Our Milestones

This picture is a symbol. Unfortunately, a very real one. A symbol of many poor patients in the rural areas of the Philippines.

Medical Missions Inc., a charitable association sponsored by the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Santo Tomas and by the University of Santo Tomas Medical Association, has heard the call of Christian Charity and come to their assistance. For over 60 years, the Medical Missionaries have travelled all over the islands in an earnest and unselfish effort to alleviate the sufferings of their less fortunate brethren.

You too can be a Medical Missionary. With your prayers and work, you can contribute to the attainment of the objectives of the Medical Missions. The indigents need you. They are waiting for you to extend a helping hand to them.

In the Service of the Poor
— Guillermo H. Tejon, O.P. (1963)

There are throughout the Philippines many indigent Filipinos who cannot provide themselves with adequate medical care and who often are also in need of other kinds of assistance. Their unfortunate plight should be the concern of all those who are in a position to help them. Indeed, it is the primary concern of the government; and in this respect of the government, through the Department of Health, the Social Welfare Administration, and other agencies, is doing a magnificent job. However, in spite of it good will and earnest efforts, the government cannot do everything. Private individuals and organizations are called upon to help in this tremendous task. A great amount of good citizens who, moved by a spirit of charity, unite their efforts to alleviate the sufferings and ameliorate the living conditions of the Indigent.

This is the reason for the existence of Medical Missions, Incorporated of the University of Santo Tomas, the purpose of which is to extend all possible free assistance, especially medical, to the Indigent of the Philippines, more particularly to those living in the rural areas. It is only the Indigent that the Missions serve; not other patients who can afford a private medical service.

Early Years of the Organization (1961)

On the last days of April, a third-year medical student of the University of Santo Tomas, attracted by the famous Banaue Rice Terraces, made a trip to the Mountain Province. While in Ifugao, he visited Kiangan. One of the things that called his attention in Kiangan was the St. Joseph's Infirmary and Rest House, a charity clinic supported by the local Catholic Mission and ably conducted by a Sister-Nurse Belgian Missionary.

As a medical student, he immediately became interested in it. His offer to help having been graciously accepted, he worked in the dent, he immediately became interested himself alone and without any medical instruments, he decided to return to Manila in order to recruit more volunteers and procure the things he needed to continue his work. Of special interest to him was laboratory equipment to examine the many cases of parasitism which he noticed there existed in Kiangan.

In the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Santo Tomas, he found some faculty members ready to help him acquire the necessary equipment and medicines. Accompanied by another volunteer medical student, he was back in Kiangan in the middle of May. The two students set up a laboratory in the clinic, where in three days they did seventy five examinations for parasites. At the same time they helped the sisters in the treatment of the many patients that came daily to the clinic.

While the second student had to go back to Manila, the first one stayed in Kiangan for four more days. During that time, an opportunity was offered to him to visit some of the barrios of the municipality and to obtain first-hand information on the health and social conditions of the people living in the area. When by the end of the month, he returned to the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery to enroll for the next school year, a conviction had taken root and an idea had been born in his mind.

The conviction was that those mountain people needed help, and the idea was to send a medical team to Kiangan during the next semestral vacation. In the University he enlisted the enthusiasm of some more medical students. His plan was officially adopted by the University of Santo Tomas Medical Association and by the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, which thus became the sponsors of the new project. This gave origin to the U.S.T. Medical Missions, organized during the first semester of the 1961-1962 school year.

It has to be a happy spirit of charity and sacrifice that does not get discouraged by the difficulties and hardships that usually accompany Missions: long hours and sometimes days of travelling along narrow and dusty roads or in crowded ships, unavoidable delays, inclement weather, walking over stiff mountain trails, etc. Because of the spirit of charity and sacrifice need in the Missions, the Medical Missionaries have selected as their Patron and Model Saint Martin de Porres, a Dominican laybrother who dedicated his life to the service of the Poor and the Sick.

The following summary gives an idea of the accomplishments of the two hundred and fifty two Medical Missionaries who, divided in thirty two mission teams, have dedicated one hundred and seventy days of work to the service of the poor.

The First Mission Report
The first organized mission team of the UST Medical Mission was sent October 1961 to the towns and barrios of Kiangan. The team was composed of a physician-surgeon and ten (10) medical students. From this singe act of charity, the medical missions developed into an incorporated association.

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION (SEC) ACCREDITATION
November 7, 1962, the UST Medical Missions was formally Incorporated under the laws of the Securities and Exchange Commision of the Philippines as the Medical Missions, Incorporated. It is a non-stock, non-political, non-sectarian, charitable association with the following purposes:

To provide indigents throughout the Philippines, more particularly in the rural areas, with free medical and surgical services, drugs, and such other things and facilities needed for their medical welfare and to extend to the said indigents such help that they may need other than medical and surgical, in any possible way.

To familiarize the medical students of the University of Santo Tomas with the health problems of indigents in the Philippines and to prepare them for the rendition of adequate services to said indigents now, as students of medicine and later as physicians

To contribute to further medical and surgical training of physicians and surgeons working in government and private hospitals and clinics in order to enable them to be of service.

To acquaint as many people as possible, specially the members of the medical profession, with the health problems of the indigents in the Philippines and to offer practical solutions to these problems.

Year 1961-1963
Since October 1961, when the first Mission Team was sent out, thirty two missions have been held. A total of two hundred and fifty two (252) volunteers have worked in them. Over one hundred towns and barrios have been served in the sub-provinces of Benguet, Ifugao, Bontoc, and Kalinga (Mountain Province) and in the provinces of Batanges, Nueva Vizcaya, La Union, Sorsogon, Catanduanes, Oriental Mindoro, Samar, Southern Leyte, Iloilo, Antique, Agusan and Cotabato.

In Manila, the district of Tondo has been visited twice by the missions; the first time, to aid the fire victims, and the second, to vaccinate the residents against diphtheria and smallpox.

Medical Missions in Martial Rule
Come Martial Rule, the year was 1972 when then President Marcos decreed (Presidential Decree No. 6-A) Institutions of Learning to be actively involved in building the nation. The University of Santo Tomas promptly responded through its Faculty of Medicine and Surgery by creating community building programs by adopting a certain economically depressed community: This was very timely for the Government, in its move to eradicate squatters in the Manila area, relocated them all in a newly created community at Sapang Palay, San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan. The National Housing Authority, for its part and in support to the President's vision, donated, by a formal Deed of Donation, to the Medical Missions, Incorporated, a sizeable area amidst the relocation community in Sapang Palay. Why did a Government Agency such as the NHA donate a public property to a private entity? At that time MMI was the only recognized Corporation with the said charitable purpose that can fit the need of the relocated community in Bulacan (confer document of NHA stating purpose of donation). In fact, the Presidential Decree included a privilege granted specially to MMI and all her donors and sponsors to enjoy tax exemptions (confer DSWD accreditation document).

The tradition has been delicately preserved by its Board of directors through four decades of service and through various internal and external climates. It has carried on without reservations and with impunity the tasks that it has sworn to fulfill. The never dying call of all its members is "let's continue the mission"

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