5 Iloilo students now FG medical scholars

MANILA, Philippines - Five of the poorest but brightest medical students of the West Visayas State University (WVSU) in Iloilo City have been chosen as part of Batch 4 new scholars under the First Gentleman Foundation, Inc.’s Bagong Doktor Para sa Bayan program.

Rowena Alcido, Christine Rio Bistis, Norie Grace Omamalin, Ana Lor-Sha Villaber, and Lotgrada Tayao, all incoming fourth year medical students of the WVSU, have been accepted into the scholarship program not only for their impressive scholastic records, but also for their passion in helping others despite their own hardships.

Alcido, whose mother contracted a tumor and has to undergo cancer therapy, was an active member of a campus organization involved in extending medical assistance to the far-flung towns in Iloilo.  After personally experiencing the onslaught of Typhoon Frank when she was starting her third year in medical school, she became more intense in her “immense desire to help and care for the sick in situations where medical care is inaccessible.”

Bistis, meanwhile, has organized and participated in about 20 medical and surgical missions and community health lectures, aside from bringing honor to the school by placing second in the National Research Competition sponsored by the Asian Medical Students Association in April 2008.  Like Alcido, Bistis mother was also diagnosed with cancer.  With a weekly allowance of only P700, she sometimes has to ask for food from her friends in return for helping them in their lessons.

Among the five applicants to the scholarship, Tayao, on the other hand, was the most experienced in community health, according to the university officials. Tayao, a native Ibaloi tribe member, underwent training on Community Based Health and Development Program offered by Agape Rural (Health) Program (ARP) in Palawan.  After the training, she worked as a volunteer community health and development worker at ARP for three years.

The commitment to help the poor is also in the heart of Omamalin, whom WVSU officials described as “one of the students who feel the call for more than just the achievement of academic excellence.”  Throughout her college years, she was a volunteer tutor to scavenger children in Payatas.  Against the wishes of her parents who want her to be a lawyer, she chose the medical profession. Her work in Payatas, she said, made “me able to see that health is more basic than justice.”

“The lack of affordable doctors and medicines not only in Payatas but elsewhere in the country made me realize that health problems are pressing problems that need to be addressed and I realize that I could become a part of the solution if I became a doctor,” Omamalin said in her letter to First Gentleman Mike Arroyo.

Among the five applicants, Villaber has the lowest weekly allowance of P400. With nine other siblings, she only owns two sets of uniforms and could not afford to buy any medical book. But this financial handicap does not prevent Villaber from joining medical and outreach projects, being an active member of the Campus Crusade for Christ-Medical Ministry.

For her, being a doctor is a noble profession: “I always looked up to physicians ever since I was a child and see them as heroes as they are capable of saving lives.  I also love the feeling one gets when helping people especially those who cannot afford medical treatment,” Villaber says.

The Bagong Doktor Para sa Bayan project grants poor but deserving scholars free tuition fees, allowance/board and lodging, two sets of uniforms, leather medical bags with complete medical equipment, internship allowance, pre-board allowance and board exam fee payment and Senator Flavier books.

After passing the licensure examinations, the medical scholars will get to serve in the barrios for a period of two years, addressing the need for the much needed doctors in the remotest communities of the country.