Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva on Sunday, September 24 said the passage of the bills creating five additional medical schools will help the country mitigate the shortage of doctors and address future health needs of Filipinos especially in the regions.

Villanueva, principal sponsor and author of the “Doktor para sa Bayan” Act, Republic Act No. 11509, said passage of these measures the Philippines would be closer to achieving the ideal ratio set forth by the World Health Organization (WHO) of having 10 doctors per 10,000 population.

Students can also now have access to quality and affordable medicine courses with the passage of the measures.

"Marami pong nangangarap maging doktor pero walang pampaaral. Kailangang bigyan daan po ng gobyerno na maabot ang pangarap ng ating mga kabataang kapos ngunit may kakayahan (There are so many students wanting to be a doctor but cannot afford it. The government should intervene and help these poor students achieve their goals)," Villanueva said.

Presently, 17 State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) in 13 regions are now offering courses under their College of Medicine, from eight (8) SUCs in seven (7) regions prior to the passage of the law, according to the senator.

"When we passed the Doktor Para Sa Bayan Law, we did not aim only to have more scholars, but also to increase the number of SUCs that will offer medical courses, and this is what we are pursuing now," the senator said.

The bills, which are up for third and final reading on Monday, seeks to establish a College of Medicine in the campuses of Benguet State University, Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University-South La Union Campus, Southern Luzon State University, Visayas State University, and University of Eastern Philippines.

The Department of Health (DOH) earlier said the country needs at least 114,000 more physicians and 127,000 nurses to be able to provide ideal healthcare to Filipinos.