Cataract is the clouding of the eyes’ lens. It usually afflicts old people. If the clouding worsens, the afflicted can become blind.
Correcting blurred vision due to cataract is done by removing the clouded lens and replacing it with an artificial one. The surgical procedure used to involved long incision in the cornea — around 12 millimeters (mm) long — which had to be stitched back. It takes about two months for the wound to heal.
Today’s modern cataract removal is non-invasive and quick, with the patient able to go home on the same day of the surgery. Called phacoemulsification system or phaco for short, the technology involves making a less than 3mm incision where the vibrator used to break up the cloudy lens material is inserted and the broken materials taken out. The incision is self-healing and does not require stitching.
Invented by an American, the use of phaco technique started in the 1960s. The technology was introduced in the Philippines in the 1990s by Dr. Antonio Say, the president of the Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation Philippines Inc., which runs the non-profit Tzu Chi Eye Center (TCEC), and chief medical officer of the Cardinal Santos Medical Center.
Say started using microscope in eye surgery in the 1980s before undergoing training in phaco in the United States as he had the resources to travel there, recalls TCEC medical director Dr. Bernardita Navarro, who trained in phaco under him.
Being the earliest phaco user, he is longest practicing phaco surgeon in the country, Navarro added.
Say also trained colleagues and students on phaco ever since, making the procedure widely used in the country today. Those he trained, like Navarro, are also training ophthalmology students today, sustaining the method.
On 17 January, the University of Santo Tomas Medical Alumni Association (USTMAA) presented the 2026 Thomasian Outstanding Medical Alumni Award for Medical Education to Say in recognition of his lifelong contribution to medical education in the field of ophthalmology. He has been teaching as a member of the UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery since 1984.
Say is also the executive director of the Chinese General Hospital Colleges since 2021, and chairman of Cardinal Santos Medical Center’s Department of Graduate Medical Education since 2023.
Other students of Say attest to his unselfishness.
“He does not withhold anything from his students. He is generous both in terms of giving knowledge and giving his resources,” Dr. Rollo Milante, one of his former students who now runs two eye centers in Legazpi City, said, according to USTMAA.
“He is not only an educator; he cares for us as a family,” another former student, Dr. Gladness Martinez, added.
“When I was a resident, we had medical missions with him left and right. I think by the end of our residency, we had probably over 50 medical missions,” recalled Dr. Roseny Singson. “He would support us financially, with the equipment, and with the skills that we needed to service the poor people.”
Say is a volunteer cataract surgeon at the TCEC, where there are six phaco machines acquired through the help of Tzu Chi foundation donors. By also involving his students in medical outreach, he was also able to make them learn to be compassionate and to serve the community, not for monetary gain but for the satisfaction of easing a patient's suffering.