DOH mourns death of former secretary Romualdez

The Department of Health on Saturday mourned the death of its former secretary Alberto Romualdez Jr., and expressed its deepest sympathies to Romualdez's family.

Romualdez, who served as DOH secretary under the Estrada administration from September 1998 until 2001, passed away Friday noon at age 73.

“He will be sorely missed as our ally in championing for health reforms in our health system, especially in health issues such as reproductive health, cheaper medicines, tobacco control, and other health equality and equity issues,” DOH Secretary Enrique Ona said.

The DOH said Romualdez was a graduate of Doctor of Medicine from the University of the Philippines and Bachelor of Arts in Biological Sciences from the Ateneo de Manila University.

He was a fellow on Tumor Immunology at the University of Connecticut and Membrane Biophysics at the Harvard Medical School.

"Unlike his predecessors, Sec. Romualdez was not new in the DOH. He started as a Medical Adviser to the then Minister of Health from 1979-1982. He then became the director of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine from 1981-1984," the DOH said.

It said Romualdez was then appointed Assistant Secretary in 1988, but went to work for the World Health Organization's (WHO) Western Pacific Region.

From June 1996 until his appointment as Health Secretary in 1998, he was Medical Director of the HCA Philippines Inc. and consultant of the WHO and the DOH.

The DOH recalled Romualdez's priority concerns in his first few weeks as DOH secretary included:


"When he appointed me, President Estrada's instruction was simple: make sure that the DOH serves the people, especially the poor... I know that all of you understand this to be the Department's true mission in the first place. I am therefore sure of your cooperation in accomplishing the President's instruction. In other words, if you just do your jobs, the rest will follow,” the DOH recalled Romualdez as saying. — LBG, GMA News