If there’s anything the COVID-19 pandemic taught us, it’s that we can never have too many doctors. In our case in the Philippines, the global health crisis shone a glaring light on the scarcity of practicing doctors available across the country, and even more so in far-flung provinces. Because of this, the government has ordered a tremendous win for us all with this new program that aims to rectify just that.

What the ‘Doktor Para Sa Bayan’ Act is

Just before 2020 ended, President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Doktor Para Sa Bayan Act. This puts an official order to establish a Medical Scholarship and Return Service (MSRS) program, which will provide financial support for aspiring doctors, among other benefits. The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) is also working together with State Universities and Colleges (SUC), as well as private higher education institutions (PHEI), to carry out this order.

Moreover, in order to make sure each municipality in the country has at least one doctor, qualified applicants from municipalities without government physicians will be prioritized in the allocation of scholarship slots.

Benefits

The law states that the government will cover the following financial expenses for scholars under the program:

• Free tuition and other school fees
• Allowance for prescribed books, supplies, and equipment
• Clothing or uniform allowance
• Allowance for dormitory or boarding house accomodation
• Transportation allowance
• Internship fees, including financial assistance during the mandatory internship
• Medical board review fees
• Licensure fees
• Annual medical insurance
• and other education-related miscellaneous subsistence or living allowances

Conditions

The conditions placed for scholars under the “Return Service” clause requires them to undertake the mandatory internship in the hospitals of SUCs and PHEIs upon graduation from the 4-year program, or on the last year of the 5-year program. In case no more slots are available in the aforementioned base hospitals, the program will allow the mandatory internship program to be undertaken in DOH-accredited public health facilities or hospitals, or any approved and accredited government health facility or hospital.

Within a maximum period of one year after the internship program, scholars must also take on the board examination and render a return service in Philippine hospitals. Those who fail the board and licensure exams must then shoulder all the necessary expenses for the succeeding professional licensure examinations.

Qualifications

To find out if you’re qualified to apply for the program, here’s a list of things to check:

• The applicant must be a Filipino citizen residing in the Philippines
• Must be a graduating student or a graduate of an appropriate undergraduate program identified as a prerequisite for an MD degree, from any HEI duly recognized by the CHED, including a direct entrant to the Integrated Liberal Arts and Medicine (Intarmed).
• Must have passed the entrance examinations and complied with other related requirements for admission into an MD degree in the SUC or PHEI where the scholar intends to enroll, as well as the other requirements of the CHED and the DOH and obtained a National Medical Admission Test (NMAT) score mandated by CHED and required by the SUC or PHEI where the student intends to enroll.
• Deserving incoming second-year medical students and those in the higher year levels of the MD program will also be covered under the act, so long as they have complied with the academic requirements and retention policies of the school in the past terms preceding their scholarship application.

Here’s to all the Filipino students dreaming of being a doctor one day! Hopefully the Doktor Para Sa Bayan Act could serve as a massive stepping stone for the country’s health sector to finally receive the support it needs to be fully equipped for the next global pandemic—whenever that may be.

Read the full law here