As a member of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) advising the Department of Health and the IATF-EID, I was intimately involved in the intense scientific discussions and policy formulation that occurred beyond the public eye among experts, bureaucrats, and policy makers. Many of these unsung heroes are women. Two of the three TAG members are women. Women outnumbered men among the experts in the Department of Health and in the many IATF task forces. These women were among the smartest and hardest working people in the last three years.

This is by no means an exhaustive list and the women on it are not listed in order of importance. To this list I would add my wife Dr. Angela Salvana,who, as a gastroenterologist at the Philippine General Hospital, did high risk endoscopies on hundreds of Covod-19 patients even before vaccines became widely available. Many women clinicians like her faced death on the frontline daily, and many, like my dear friend and mentor Dr. Salvacion “Sally” Gatchalian, paid the ultimate price.

Dr. Eva Maria Cutiongco-dela Paz

As the executive director of the University of the Philippines National Institutes of Health, Dr. Cutiongco-dela Paz is my direct boss. A pediatrician and geneticists by training, she was instrumental in transforming the UP-NIH into one of the earliest Covid-19 testing laboratories as well as bridging the gap between testing centers and sequencing facilities at PGC for genomic surveillance. UP-NIH readily lent its experts and facilities for use by the government, and UP-NIH scientists were involved at every level of the pandemic response.

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DOH OIC-Sec. Maria Rosario Singh-Vergeire

Everyone knows Usec. Rosette as the constant, unflappable DOH spokesperson in the most difficult days of the pandemic. She is a calming, stoic presence who delivered the day’s pandemic report with professional precision and answered questions with non-partisan objectivity. She also oversaw the DOH experts, including the TAG, and we got to know her very well as we attended more than 500 meetings together. She once half-joked to us that the TAG was now part of her family since we spent so much time online together that her entire household had gotten used to us. As the current OIC-DOH secretary in the new administration, she has ably led the health department in the transition to the new normal.

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Dr. Anna Ong-Lim

Dr. Ong-Lim is a pediatric infectious diseases specialist and vaccine expert, who is also the head of the pediatric infectious diseases section of the Philippine General Hospital and a member of the TAG. While I am the resident hothead of the TAG, she always speaks with a calm, measured voice and always considers all sides of an issue before deciding. Dr. Ong-Lim was the go-to expert in multiple IATF technical working groups when it came to polices regarding children. She was indispensable when ensuring the safe return to classes.

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Dr. Beverly Ho

A public health expert, Bev served as the director of the health promotion and communication service under Usec. Vergeire during the pandemic. She is currently an assistant secretary at the DOH and OIC-undersecretary for public health services. Bev was my student at the UP College of Medicine and even then she was already such a brilliant, promising young doctor.  During the pandemic, she managed the health communications office efficiently, combatting disinformation and promoting vaccination and other public health measures. She was a constant presence in the media along with USec. Rosette and was indispensable in communicating health policy with the public.

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Dr. Carmencita Padilla

Dr. Padilla is the chancellor of the University of the Philippines Manila. A pediatrician and geneticist, she was among the original researchers at the UP-NIH. She was responsible for the early successes of this unit. She led the push for universal newborn screening and set up the Philippine Genome Center as a core facility for sequencing in the country. Without her vision, we would not have had world-class sequencing facilities readily available for the pandemic. She is a member of the National Academy of Science and Technology in recognition of her contributions to research in the Philippines.

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DOH Usec. Myrna Cabotaje

Usec. Myrna was in charge of the unprecedented mass vaccination program against Covid-19, which she carried out equitably and efficiently. She was the person who was initially in charge of the TAG when it was formed, with then Asec. Rosette Vergeire as her deputy. As the pandemic progressed and Asec. Vergeire was promoted to undersecretary and DOH spokesperson, Ma’am Myrna or “Manang” as Usec. Vergeire and the DOH people call her, threw herself selflessly into the vaccination program despite already having reached retirement age. Her organizational and interpersonal skills ensured a robust uptake at the barangay level, testament to her many years of experience at the community level.

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Dr. Marissa Alejandria

Dr. Alejandria is an infectious diseases doctor and clinical epidemiologist and a member of the TAG. She wore many more hats during the pandemic. She was the principal investigator of the Philippine WHO SOLIDARITY clinical trials, the incumbent president of the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, and the director of the UP-NIH Institute for Clinical Epidemiology, which did rapid review of evidence for the Philippine Living Clinical Practice Guidelines for Covid-19. She was also my professor in medical school and I continued to learn many things from her when we worked closely together on the TAG.

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Prof. Cynthia Saloma

Prof. Cynthia Saloma is the executive director of the Philippine Genome Center. A molecular biologist by training, Cynthia transformed the PGC into the national Covid-19 biosurveillance unit, which is responsible for keeping track of the SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs). Her team of researchers and bioinformatic specialists produced genomic data during the pandemic at par with the world’s best sequencing laboratories and ensured that the entry and spread of VOCs was closely watched.

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Prof. Elvira De-Lara Tuprio

One of the most underappreciated of the essential workers during the pandemic, Prof. Tuprio and her team at FASSSTER developed intricate mathematical models that enabled the government to decide policy based on her team’s forecasts. One of the hardest mathematical tasks is to model scenarios based on proposed responses, and Prof. Tuprio and her team produced these in a miraculously short amount of time to guide some of the most important decisions of the IATF-EID. All the IATF-EID’s decisions were anchored on Prof. Tuprio’s models, which have since been published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals and have won acclaim from the academic community who understands how difficult this task can be.

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Dr. Alethea de Guzman

Dr. Thea as the media have come to know her is the director of the epidemiology bureau. She is responsible for collating and disseminating the latest information on Covid-19 cases and deaths as well as the hospital capacity utilization rate. Dr. Thea is a clinical epidemiologist par excellence. She continuously improved the databases that were set up piecemeal during the pandemic into a workable, timely system that kept the government and the public well-supplied with up-to-date statistics on the pandemic.

There are many more women who were essential to the pandemic response that I cannot mention in this limited space, and their contributions have been no less essential than these 10. I only hope that we continue to give credit where credit is due and this is my small contribution to helping shine the light on these deserving Filipina patriots.