Saturday, February 23, 2008 Cebu graduate tops doctors' licensure exams
A GRADUATE of Cebu Doctors’ University topped the list of 1,054 passers in the Physicians’ Licensure Examination given by the Board of Medicine in the cities of Manila and Cebu this month.
Edilfavia Mae Suaybaguio Uy, a 26-year-old native of Tagbilaran, Bohol, scored 86.33—enough for her topnotch position in the exam. About 53 percent of the 1,985 examinees passed.
A happy Uy told Sun.Star Cebu in a phone interview that she prayed to pass but did not expect to top the crop. A topnotch finish, for her, was just “plus points.”
This is the third straight year a student from a Cebu university landed in the top 10 of the medical board exams.
Uy went on a thanksgiving trip to the different parishes in Cebu, like the shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Barangay Simala in Sibonga town.
Today, Uy and her friends who also passed the exam plan to visit the Basilica del Sto. Niño, Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, Redemptorist Church, Carmelites Monastery, Sacred Heart Parish and the national shrine of the Nuestra Señora Virgen dela Regla in Lapu-Lapu City.
These were among the churches they visited before they took the exam.
She plans to specialize in internal medicine and undergo her residency training in the United States, but said she will eventually come back to work in the country.
Uy graduated valedictorian of her elementary and secondary classes at the Bohol Wisdom School in Tagbilaran.
She pursued her childhood dream to be a doctor by taking up psychology for her pre-medical studies at Cebu Doctors’ University. She graduated magna cum laude in October 2001.
She then proceeded to medicine and graduated cum laude from the same university in April 2006, with 18 honors.
“I have always wanted to be a doctor. I was sickly when I was young so I was often hospitalized. The hospital became a second home. The staff was very friendly and the white uniforms of doctors caught my attention. Later on, after I internalized what I really wanted, I decided to be a doctor,” she said.
It’s no easy path. “One has to maintain the interest and dedication. If one has no heart for what he’s doing, he will soon tire out. He should also be patient and keep his faith in the Lord because with God, nothing is impossible,” Uy said.
She draws her inspiration from her parents who gave their “all-out support” to her and her efforts.
“I see them work really hard. My passing the board is one way of saying thank you to them,” she said.
According to her father, Edilfonso, a 52-year-old businessman, Edilfavia’s hard work and religiosity paid off.
The senior Uy disclosed in a radio dyLA interview that his daughter regularly goes to church to attend mass and pray the novenas. He also said that she got her intelligence from her mother, Pavaia, who was also a topnotcher in the pharmacy board exam and belongs to a family of medical practitioners.
He added that he and his wife are proud of the accomplishments of their three children.
Edilfavia Uy is the eldest. Next to her is Aldelmeon, 24, who was also valedictorian in his elementary and secondary classes, and passed the electronics and communications engineering licensure exam. The youngest, Corasol, 20, a physical therapy student, is a consistent dean’s lister at Cebu Doctors’ University.
The Uy family owns a house in Gardenville Subdivision in Banawa, Cebu City, where the three siblings reside.
Uy and other successful examinees will take their oath on March 13 in Manila.
Last year, Dr. Omid Etemadi, the son of University of the Philippines in the Visayas Cebu College professor Felisa Etemadi, clinched the third spot in the February 2007 medical board examination.
Omid, a graduate of the Cebu Institute of Medicine (CIM), said ranking third was just a bonus. He was just relieved to pass the exam.
In the 2006 board examinations, Erwin Novilla and Juan Maximo Lasco of CIM placed third and seventh, respectively, while Beodaldy Bombeo of Cebu Doctors’ College ranked fourth. NRC
