Dr. Teodoro Javier Herbosa of DOH: Master of disaster preparedness

In fairness to this government, there are a few good things it has done, and a few good decisions it has made so far. One of the few good choices for the Cabinet is Dr. Teodoro Javier Herbosa for DOH, aside from DND’s Gibo Teodoro. Dr. Maria Rosario Vergeire is good but too laid back, unassertive and, with due respect, lacking in fire in her belly. The DOH needs a dynamic leader. Dr. Ted is the man who was in Diliman, in EDSA, and in Yolanda. Wounded and scarred in the battlefields, to use a little metaphor.

The new DOH secretary has in his veins the blood of our national hero. Dr. Jose Rizal had an elder sister Lucia, who married Mariano Herbosa. One of the scions of that marriage is the newly-appointed secretary of DOH, Dr. Teodoro (named after Teodora Alonso, mother of Dr. Jose Rizal). A neurosurgeon, a graduate of the UP School of Medicine who dreamed of becoming director of PGH, ended up becoming DOH undersecretary, UP vice president, and now a Cabinet member. Like DND’s Gibo, this is another Teodoro who will give honor to the position. He is a brother of the former SEC chairwoman, Teresita Herbosa. The Herbosas are known for their professionalism, high standard of service excellence, and untarnished integrity. Dr. Ted can add luster to BBM’s Cabinet. And laurels too.

Dr. Ted, as he is fondly called, used to be the Trauma Division chief of the Department of Surgery in the Philippine General Hospital. He was appointed DOH undersecretary and also executive vice president of UP. He was elected chairman of the board of an association called Physicians For Peace Philippines. He was once elected as vice president of the UP Alumni Association. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the DOH made use of his expertise by making him serve as a special adviser to the National Task Force Against COVID-19. And to think that, like Dr. Jose Rizal, Ted wanted to be a painter. He is very good at drawing, he wanted to take up Fine Arts but his mom said he would starve as an artist. He ended up drawing the human anatomy.

He entered UP in 1975 at the height of student activism, when President BBM’s father ruled the nation under martial law. He joined the rallies and the boycott of classes. UP was anti-Marcos. Even the professors were activists. He was already in his second year in residency specializing in surgery when EDSA erupted in 1986. He joined EDSA under the guise of a member of a medic team complete with ambulance and first-aid medicines. It is the twist of fate that he would be appointed by the son of the constitutional dictator who was ousted by the EDSA Revolt. The Herbosas are independent-minded people, freedom loving, and nationalistic. Remember that there is Rizal blood in them.

But Dr. Ted Herbosa’s love of country is focused on medicine, surgery, and his specialty is disaster medicine. He focused on trauma and was sent abroad by UP to an international post-graduate course in surgery in Tel Aviv, Israel. In the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, he made a wish to marry his girlfriend and to serve his country. He has fulfilled both solemn promises. Dr. Ted is a good man and he will do many good things for DOH and for the country. After his study abroad, he came back to serve the country, like his great, great grand uncle, our national hero was a doctor and a surgeon. In 2013, Dr. Ted was the chairman of the Disaster Management and Rehabilitation Task Force Yolanda. He coordinated and managed 180 foreign medical teams.

Dr. Ted formulated the 3 C’s in disaster management: Collaboration, Coordination, and Communication. He added a fourth C which is Creativity. Thus, he will be bringing to DOH a wealth of wisdom, experience and a host of other C’s: Character, Conscientiousness, Competence, and Compassion. We are lucky to have a new DOH secretary with Rizal blood in his veins. The country is still suffering from a social cancer “of such malignant character that the least touch would irritate it.”

We are a disaster-prone country situated right in the middle of the Ring of Fire in the Asia-Pacific Basin, we need a doctor in the caliber of a Rizal scion, Dr. Ted Javier Herbosa, to lead us to salvation from crisis and calamities.