House bill providing medical scholarship expected to pass 3rd reading Monday —Rodriguez

The House of Representatives is expected to approve on third and final reading on Monday the measure granting scholarships to college students who intend to pursue a degree in medicine, said Cagayan De Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez.

Rodriguez is one of the primary authors of House Bill 6756, or "An Act establishing a medical scholarship and return program for deserving students and appropriating funds therefor,” which hurdled the second reading last week.

According to the lawmaker, the proposed law is "the answer to the lack of doctors in rural areas."

“It will open the opportunity for poor but deserving students to pursue a degree in medicine and serve their communities in the countryside,” he said.

Rodriguez also believes that the measure would also address the lack of physicians in areas hit by health outbreaks like COVID-19, as scholars could be asked to serve in hotspots.

Under the measure, an applicant for the medical scholarship and return service program should be a Filipino citizen, a graduate or graduating student of a prerequisite course of a degree of doctor of medicine, and must have passed the entrance examination and complied with other requirements for admission of the state or private college or university he or she intends to enroll in.

The applicants must also have obtained a National Medical Admission Test score mandated by the Commission on Higher Education and the cut-off required by the school he or she plans to go to.

The measure also mandates that at least one scholar must come from each town in the country. If no one qualifies from the town, another scholar may be selected from the neighboring municipality.

Scholars would be given financial assistance covering tuition and other school fees, allowance for books, equipment, supplies, dormitory, clothing, and transportation, fees for internship and medical board review, and other related miscellaneous and living expenses.

They are then obliged to serve their town for at least four years. Refusal to do so would require them to return twice the amount of what the government spent for their medicine degree. —KG, GMA News