Message from PCS for the SPSA
In behalf of the Board of Regents of the Philippine College of Surgeons, I convey our warm felicitations and congratulations to the Society of Philippine Surgeons in America on their newly inaugurated website at www.SPSAtoday.com.
Let me salute as well the newly elected officers of the society headed by Dr. Oscar M Laserna. Your theme “Reaching Out and Giving Back” definitely is most appropriate in guiding the relationship between our two societies. I still look back to that fateful meeting two years ago with PCS past president, Dr. Art de la Pena and the SPSA represented by Dr. Enrico Garcia and Danny Fabito. There was instant understanding and consolidation of the bonds that held the two societies together. In 2005 the SPSA were warmly welcomed in the PCS Annual Clinical Congress.
This year, I am proud to announce that the Board of Regents has relegated a special segment of the PCS Annual convention especially for the SPSA. I am overwhelmed by your response because no less than four speakers from your society will speak before the PCS. This is a memorable occasion for us because for the first time we shall be joined by the Asean Society of Colorectal Surgeons with around a hundred regional delegates gracing our convention.
What delights the PCS most is the kind acknowledgement of our society in your website. This is an awesome gesture that is well received by the fellows. We shall likewise do the same for the PCS website featuring your activities and articles. I also take keen notice of your article on how to foster closer ties between our two societies. It need not necessarily be conventions alone. PCS Fellows will be interested in your traveling fellowships to learn more knowledge and skills. You can adopt a training program to improve its educational or research capabilities. The PCS can play host to your meetings and can arrange ,assist and follow up patients in your annual surgical missions. We can develop clinical practice guidelines together and help assist residents gain fellowship training in the US.
On the lighter side, you might be interested in joining us in our tree planting and house painting activities for Habitat for Humanity or Gawad Kalinga. And who can refuse a round of golf or gulp after the job is done? The possibilities are countless as long as eager and enthusiastic members are willing to communicate and share.
The PCS has reached a milestone with the SPSA partnership. We are brothers in arms bound not only by our profession but by our heritage as well. Let us do our motherland proud by declaring out loud that although we are all surgeons for the world, we are first and foremost Filipinos.
Eduardo R. Gatchalian, M.D.
President (2006)
Philippine College of Surgeons
The 2006 Board of Regents of the Philippine College of surgeons are shown above: (Seated, L-R): Doctors Josefina R. Almonte, Regent; Alex A. Erasmo, Secretary; Rey Melchor F. Santos, Vice President; Eduardo R. Gatchalian, President; Stephen Sixto Siguan, Treasurer; Ray B. Malilay and Maximo H. Simbulan Jr., Regents. (Standing, L-R): Doctors Florencio Q. Lucero Jr., Jesus V. Valencia, Dominador M. Chiong Jr., Alfred H. Belmonte, Esperanza R. Lahoz, Antonio S. Say, Alejandro R. Garcia, and Isaac David E. Ampil II, Regents