Amid controversies, PMA elects new president

MANILA, Philippines - On the heels of controversies hounding doctors, the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) has elected a new president, anesthesiologist Maria Minerva Patawaran-Calimag.

Calimag bagged 3,335 votes against re-electionist PMA president Leo Olarte’s 3,085 votes, representing a slim margin of only 250 votes, in an election held last March 16. She will assume office on June 1.

Calimag is a former president of the Philippine Society of Anesthesiologist and a professor in pharmacology of the University of Sto. Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery.

She was awarded the most outstanding physician in 2013 by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) and is very active in the local and international scientific community where she is a sought-after lecturer.

She is a former president of the Manila Medical Society and currently serving as governor for Manila of the PMA.

Calimag said she plans to initiate changes at the PMA.

“We need to elevate the status of the PMA to a level of professionalism beyond politics. Politics muddle all our issues at the PMA...we should all rise above politics and discuss the things that really matter to us as physicians,” she said in a statement.

In the past month, PMA had been hogging the headlines after the Bureau of Internal Revenues came up with reports that there were doctors who paid taxes lesser than those remitted by teachers.

The PMA had also been divided when it strongly promoted stem cell therapy in the country. 

Olarte and five former presidents have put up the Philippine Society for Stem Cell Medicine, whose corporate registration was revoked by the Securities and Exchange Commission last January for submitting a fabricated endorsement from the PRC.