SENATOR Imee Marcos filed a measure that will allow the Southern Luzon State University main campus in Lucban, Quezon to have its own College of Medicine.

She said Senate Bill 1939 seeks to bolster preparations for possible future pandemics and calamities.

Marcos said that SLSU, being the premier, state-funded higher education institution in the province, is mandated to primarily provide advanced education, professional, technological instruction in the fields of allied medicine, education, engineering, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, environment, arts and sciences and accountancy, among others.

The University has a College of Allied Medicine that offers programs such as Bachelor of Nursing, Diploma/Certificate in Midwifery, Master of Arts in Medical Surgical Nursing and Master of Arts in Psychiatric Nursing.

“The Covid19 pandemic showed the loopholes of the medical sector in our country including the shortage of doctors,” Marcos said in her explanatory note.