The Commission on Higher Education, or CHEd, is eyeing to increase the number of medical scholars in the next academic year.

From 3,000 scholars currently taking up free medical education, the government will increase it to at least 4,000 by next school year, according to CHEd chairperson Prospero de Vera III.

"We have funds available to increase it to maybe 4,000 scholars" De Vera told the Daily Tribune in an interview over the weekend. "We will continue to produce world-class doctors who will serve in our country."

De Vera said the CHEd is providing almost P800 million in scholarship grants a year under the Doctor Para sa Bayan Law.

"We are subsidizing a maximum of P100,000 per semester," he said.

He also said that scholars will have a return of service of four years when they graduate, meaning they will serve either in the provincial hospitals, district hospitals or in the DoH-run hospitals.

De Vera, however, clarified that the "Doctor Para sa Bayan" scholarship is not limited anymore to public universities.

"In places that have no public universities, we entered into contracts with private schools wherein they can also offer scholarships to their students," he said.

He said the CHEd has signed an agreement with Saint Louis University in Baguio City, De La Salle University, Ateneo de Manila University and University of Santo Tomas.

De Vera also said that more state universities and colleges are now offering medical programs.

"When I became CHEd chairman, from 8 to 19 SUCs na may medical program. In 2024 there are between 4-5 applications that will be decided by the commission en banc so we can have as many as 24 this coming year," he said.

In Mindanao, aside from Mindanao State University in Marawi City, Western Mindanao State University in Zamboanga City, University of Southeastern Philippines in Davao City, University of Southern Mindanao in Kabacan, Cotabato, and University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines in Misamis Oriental are now offering medical programs.

In Visayas, Cebu Normal University in Cebu City, West Visayas State University in Iloilo City and Bohol Island State University in Tagbilaran City are also offering Doctor of Medicine.

In Luzon, Batangas State University, Cavite State University, Isabela State University also have medical programs.

"The Commission en banc will also approve four other schools by January. These are Mariano State University in La Union, Samar State University in Samar, Southern Luzon State University in Quezon, and Bulacan State University," De Vera said.

He said this is a major achievement of the Marcos administration because it's not easy to put up medical schools because the standards are very tight.

De Vera also said that the passing rate of public universities in medicine is higher than private universities.

"We want to make sure that if the government funds are spend, it will produce good doctors. We will not open any other schools if they are not compliant," he said.

De Vera said the Congress will be provide budget to public universities for the construction of medical building, while CHEd will provide them the medical equipment.

"So, we have given almost P1 billion or a little over P1 billion worth of state-of-the-art medical equipment for medical schools," he said.