Raising concerns about the lack of doctors in the Philippines — with more than half of all deaths in 2022 happening without a physician’s intervention — Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan appealed to newly minted doctors to serve the country.

In his speech for the 14th Commencement Exercises of the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health on Saturday, Pangilinan called on new doctors to “do good” and “do great” — an update to their Hippocratic oath order to “do no harm.”

“So, let me make this personal appeal: Dear graduates, our country needs you. The Philippines has about one doctor for every 1,250 Filipinos. In rural areas, one doctor may cover entire towns, delivering babies at dawn, treating hypertension at noon, and signing burial certificates by night,” Pangilinan said.

“The Philippines has a deficit of at least 190,000 physicians, nurses, midwives, and other healthcare workers nationwide, especially in public facilities,” he added.

This number is far below the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of 10 doctors for every 10,000 people. Research conducted by the IBON Foundation showed that only two of the country’s 17 regions meet this ratio.

Only the Cordillera Administrative Region and the National Capital Region met the WHO recommendation, while the nationwide average is just five doctors per 10,000 people.

Pangilinan asked new doctors to volunteer part-time in public clinics, spend a season in the barrios, and help those living in far-flung areas, and if possible, work full-time in government while helping dismantle the corruption that seeps into every fiber of the country’s public health system.

After all, the senator said that “corruption is not a victimless crime [because] corruption in health care steals from the sick.”

He lamented the zero budget for PhilHealth in 2025, the “unconstitutional transfer” of PhilHealth funds back to the nation’s coffers, and the P11-billion Pharmally scam for billions worth of anomalous Covid-19 procurements.

“The life of another rests in your hands. Every patient who enters your care looks to you not only for treatment, but for hope — hope to recover, hope for more time with their loved ones, hope for a chance to live fully once again,” he said.

“You will be their lifeline. Beyond the practice of healing lies the sacred duty to preserve human dignity and life itself,” Pangilinan added.

He challenged the new doctors to take their education and their diploma and “bring them where they matter most — in the service of our people, in the service of the least, the lost, and the last.”