4 September 2022 – Senator Pia Cayetano represented the Philippines during the 6th Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum on Global Health, and the Executive Leadership Development Course on Social Health Insurance Service held in Conrad Seoul Hotel from 24-26 September 2022. Philippine Ambassador Theresa Dizon-De Vega joined the esteemed Senator during the meetings. The 6th APPFGH Forum was hosted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea and is supported by the World Health Organization (WHO).
As the Vice-Chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, Senator Cayetano shared during her intervention challenges of Philippine human health resources, and the importance of building a resilient national health system through the “Doktor Para sa Bayan” bill of the Philippines which incorporates futures thinking tools to not just provide for scholarships for doctors but to ensure that there is infrastructure, budget, and capacity building for all the state universities and colleges training future PH doctors. The Senator was likewise an engaged participant in sessions on health innovation and discussions on opportunities for Parliamentarians to support health system resilience, where WHO discussed legally binding agreements such as treaties that members of parliaments can use as tools to strengthen healthcare systems. Senator Cayetano also had the opportunity to see first-hand how the Republic of Korea uses virtual reality and technological advancements in teaching medicine and the related sciences, as well as utilizing government-collected data from health centers public health safety through a field visit to key centers of health innovation centers such as the Seoul National University and the Korea Social Security System.
Speakers of Parliament, ministers or parliamentarians from the following countries also participated in the Forum: Cambodia, Fiji, Japan, Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Mongolia, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Viet Nam.
After the 6th APPFGH, Senator Cayetano also attended the Executive Leadership Development Course on Social Health Insurance, a lecture that provided an overview of universal health care in Korea, and compared them with other countries. The esteemed Senator is a proponent of the Philippine Universal Health Care system and has made significant amendments to the bill to make better payment systems benefitting the public. END
