1. In the late 70’s AMA and its agencies have practiced limiting foreign graduates in the US. Our organization, PMASC together with the Association of Philippine Physicians in America and the International Medical Council have formed lobbying groups including hiring a former senator to be the spokesperson. Luckily, the president of AMA, Dr. Scott Hotckess was an associate of the APPA President Dr. Juan Montero, Jr. Since then they have liberalized some of the AMA policies.

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2. In the mid 80’s Senator Dianne Watson who was then the Chairwoman of the Senate Health Assembly introduced a bill curtailing foreign graduates. One of the consequences was for the Medical Board of California to visit various medical schools outside of the United States. The medical schools in the Philippines were inspected and we failed. As a result, Assembly Bill 1859 mandated an inspection of various medical schools in the Philippines. Their findings in the site visits revealed serious quality problems on all medical schools and therefore the Philippines cannot be considered equivalent to that obtained in any approved schools in the US. They further concluded that clinical experience to such a degree cannot be accepted at face value. The PMASC requested that the site group inspection be considered. They went back in 1999 for another site visit and they found the governing bodies of various medical schools in the Philippines were keenly interested in upgrading the curriculum. They concluded that medical school graduates in the Philippines are comparable to United States and Canada. These findings were conveyed to the Federation of Medical Board of United States.

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3. In 2007 the ABC TV under Walt Disney Productions released a television program denigrating the Filipino Medical graduates questioning their diplomas. The PMASC formed a group called PMADD (Philippine Medical Association Defamation Defense). They hired Atty. Gloria Allred to secure legal help and obtained her services to counteract and to apologize from such episode.

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4. In 2012, Dr. Janet Guarin introduced a bill to the Philippine Assembly requiring foreign medical missioners to obtain liability insurance before conducting medical missions. Objections by PMASC decided a visit to various members of Philippine Assembly. A group of our association visited Speaker Belmonte and met with Secretary Ike Ona in a dinner forum. Courtesy calls were also made to Senator Edgardo Angara and Senator Loren Legarda to discuss the problem.