Interns and Doctors of Cebu Doctors University Hospital, with Atty. Oliver Tuazon, after the ORCB talk

by Tomas Socrates

As the new year began, Universitas took the opportunity last January 3 to 4 to visit the city dubbed as the “Fount of Christianity in the Far East”, Cebu City, and hold some Outreach Talks.

Accompanied by the Executive Director of the Universitas Fellows Program, Mr. Tomas Socrates, the Universitas’ President and CEO, Atty. Oliver Tuazon, conducted a half-day talk on January 3 to some of the clerks, post-grad interns, residents, and consultants of Cebu Doctors University Hospital (CDUH).

The seminar was part of a series of talks under what is called the “ORCB” program. “ORCB” stands for Order, Respect, Competence, and Best Effort. In line with the principles of Universitas, the ORCB program of CDUH promotes the said values and virtues, and hopes to inculcate the same in the lives of their their doctors. Since the primary goal of Universitas is to help the country produce principled leaders, the ORCB program has become a concrete platform for doing so, with people in the field of medicine as beneficiaries.

Given this opportunity, Atty. Tuazon reminded the doctors and interns of the importance of living the virtues or good habits. He discussed the famous quote of Hugo Grotius, the Father of International Law, thus: “A man cannot govern a nation if he cannot govern a city, he cannot govern a city if he cannot govern a family, he cannot govern a family unless he can govern himself, and he cannot govern himself unless his passions are subject to reason.” He invited his audience to cultivate a life of virtue, in order to perform their role better as future leaders in the field of medicine.

Commenting on the talk, Dr. Bernadette Moscoso, an internist from Cebu and the person responsible in connecting Universitas with the ORCB program, said, “Doctors often find themselves doing the role of a leader, may it be in their own clinics or in other situations in the practice of their profession.” Hence, she emphasized the need for them to live virtuous lives.

Atty. Tuazon delivering the talk in the ORCB program of CDUH

In the afternoon, the Atty. Tuazon and Mr. Socrates had the chance to meet in person the woman who inspired the establishment of the ORCB program, whose initials are the source of “ORCB”, Dr. Ophelia  Rama Completo Buot herself. They paid her a courtesy call in her dialysis center, and he invited Atty. Tuazon to come again for some more talks in the future.

Afterwards, Atty. Tuazon and Mr. Socrates were introduced to Dr. Jose Antonio Quiteves, a member of the Board of Trustees of Cebu Doctors Hospital, and its deputy Medical Director. Dr. Quiteves then introduced them to Dr. Philip Larrazabal and Dr. Potenciano “Yong” Larrazabal, III, the Presidents of the CDU and CDU Hospital, respectively. In the course of the meeting, the latter invited the CEO to be the Keynote Speaker in the upcoming “White Coat ceremony” for the new residents of the Hospital, as well as in two other programs of CDU on January 17 and 18.


From left to right: Dr. Yong Larrazabal, Atty. Oliver Tuazon, Dr. Bernadette Moscoso, Mr. Tomas Socrates, Dr. Jose Antonio Quiteves

Before the day ended, the Universitas officers also met with doctors from Cebu Institute of Medicine (CIM), who are interested in the Principled Leaders Program of Universitas, under the leadership of Dr. Analyn Celosia. On the same occasion, they also met one of the alumni of Universitas, Engr. Frank Alvarez, who participated in its activities during his college days at the University of the Philippines. He is now working as a civil engineer in one of the international construction firms in Cebu. The gathering was hosted by Dr. Jeumont Cabananas, who met the President & CEO of Universitas as a young doctor during his first talk in Cebu Doctors more than a decade ago–on the same occasion when they met Dr. Moscoso for the first time, who as a gastroenterologist, was interested in the research work conducted by Atty. Tuazon at the Massachusetts General Hospital for his masters thesis in Microbiology.

On the way to the airport, the Universitas Officers also met one of the first benefactors of Universitas, when it was still an informal group of scholars, leaders and volunteers, Mrs. Amelia C. La Ó. They also met Mrs. Marite Jimenez, whose son participated in some activities of Universitas while he was studying at the Ateneo De Manila University.

To sum it all up, the Universitas officers spent their intense two-day stay in Cebu giving talks and forging partnerships, kicking the year off with a fruitful beginning.

NOTA BENE: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and the speakers mentioned in the article, and not necessarily to the Foundation.

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