The Bohol Island State University School of Medicine moved a step closer to becoming a permanent institution with its own budget after a House panel took up bills to institutionalize it.

The House Committee on Higher and Technical Education held a hearing Nov. 12, 2026, on bills filed by Rep. Art Yap and Rep. John Geesnell Yap II seeking to institutionalize the school, known as BISU SOM.

Dr. Marvie Payot Hamel Darbandi, the school’s founding dean, said Art Yap and Yap II each filed bills in the 20th Congress in support of the school’s goals.

Darbandi obtained her medical degree from Far Eastern University and earned a second doctorate, in biochemistry, from the University of the Philippines. She is a native of Calape, Bohol.

The effort builds on the work of former Bohol Rep. Edgar Chatto, who long hoped to see the school institutionalized and first filed a bill to that effect in the 19th Congress. That measure did not become law.

Once a bill is enacted, Darbandi said, the school will have its own budget as specified in the General Appropriations Act.

That would give it wider latitude over finances and the acquisition of facilities and equipment, and would help ensure the program lasts and is not discontinued because of budget constraints.

The school has 37 faculty members, a mix of professors based in Manila and in Bohol.

Darbandi named several Bohol-based doctors who also teach at the school: Shayne Clarissa Trinchera, Vanessa Baja, Reysa Jam Camacho, Claudette Laxina, Claudette Domapias and Apple Cepedoza.

Visiting professors also lend their expertise in educating the students.

Darbandi said the ideal doctor-to-population ratio is 1:10, but the actual ratio is about 1:1,263, citing data from the World Health Organization.

She said that makes it necessary to expand access to medical education and eventually train more doctors to serve the people.

The school exists to provide medical education to students without the need to leave the island and study elsewhere.

She also cited the quality of instruction, which she said makes students study harder in order to pass. She said the instruction provided to students is lenient enough.

The school has 77 students enrolled: 16 in the first year, 23 in the second year, 23 in the third year and 15 in the fourth year.

The 15 fourth-year students are now interns at the Governor Celestino Gallares Memorial Medical Center, the school’s sole training hospital.

After completing the postgraduate internship, graduates will be eligible to take the Physician Licensure Examination.

Darbandi clarified that students who receive scholarships are not BISU scholars but beneficiaries of the Commission on Higher Education’s Medical Scholarship and Return Service Program, subject to CHED’s eligibility criteria.

Applicants apply through the CHED application portal, and BISU has no control over the number of scholarship slots allocated to the School of Medicine.

The program has strict eligibility criteria prescribed by CHED, including financial qualifications such as the annual income of both parents.

The complete criteria are available at the School of Medicine.

Not all students are scholars, Darbandi said. Some pay their own tuition.

According to the school, only the first batch were all scholars.

For later batches, selection takes into account the parents’ capacity to pay tuition and the need for doctors in underserved areas with no physicians.

Scholars also receive a semestral stipend of not less than P80,000 pesos as part of the financial support for those studying medicine at the school.

As a return of service to pay back the scholarship, they must serve the community for one year for every year of scholarship.

Darbandi thanked the Office of the Governor for providing slots for the school’s students.

She also thanked former BISU President Dr. Pobar and Dr. Jefferson Ong, a Boholano doctor who has supported the school since the beginning.

She acknowledged the support of Dr. Anthony Penaso, the university president, under whom the school secured a Certificate of Program Compliance, an achievement she said she was proud of.

She also thanked everyone who has expressed support for the school, including the legislators working to institutionalize it and make it a permanent fixture.