THE ATA-MANOBO LADY DOCTOR WHO INSPIRED ‘DOKTOR NG BAYAN’

During the many school activities of my daughter, Dr. Maria Krista, which I attended at the Davao Medical School Foundation (DMSF), I developed a feeling of sympathy, liking and fondness for one of her classmates, Mercy Coloma.

Mercy looked very ordinary. In fact, if you meet her on the street, you will not even have the slightest idea that she is a brilliant young doctor.

She captured my attention during the graduation rites in the DMSF when she, Maria Krista and 38 others finished their medical degree and where Sen. Chiz Escudero was the Guest Speaker. It was during that occasion when I saw her parents in their colorful tribal attire.

Dr. Mercy Coloma is an Ata-Manobo, one of the indigenous tribes in Davao, and she is proud of it. Her father was the tribal chieftain in their village.

She is also proud of the fact that even if her parents are poor, she became a doctor under a scholarship program offered by a religious mission.

In the many instances I saw Dr. Mercy in the school activities, I was touched by her simplicity and by her humble demeanor.

When she joined my daughter, Dr. Maria Krista, and classmate Dr. Ma. Fatima Quianzon in the Thanksgiving Medical and Surgical Mission in Nueva Vida, M’lang after they passed the medical board examinations, Dr. Mercy was in a pair of old denim pants and worn out slippers.

In the short conversation I had with her, she told me she preferred to go back to Sitio Taguango, Barangay Sua-on, Kapalong, Davao del Norte, a town largely populated by poor tribes people and that she wanted to serve as a rural health physician.

Dr. Mercy Coloma’s story is one of the many inspirations I had when I thought of and crafted the “Doktor Ng Bayan” program which I hope to implement as Governor of North Cotabato, should God bless me with the opportunity of serving my people again.

I would like to see many doctors among the Maguindanaos, the Iranuns, the Manobos, the Blaans, the Bagobos and even the Kalagans in North Cotabato.

My dream is to see my people who belong to these ethnic tribes beaming with pride and joy as they see their children receive their diplomas as doctors.

This perhaps is the greatest gift that I can offer them – the opportunity to realize their dreams of achieving for their children what they were not able to achieve because of poverty.

This will be my moment of greatest joy and fulfillment as a leader.

(Photo caption: Dr. Mercy Coloma (right) in a photo with Dr. Ma. Fatima Quianzon (center) and Dr. Ma. Krista Pinol-Solis during the medical/surgical mission held in Nueva Vida, M’lang in September 2012.)