EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE 
) 
REPUBLIC OF THE PHHLIPPINES 
)
First Regular Session 
)
SENATE
S. No. 
41
INDEX
Introduced by Senator Ralph G. Recto
AN ACT
PROVIDING MEDICAL SCHOLARSHIP TO QUALIFIED STUDENTS IN ALL 
MUNICIPALITIES ESTABLISHING FOR THIS PURPOSE THE ONE TOWN: ONE 
DOCTOR SCHOLARSHIP PROGICVM, APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR AND 
FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Explanatory Note
The Philippine Medieal Association data show that tliere are about 130,000 licensed doctors 
in the country but only about 70,000 of them are actively practicing the profession catering to the 
health care needs of nearly 109 million Filipinos.1 2 It is even worst in naral areas where there are only 
about 3 public doctors for every 100,000 population. For instance, in the third class municipality of 
Busuanga, Palawan, there is only one doctor to provide healthcare for its 20,000 population. Global 
standards recommend a 1:1,000 doctor-to-population ratio."
Various reasons have been cited as contributory to the perennial shortage of doctors serving 
the country. The prohibitive cost of becoming a doctor serves as the biggest challenge. There are 
only thirty medical schools in the country, of which, only five are public and government-funded. 
Doing a quick math would show that if a Filipino aspires to be a doctor, the costs to be shouldered by 
the student’s family will range from five hundred thousand (P500,000.00) to two million pesos 
(P2,000,000.00), net of incidentals, laboratoiy fees, miscellaneous and other related costs, depending 
on whether it will be in a public or private medical school.3 The amount is difilcult to raise especially 
for a typical middle-class Filipino family.
The maldistribution of medical doctors and other allied-medical professionals also 
contributes to the shortage. 
Many doctors are more enticed to practice in cities than in rural 
communities because it is easier to recover their investments in their study and training while 
working in urban areas where more and bigger health facilities are available and providing belter 
compensation. Because of this reality, hospitals in rural areas, especially in Visayas and Mindanao 
face crisis and even imminent closure because of lack of medical doctors.
Other factors aggravating the shortage of doctors include the relatively lower salary in public 
health facilities vis-a-vis the workload and the limitation for the doctors to practice outside their 
government sei"vice.
The Universal Health Care (UHC) Act which is considered as a landmark legislation on 
health care refonns during the 17lh Congress aims to address the aforesaid shortage of medical 
doctors in the 00011117. It provides the guiding framework for the massive recruitment of doctors and 
other allied-medical professionals to fill the gaps in the current public health system and eventually 
the additional demand in line with the full implementation of the UHC law. The Department of
1 Philippine Medical Association, 2016, hUns://todav.iiiiiiis.coin/docioi-sliortagc-in-tlic-DliilinDitics-aii-analvsis.
2 Where arc the licalth workers? hltn://www.raDnler.eom/nation/50267-hcalth-workforcc-crisis
3 Cost approximation based on Tulion Fees of University of Santo Tomas (SY 2018-2019), UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery and University 
of the Philippines Manila College of Medicine admission brochure.


Health (DOH) has already announced its plan to recmit thousands of medical professionals that will 
deliver the health care services envisioned under the UHC law.
It is therefore imperative to ensure that there will be a steady and sustainable supply of 
medical doctors to fill in the present gaps as well as address the anticipated increased demand in the 
years to come.
This bill then provides the necessaiy intervention through a state-sponsored scholarship 
program for those qualified students to become doctors. This bill also seeks to address the 
maldistribution by envisioning the presence of at least one (1) doctor per town to be able to provide 
dependable healthcare services to all Filipinos especially those living in rural areas.
The DOH shall be mandated to initiate and implement this program which shall be open to all 
qualified Filipino citizens who are not more than 25 years of age and belonging to the top 30% of 
their graduating class but financially incapable to pursue medical studies.
Students who are qualified under this program must strictly fulfill the conditions provided 
under this bill with respect to passing the admission examination of the medical school they choose 
and finish the course within the prescribed period.
The passage of this bill will provide an institutional mechanism for the envisioned sustained 
human resource development for the public health care system. Providing a scholarship program for 
medical students is an opportunity for them to achieve their dream to become a doctor and serve the 
community. Upon passing the medical board examination, the medical scholar will be required to 
serve for at least four (4) years in public hospitals or mral health units and shall accordingly be given 
the appropriate rank and salary. They shall also be deployed in their respective hometowns to achieve 
the objective of this bill.
The DOH shall ensure that each municipality in the country shall have one medical scholar 
for every cycle of the program to provide a continuous deployment of one doctor in every town. The 
idea behind this measure is for every municipality to supply one scholar who shall be supported by 
the state to become a doctor in exchange for serving in one's hometown for a limited period. This is a 
program that aims to tap and nurture homegrown talents in serving the health needs of a community. 
The town doctor will come from the community, and tuition repayment will be in the fonn of return 
sei'vice to the community.
In its basic sense, the One Town; One Doctor is a program that harnesses a town's pool of 
talents by training them to becoming health professionals who shall attend to the health needs of the 
community. In the long mn, this program is deemed to yield higher returns for the government as 
this will benefit more Filipinos through the medical seiwices that the scholar-doctors will provide 
after they graduate.
In previous years, government health spending could hardly make any impact to improve the 
quality of public health services in the rural areas. Instead of spending to produce or hire more 
doctors, the DOH invested in medical supplies and equipment which become useless for lack of 
doctors to dispense them.
In 2018, we collected about P200 Billion in sin taxes, which should have been devoted to 
mitigate the social and economic inequalities between the rich and the poor insofar as healthcare is 
concerned. But according to reports, 6 out of 10 Filipinos still die without seeing a doctor.
It is in this regard, that the immediate passage of this bill is earnestly sought.
//mksbc


EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE 
) 
REPUBLIC OF THE PHHLIPPINES )
First Regular Session 
)
SENATE
S. No. 
41
of ti)c a>rrrc!nij>
•19 JUL -1 All :32
Introduced by Senator Ralph G. Recto
AN ACT
PROVIDING MEDICAL SCHOLARSHIP TO QUALIFIED STUDENTS IN ALL 
MUNICIPALITIES ESTABLISHING FOR THIS PURPOSE THE ONE TOWN: ONE 
DOCTOR SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM, APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR AND 
FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress 
assembled:
1 
SECTION 1. Short Title. - This Act shall be known as the “One Town: One Doctor
2 
Act
3 
SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. -  It is hereby declared as the policy of the State to provide
4 
priority measures that can help reduce social and economic inequalities. It is also tlie policy of the
5 
State to undertake health manpower development responsive to the country’s health serviee needs.
6 
For this purpose, the government shall institutionalize scholarship programs for
7 
deserving and qualified individuals that will establish access for them to pursue education and
8 
train in the field of medicine, and shall fonnulate and implement such policies and programs to
9 
systematieally integrate these individuals, upon qualifying as doctors of medicine, into the public
10 
health care system.
11 
SEC. 3. One Town: One Doctor Scholarship Program. - The Department of Health
12 
(DOH) shall establish a One Town: One Doctor Scholarship Program that will grant scholarship
13 
and financial assistance to qualified Filipinos who want to pursue a degree in Doctor of
14 
Medicine. The scholarship shall cover expenses for, among others, tuition, laboratory and
15 
miscellaneous fees, and other related school fees; required textbooks, supplies and equipment;
16 
clothing and unifonn allowances; traveling expenses and subsistence and living allowances:
17 
Provided. That the program shall endeavor to provide a medical scholarship to an interested and
18 
deserving student from each of the municipalities of the country in order to achieve the goal of
19 
One Town: One Doctor as provided in Sec. 6 hereof: Provided, further. That should there be no
20 
resident from a given municipality who shall qualify for the program, the allotted slot may be
21 
assumed by a scholar coming from another town in the same province: Provided, finally. That
22 
the scholar who assumed the slot of another municipality shall render service in the municipality
23 
where the slot was originally intended.
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1 
SEC. 4. Qualifications of Candidates. -  All qualified scholars shall possess the following
2 
qualifications:
3 
a. Must be a bonafide resident of the municipality where the scholar intends to serve
4 
after the scholarship program; with exception to those who shall assume the slots of
5 
municipalities where no resident qualified for the program;
6 
b. Must belong to the top thirty per centum (30%) of their respective graduating class and
7 
must be completing or already completed any of the undergraduate prerequisite courses for a
8 
doctoral degree in medicine;
9 
c. Family and or personal incomes arc not sufficient to finance their education in the field
10 
of medicine; and
11 
d. The University concerned may determine such other qualifications as it deems
12 
necessary for the admission of the students.
13 
SEC. 5. Conditions of the Scholarship Grant. -  The One Town: One Doctor Scholarship
14 
Program shall have the following conditionalities:
15 
a. The scholar shall pass the admission examinations and related requirements of the
16 
medical school that the scholar plans to enroll in;
17 
b. The scholar shall carry the full load of subjects prescribed per semester by the medical
18 
school, and shall, under no circumstance, drop a course which will result in under-loading;
19 
c. The scholar may be allowed, for valid reasons preventing his enrolment, to defer
20 
availment of the scholarship and file a leave of absence for a period not exceeding one (1) school
21 
year; and
22 
d. The scholar shall receive and continue to enjoy the benefits of the scholarship until the
23 
completion of the course.
24 
SEC. 6. Public Health Service System. -  The scholar shall be integrated into the public
25 
health and medical service system as a medical doctor, with the appropriate rank and salary upon
26 
passing the medical board examination. The service and integration to the public service will be
27 
for a period of at least four (4) years upon graduation: Provided. That the scholar shall undertake
28 
post graduate internship in a public health or medical institution and such internship with
29 
allowances shall be part of the mandatory service and integration into the public health and
30 
medical service system: Provided, further. That upon passing the medical board examination, the
31 
scholar shall be deployed in the scholar’s hometown to achieve the program’s goal of having at
32 
least one doctor per municipality: Provided, finally. That the scholar who assumed the slot of
33 
another municipality where no resident qualified shall be deployed to the same municipality
34 
where the slot was originally intended.
35 
SEC. 7. Information Dissemination. -  The DOH shall conduct regular information
36 
dissemination and recruitment with regard to the One Town: One Doctor Scholarship Program to
37 
ensure the continuous supply of medical scholars to all municipalities in the country.
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w
1 
SEC. 8. Appropriations. - The amount necessary for the effective implementation of this
2 
Act shall be included in the succeeding General Appropriations Act.
3 
SEC. 9. 
Implementing Rules and Regulations. - Within ninety days (90) after the
4 
effectivity of this Act, the Commission on Higher Education, the DOH and the Department of
5 
Budget and Management shall promulgate the necessary rules and regulations for the proper
6 
implementation of this Act.
7 
SEC. 10. Separability Clause. - If, for any reason, any provision of this Act or any part
8 
thereof shall be held unconstitutional and invalid, the other parts or provisions of this Act, which
9 
are not affected thereby, shall remain in full force and effect.
10 
SEC. 11. Repealing Clause. -  All laws, decrees, resolutions, orders or ordinances or parts
11 
thereof inconsistent with this Act, are hereby repealed, amended or modified accordingly.
12 
SEC. 12. Effectivity. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in
13 
at least two (2) newspapers of general circulation or in the Official Gazette.
Approved,
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