February 27, 2023 — The University of the Philippines Manila College of Public Health (CPH) conducted an Operational Planning Workshop on November 21-22 2022 to review the proposed plan for the establishment of the Dr. Stephen Zuellig Program for Health Leadership and Governance (DSZPHLG) and the Program for Health Equity (PHE).

The establishment of the two programs is part of the generous donation of the Zuellig Family to the CPH.

The workshop’s objectives were: (1) to explore how the two programs can contribute to the attainment of the CPH vision and mission as an institution of higher learning and as the SEAMEO TROPMED Regional Center for Public Health, Hospital Administration, Environmental, and Occupation Health; (2) to harmonize the activities of the two programs in order to support the achievement of each program’s objectives; (3) to explore strategies on how to institutionalize the two programs in the university (e.g., as part of academic offering; scaling up the programs into centers; and (4) to identify potential facilitators and barriers in the implementation of the operational plan.

The Operational Planning Workshop was designed as a two-day event consisting of group workshop activities and presentations. The highlights included revisiting the UPM-CPH vision and mission, exploring and understanding DSZPHLG and PHE and group activities that focused on identifying benefits, capacity building activities, policy directions, sustainability, possible risks, barriers, and action plans in the implementation of the two programs in the next three years.

The workshop was attended by various health leaders and key personalities from the Department of Health, Zuellig Family Foundation, Universal Health Care Study Group, and CPH. Dean Fernando B. Garcia, Jr. who led the CPH administrators and faculty members and staff, read the welcome remarks of UPM Chancellor Carmencita D. Padilla.

Dr. Ernesto O. Domingo, national scientist, university professor emeritus, and co-convenor of the UPM UHC Study Group, and Prof. Ernesto D. Garilao, former secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform and president of Zuellig Family Foundation, gave messages.

Dr. Ernesto R. Gregorio, Jr. Dr. TJ Robinson T. Moncatar & Dean Fernando B. Garcia, Jr.
Published in UP Manila Healthscape No. 48 (February 2023)