August 26-28, 2026 The Honorable Secretary of Health and Social Affairs Mr. Marcus Samo headed a delegation, consisted of The Honorable Dr. Bosco Buliche from Chuuk Department of Health Services and Mr. Augustus Elias from the FSM Department of Health and Social Affairs, to the Second Meeting on the Philippine–Pacific Health Initiative (PhilPac) held in Manila from September 28-30, 2026.
Administered through the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office in Manila, the aim of the PhilPac Initiative is to strengthen technical collaboration between the Philippine Government and the Pacific Island countries in health human resource, impact of climate change on health, medical tourism, appropriate use of technologies to promote universal health coverage, and health person-to person exchange programs.
At the second PhilPac meeting, a review of progress of ongoing initiatives through the PhilPac mechanism, exchange of lessons learnt and contextualization of the challenges for health human resources are discussed with consideration of the complex and unpredictable environment due to energy-related uncertainties and climate change events. FSM DHSA implored on innovative and long-term solutions that the initiative can support the government with on addressing the health workforce shortage across the nation.
FSM DHSA have secured partnership with some of the learning institutes in the Philippines and counties on the following key priorities: 1: Mapua Institute of Technology – exploring 3 pathways – for Bachelor Graduates; for Associate Degree holders; for post graduate internship. 2. UP Primary care / Specialist – requires a needs assessment for specialist training; internships. 3. Biomed engineering/ Mechanics requires discussion on modalities with East Avenue Medical Center / Davao Regional Health Office also has a training institute 4. HEARTS Hypertension 5. The tobacco leadership ; oral health ; mental health – will be taken separately as an online course/ tele-mentoring OR a WPRO activity. 6. The placement of the doctor from the “Doctors to the Barrios Program” of the DOH will require internal discussions at the DOH Philippines.
The platform was a great conduit to support the aforementioned priorities, linking learning institutes and counties to FSM DHSA,s needs. FSM looks forward to continued partnerships to realize these great opportunities to support and build our human resource for health within the nation.