Licensure topnotchers journey to excellence sealed with ‘good friends’

CEBU, Philippines — It’s important to choose good friends.

This is one of Daniel Panaglima’s takeaways after he found out that he placed third in the March 2019 Licensure Exam for Physicians, along with his two good friends who also made it to the Top 10.

The 27-year-old doctor was born and raised in the island of Lubang, Occidental Mindoro, and would later take up Nursing at the Manila Adventist Medical Center and Colleges.

There, he met Jessa Fronda and Wilma Dapog, who placed fifth and tenth, respectively.

“We’ve been friends for over a decade. They are very good influence to me,” said Panaglima.

The three are among the five nursing graduates from their school who traveled to Cebu to secure scholarships for medical school. Panaglima and Fronda got into Matias H. Aznar Memorial College of Medicine, while Dapog became a scholar at the Cebu Doctors’ University.

Panaglima said failing to top the Nursing Board Exam with his friends back in 2012 had been one of the lowest points of his life, but he managed to move forward and proceeded to medicine still because of the support of his friends and family.

“Majority ng reason ay dahil mag-me-medicine din sila. Knowing that we only have a small karinderya as a source of income, I braved into medical school. I trusted the Lord and his provisions,” Panaglima added.

Panaglima shares the same faith with his fellow topnotchers, and had spent every Saturday in a local Seventh-Day Adventist Church along Escario Street, Cebu when they were still studying.

Wilma Dapog, 26, participated in community medical missions before going into medical school, and sees being a doctor not just a childhood dream, but also a calling.

“I had a covenant with my God that I will serve Him first before I go on with my career. I want to be in the ministry, because through this experience I can reach out to more people,” said Dapog.

The eldest in a family was inclined to healthcare professions, since her father was also a dentist himself.  Dapog took up medicine to better serve her community.

While in school, she could only go home to Bicol twice a year at most. Still, Dapog finds it a pleasure to be called a student from Cebu.

“Cebu has been my home for four years. [It] has treated me like one of its own,” Dapog said.

This is a sentiment shared by her friend Jessa Fronda, who hails from Oriental Mindoro.

“First time ko nung pumunta sa Cebu,” said Fronda, “Parang second home ko na dun.”

Fronda, 26, also belongs to a family of doctors, and has said that the pressure of being a topnotcher had been a constant struggle.

“People are expecting from you. Parang kailangan mong i-meet yung standard in the world at yung pressure na hindi masira yung streak na may top [from the school],” Fronda said.

Fronda, like her two friends, wishes to proceed to Internal Medicine, and dreams of putting up a dialysis center in her hometown as a tribute to her father who died of kidney failure when she was seven.

Paglima, Dapog, and Fronda had been members of More To Life Youth Impact Ministry in their Nursing days, and had branded their group the “Royalty Match.”

Scholars even in pre-med, they made sure to balance school and fun, as witnessed by their mentor and teacher, Joe Rey Dayahan.

“Well-rounded yan sila. We do outings, retreats, mga outreach,” said Joe Rey Dayahan, Vice President of Nursing Service in Manila Adventist Medical Center and also a nurse by profession.

Dayahan has seen the growth of the three, and is incredibly proud.

“They aimed high naman talaga. I told them, they did not have to aim for top one. Kung ibibigay ng Panginoon, edi okay,” said Dayahan. — Christele Isabela B. Basco, USC Intern GAN (FREEMAN)