House Minority Leader and 4Ps party-list Rep. Marcelino Libanan on Sunday asked Malacañang to certify as urgent a package of bills aimed at enabling the country to produce more doctors.
He appealed to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to certify at least nine House bills seeking to create additional schools of medicine in state universities and colleges (SUCs).
“We must democratize and widen student access to state-subsidized medical schooling so that the country can produce a greater number of Doctor of Medicine graduates in the years ahead,” Libanan said.
“Right now, we are not producing enough new doctors due to the prohibitive cost of medical schooling in private higher education institutions. This is why we need more colleges of medicine in our SUCs, especially in the provinces,” he added.
Libanan said doctors are badly needed to strengthen the public healthcare system.
“If we want to assure Filipinos access to quality healthcare, we need a constant supply of new doctors to replace those retiring or migrating overseas,” he stressed.
Under Libanan’s House Bill No. 9872, a new college of medicine would be created at the Eastern Samar State University in Borongan City.
He said there are eight other House bills that seek to establish new colleges of medicine, such as at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Quezon City.
The country’s doctor-to-population ratio is only around 3.6 doctors for every 10,000 people, Libanan said, citing data from the Department of Health.
The World Health Organization has pegged the ideal ratio at 10 doctors for every 10,000 people, or one doctor for every 1,000 people.