Be inspired by this year’s Outstanding Filipino Doctors
Philippine Medical Association (PMA) national president Dr. Maria Minerva P. Calimag, was the guest of honor during the recent launch of The Outstanding Filipino Physician (TOFP) Search for 2022.
The event happened before the 65th National Medicine Week celebration, which is slated from Sept. 18 to 24, with the theme “Nagkakaisang PMA Para Sa Kalusugan Ng Sambayanan” (PMA United For National Health).
TOFP is an annual search launched in 2007 by the JCI Senate Philippines, in collaboration with PMA, to honor the exemplary service of medical doctors in the Philippines. The project was conceptualized to help mitigate “brain drain” in the medical field and help inspire young doctors to practice in the Philippines.
Dr. Calimag said that she is grateful that there is a project like TOFP that honors her colleagues in the field. She said that their ranks have sacrificed a lot during the last 30 months of the pandemic. The medical association has more than 90,000 members out of 140,000, who took their oath with the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC). This is already an improvement over previous years where only half were based locally.
She likewise mentioned that 150 million vaccination shots to 69 million people had been administered in the country as of the end of May 2022. She emphasized that because of the vaccination drive, the launch of TOFP was done face-to-face for the first time in two years. However, she was quick to remind that this number only represents 77 percent of the target number of persons to be vaccinated.
Dr. Calimag herself is a multi-awarded physician. She was honored as the 2022 The Outstanding Thomasian Alumni (TOTAL) Awardee for Medicine by the University of Santo Tomas (UST). She has been with UST from high school to medical school and later on, for her doctoral degree in educational management.
Dr. Calimag is a practicing anesthesiologist, professor, and researcher. She also recently received the Metrobank Foundation Outstanding Filipino Teacher in Higher Education award. Her whole family was likewise hailed as this year’s Total Awardee for the Thomasian Family Award. The award is given to a family whose members are all alumni of UST, and who are living examples of the Thomasian core values in their respective fields of expertise.
JCI Senate Philippines national executive vice president Alfie Fernandez, meanwhile, expressed his organization’s commitment to continue the annual search, which was revived in December 2019. At that time, the organization was not aware of the massive effect of the coronavirus to come. The last time the award was given was in 2012 and, as one of the five flagship projects of the organization, then national president Rene Natividad felt that is was appropriate to revive TOFP as an important component of his leadership’s platform. JCI senator Fernandez represented this year’s JCISP national president Henry Juan Tong, a staunch supporter of TOFP who was indisposed during the event.
I’ve been assigned as the national chairman since the revival period until the present. We awarded 22 outstanding physicians posthumously in 2020, followed by another 20 posthumous awardees in 2021. Last March 17, nine physicians were conferred the TOFP 2021 Awards. The live awarding was postponed from its original December date due again to COVID-19 (the Omicron outbreak, which affected the board of judges and organizing committee).
The nine awardees were Dr. John Hernani Anacan Jr. of Zamboanga City; Dr. Maria Luisa Aportaderao of Davao; Dr. Antonio Miguel Dans of Manila; Dr. Melchor Dela Cruz of Santiago City; Dr. Fulbert Alec Gillego of Albay; Dr. Maria Luisa Otayza of Ilocos Norte; Dr. Santiago Rodriguez Jr. and Dr. Wilfredo Tagle of Manila; and Dr. Zaida Sadain-Urao of Zamboanga City.
TOFP 2022 is now open for nominations, which can be downloaded by scanning the QR code posted on the FB page of The Outstanding Filipino Physician. Deadline of submission is Oct. 31. You may also inquire from the PMA Secretariat or the JCI Senate Philippines office.
A total of 70 points is given for a doctor’s contribution to the medical community (30 points), humanitarian service (30 points) and local/international awards received (10 points). The balance of 30 points is attributed to professional excellence (20 points) and length of service in the Philippines (10 points).
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