Meet Tony Tamayo, everyone’s ka-tropa

On the RPN-9 Sunday afternoon program Tropang Pinoy which he hosts, Antonio "Tony" Laperal Tamayo features segments that are educational, informative, empowering. Among these have been practical medical information and tips, helpful features on community service, and Filipino achievements that are a source of pride to our nation, all presented in a forthright, Pinoy na Pinoy way that even the masa can relate to.

His program’s objectives and topics appear to come naturally to Tony, an educator who is the president of the University of Perpetual Help Rizal Medical Center and the University of Perpetual Help Rizal (both in Las Piñas City), the University of Perpetual Help Rizal-Cavite (in Molino, Bacoor), and the University of the Perpetual Help Rizal- Calamba (in Laguna).

Believe it or not, Tony says with a smile, he used to "hate schooling" during his college years. So, he says, "I never dreamed I would end up running schools!" Nor perhaps, hosting an educational show for that matter, given how Tony describes himself as "a very private person".

With his family background and core values, however, one is inclined to believe that Tony’s destiny as an educator was inevitable after all. Born the eldest of 12 children of Dr. Jose Tamayo and Dr. Josefina Laperal-Tamayo, Tony says he was encouraged by his parents to pursue Medicine just as they had. "But after a semester," Tony says in jest, "they begged me not to!" So he shifted to Commerce at UST where he was also a junior varsity swimmer and basketeer.

Tony furthered his education by taking a post-graduate course in Hospital Administration at the George Washington University in the US and special studies on Hospital Management at the Ateneo de Manila. Then he chalked up an MA and a PhD in Organizational Development at the Southeast Asian Interdisciplinary Institute.

While his parents founded the Perpetual Hospital in Biñan, it was under Tony and his wife’s (the former Daisy Moran, a nurse) stewardship that the other Perpetual campuses thrived. He also founded the Jonelta Foundation which serves indigent Las Piñas patients, providing hospital beds for in-patients and free consultations for out-patients.

This father of two (son Anthony Jose finished Accounting cum laude at UP; Richard Antonio is taking up Business Economics at UP) stresses that in all the Perpetual schools, the greatest emphasis is always on character formation.

"My personal ministry," Tony reveals, is "character formation, health, education, and good governance." His focus on the latter has been fortified by his stint as Las Piñas vice mayor from1995 to l998 and by his 2001 congressional bid which, he shares, "widened my perspective for the better. It showed me that we do need a reformation of character and of the way we regard public service."

Sadly, he notes, many Filipinos remain uneducated about politics and are apathetic about being civic-minded. These, he believes, are the roots of "dirty politics".

Tony explains, "Many Filipinos are not given the opportunity to know what they should know. The quality of their lives would be much better if they did. What we do not appreciate is that the only way to a good tomorrow is good governance. Sadly, the better Filipinos are in other disciplines. Since the good men are in other professions, many whose interests are other than public service enter politics."

"This is why, under our character formation program," Tony continues, "I’d like to teach our students as early as grade school how to differentiate between good and bad governance. I wish public schools would also adopt such an approach."

For his part, Tony, who received the Hoy Gising Award for Outstanding Performance in the Service of the Filipino in l994 and 1995, knows he is helping achieve his hopes of a better Philippines by what national hero Jose Rizal himself believed to be the nation’s greatest hope–education. This is why the Perpetual schools have also offered both academic and athletic scholarships to hundreds of students.

"I will continue to get involved because I believe it is my duty to promote and to provide a better tomorrow for our countrymen," Tony ends. "I am not angelic myself, but I am angelic enough to do something about it."

Watching him on Tropang Pinoy, viewers know ka-tropang Tony Tamayo is doing exactly that.