Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III (right) visits the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center today, April 7, with his grandson. | Delta Dyrecka Letigio
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Vice Presidential candidate, incumbent Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, said he would find ways to help the Cebu Normal University (CNU) and Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMCC) for the cost of rehabilitation post-Typhoon Odette.
Sotto was in Cebu to meet the CNU-VSMMC consortium to check with the implementation of the Doktor ng Bayan Act in Cebu, which he primarily authored in 2020.
He found out that CNU and VSMMC sustained damage after Supertyphoon Odette.
CNU sustained P49 million worth of damage while VSMMC sustained P10 million worth of damage.
To help the two publicly funded institution, he will look for a budget to be released as soon as possible for their rehabilitation.
“I visited the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center to look kasi may mga (because there were) upgrades, tapos may mga nasira (and there were those that were damaged). The Cebu Normal University umabot ng P49 million yung nasira na properties (the damage to properties reached P49 million). So I instructed my political officer to talk to the committee of finance in the Senate so we will be able to give them the necessary budget,” said Sotto.
During his visit, Sotto expressed satisfaction for the newly opened public medical school in Cebu through the Cebu Normal University-Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (CNU-VSMCC) consortium.
They are the first in the country to open a public medical school and is the benchmark for Sotto’s authored law, the Doktor sa Bayan Act.
Sotto said he wanted to see the first batch of medical students that the government was supporting.
CNU-VSMMC’s first batch has been named Primocordis, to signify their pioneering class.
“I wanted to make sure the implementation is going well because I am the principal author of the Doctor para sa Bayan. CNU-VSMMC they have been doing it (for) over a year now,” said Sotto.
He praised the consortium for making this “Filipino dream” into a reality to finally have future doctors that would secure the country’s healthcare.
One of Sotto’s concerns is that the state universities will be too strict in the admission or students.
He urged the state colleges not to discriminate and to give a chance to all students as much as they could.
He said anyway, the student’s success would be based on their perfomance in medical school.
Under the Doktor sa Bayan Act, students taking up medicine will have free tuition and other expenses, books, lodging, and even an allowance.
In exchange, when they graduate, they serve in the Department of Health (DOH) regional offices where they graduated equivalent to the number of years they were able to study for free.
A full scholar of five years will have to serve five years or else he or she will have to repay the government the amount invested in him or her.
Sotto said that at least P2.5 billion has been allotted in the country’s annual budget this year for the public medical schools.
CNU-VSMMC alone has a yearly budget of P98 million.
Sotto hopes to see the first batch of medical students graduate into doctors five years from now.
“I want more doctors for the country. I want more doctors than we have lawyers. Dapat kahit mahihirap pwede maging doktor (Eventhough we are poor, we should be able to become doctors),” he said.
Sotto is also with his presidential candidate, Senator Panfilo Lacson in Cebu to campaign for their tandem first in Argao and then in Bogo.
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