RGL Hub Brown Bag Session: Show and Tell

Last April 26, 2025, the Rosita G Leong Primary Healthcare Hub held its first Brown Bag Session of the year. Aptly named “Show and Tell,” the session invited both alumni and ASMPH students to share: 1) an accomplishment they are proud of, whether personal or professional, and 2) a hurdle or difficult problem they have overcome or are currently struggling with. Participants were also asked to bring a physical object to represent this, much like the show-and-tell activities in school.

Dr Paola Valera (ASMPH Batch 2013) was among the first to share her experience — from starting out in PhilHealth designing benefit packages for children with disabilities, to now working with various communities and partner NGOs, educating them about sexual and reproductive health. She emphasized that public health has many faces, and while we need people working in large government institutions, we also need those on the ground, directly engaging with the communities.

First-year medical student Jehu Barrera (ASMPH Batch 2029) has been interested in public health since his time with Project LAAN in college. He spoke about his award-winning thesis, which focused on the maternal health practices of the Tagbanua Tribe in his hometown of Aborlan, Palawan. He shared his group’s desire to do more with their findings — turning research into action — by using what they learned to design a primary healthcare model for the community that integrates existing health programs and adapts them to the context of the underserved population they aim to reach. This experience fueled his decision to pursue medicine, with the hope of one day returning to serve his community. 

Dr Benjhoe Empedrado (ASMPH Batch 2020), who currently works in the Health Promotion Bureau of the Department of Health shared about his recent collaborative project to make Healthy Schools, Healthy Workplaces, and Health Communities a reality. He talked about the struggle of working within the bureaucracy which was echoed by the participants also working in government. 

Medical Intern Jesha Gregorio (ASMPH Batch 2025) brought a penlight and a jar of small wins for the event. For her, these tokens symbolize how far she has reached in her medical school journey and how she is now able to apply her learnings not just in the hospital but also to her family and community. In spite of all the challenges and difficulties, she reminded the participants that even the tiny, everyday achievements deserve to be celebrated and remembered.

Synthesis speakers, Dr Nikki Bautista and Dr Teejay Antonio, concluded the session by sharing their unique experiences working in both the public and private sectors. Dr Antonio served as a policy writer at the Department of Health for many years before transitioning to the private sector. Through his roles, he came to understand the complexity of our healthcare systems as well as the many nuances of the private sector. He emphasized the importance of being open to new experiences and immersing oneself in the community in order to authentically bridge the gap between the public and private sectors, ultimately working toward health for all. 

Dr Bautista also worked at the Department of Health before moving to AC Health and now serves as the Head of Strategy at Healthway. Drawing from her five years of experience in the private sector, she highlighted three key challenges commonly faced by public-private partnerships (PPPs): differing priorities between sectors, regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles, and funding and resource disparities. She emphasized the need to address common misconceptions such as the belief that the public sector is “puro regulations, puro policy, walang flexibility” and the private sector being “puro pera-pera lang,” through open, consistent dialogue to break down barriers, align goals, and ultimately, better serve the Filipino people. 

With this, Dr Bautista explained that the benefits of PPPs far outweigh their challenges, as these essential partnerships accelerate healthcare initiatives through access to more resources, improved efficiency and innovation, and wider population coverage and reach. These partnerships demonstrate how the private sector can enhance public health efforts, while the public sector can help extend private healthcare to underserved communities, advancing shared health goals with greater sustainability and impact.

Through each sharing, the participants found kindred spirits in each other - sharing in the mission of furthering public health in the country, and commiserating with the daily struggles of an often thankless job. As one participant observed, while the work may often feel ordinary or unnoticed; looking back at their own journey and hearing about other people’s journeys as well makes them realize that each act, no matter how small, contributes to a greater collective effort to make health for all a reality in the Philippines.

The RGL Primary Healthcare Hub aims to make equitable health a reality for all Filipinos. For potential partnerships and collaborations with the RGL Hub, interested parties may reach out to Dr TJ Malvar via email at rglhub@ateneo.edu.