The Davao Medical School Foundation, Inc. (DMSFI), the first medical school in Davao and Mindanao, is celebrating its golden anniversary this year and it launched its year-long celebration last January 8, 2026.
Founded in 1976, it is a consortium of Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU), San Pedro College (SPC), Brokenshire Hospital, and the Development of People’s Foundation (DPF).
The founders were all community leaders and active in the civil society movement that resisted the violence and darkness brought by martial law in the Philippines. They were ADDU President, Fr. Emeterio Barcelon, SJ; Dr. Patrocinio Hernandez; Dr. Jesus Dela Paz; Dr. Trinidad Conchu-Dela Paz; Sr. Bonifacio Tecson, OP; Sr. Florida Manzano OP; Dr. Alex Panuncialman; Dr. Eliezer Mapanao; Atty. Juan V. Faune; Msgr. Fernando Capalla, DD; Dr. Pelagio Sonny Iriarte; Engr. Alfonso Ybañez; Dr. Manalo Ongchangco; Dr. Remedios Ongchangco; Dr. Virgilio Durban; Sr. Cecilia Wood; Fr. Anselmo Bustos; and the Aboitiz family of Davao.
One of its founders, Dr. Jess Dela Paz, who served as DPF President, noted in 1975 that there were only 61 rural health physicians in the region, giving a ratio of one doctor to every 5,194 persons. The ideal ratio recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) is one doctor per 1,000 people.
Dr. Dela Paz cited the following reasons why there was a dearth of physicians in the rural areas: (1) There were not enough doctors even in the urban centers; (2) The rural economy could not support the medical practitioners; and (3) The deteriorating peace and order discouraged even the doctors who were willing to serve.
To solve the health care problem faced by Davao and Mindanao in the 1970s, the DMSFI founders came together “to provide adequate health care for everyone, especially for the poor in the urban slums and in the rural hinterlands.”
To achieve that goal, they intend to first, help produce “a new person in Medicine, who is a family- and community-oriented medical doctor;” and second, train primary health care workers, who will serve as the doctors’ “community helpers who have the competence and heart to deliver quality care, especially to those who need it most.”
That was the vision and mission for the Davao Medical School. It was not just to make medical education more accessible to Davaoeños and Mindanawons, it was transforming the way medicine is taught and practiced that is more responsive to the needs and context of the people living here.
DMSFI Chair of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Lourdesita Sobrevega Chan, eloquently described the school’s DNA when she said that It is a medical education that is “founded in social justice, thereby sensitive to the vulnerabilities in terms of access to and control of resources accrued from the intersectionality of identities.” It seeks to provide “appropriate intervention to redress disparities in health outcomes” and “recognizes that health is a human right to which the state is the duty bearer, yet requires the need for empowered people to participate in its realization.”
And this principle of active participation of empowered people is the spirit behind the establishment of our city’s first medical school.
Another founder, Sr. Manzano, who was a pioneering trustee and administrator of San Pedro Hospital, declared then: “We have no money, only Faith.”
They opened the school on June 1, 1977 with 65 enrollees and held their first classes at the old building of the San Pedro Hospital. The pioneering faculty, mostly prominent doctors in the city, volunteered to teach without any salary for the first five years. Its first batch of 39 graduates completed by April 21, 1981 and the College of Medicine held its first graduation ceremony at the San Pedro College auditorium.
That faith sustained 50 years of operation. DMSFI has produced a total of 15,366 health professionals from the first graduation up to the most recent one. More than half of these graduates (55 percent) are female. An overwhelming majority (at least 70 percent) are graduates of Medicine and more than half of these doctors (52 percent) are female.
Dr. Chan emphasized the unique methodology of instruction that sets DMSFI apart from other medical schools: “The way we teach medicine here intentionally creates a sense of affinity and concern for the community.”
According to the school’s record tracking, at least 70 percent of the doctors it has produced stayed to serve and practice medicine in Davao and Mindanao, proof that the school has indeed shaped thousands of medical doctors who are community-oriented as what the founders intended.
DMSFI ranks 9th among the top-performing medical schools nationwide. Its College of Nursing and College of Dentistry both achieved 100 percent passing rate in 2025.
For DMSFI President, Atty. Alberto Rafael Aportadera, quality medical education has three pillars: (1) academic instruction; (2) research and development; and (3) community engagement through its Institute of Primary Health Care (IPHC).
For the entire 2026, DMSFI will meaningfully celebrate its 50th year with monthly thematic events and projects. The highlight of its anniversary celebration is on August 15th, the Feast of the Assumption, but the celebration continues until December.
DMSFI has redefined quality and excellence in a more meaningful way. It is committed to produce a different kind of physician, nurse, dentist, midwife, health worker— one who is not only clinically excellent but also a community-conscious practitioner, an advocate, and a partner in health.
Its success is measured not just by passing rates and board scores but by health outcomes of the population it serves and the proportion of its graduates who choose primary care, work in underserved areas, and address health inequities.
For our pioneer in medical education in Davao and Mindanao, the community is the curriculum, the partner, and the ultimate beneficiary of the medical school’s work. It is a commitment to healing beyond the bedside. And that makes us all Davaoeños proud of our first medical school as we look forward to its next 50 years.
