a Board resolution or action should confirm attendance met that threshold. This threshold applies regardless of whether the members present are permanent, ex officio, or regular members, since the statute does not weight the quorum count by category of seat.
Why this rule matters in practice
For advocates, applicants, or agencies dealing with the Board, understanding the quorum requirement clarifies when a Board action is procedurally sound. A resolution, policy, or approval issued at a meeting that never reached nine present members raises a real question about its validity, which can matter in later administrative or judicial review of Board conduct. That is especially relevant where a Board decision affects a person's accreditation, license, or standing before an agency, since procedural defects in how a decision was reached can become part of a later dispute.
Related provisions
- RA 9165, Section 79 — Meetings And Quorum
- RA 9165, Section 78 — Composition Of The Board
- RA 9165, Section 80 — Secretariat Of The Board