With the signing into law for Benguet State University College of Medicine, the university prepares to accept its enrollees for the first quarter of 2024.
BSU President Felipe Comila said the university will accept 60 enrollees for its first batch.
Comila said each of the 13 municipalities of Benguet is given at least one slot each as priority enrollees while the rest will be open to all interested applicants.
Comila said by June 1, the students should be in-housed so BSU can start accepting them by the first quarter of the year.
The prospective students will be temporarily catered at the second building of the College of Nursing, which is currently undergoing finishing works.
Construction of the COM complex, which was inaugurated September last year, will start by August, according to the president.
Comila said the university is also waiting for the evaluation by the Commission on Higher Education’s Regional Quality Assessment Team (RQAT), which will examine the compliance of the program to CHED’s minimum requirements, before accepting enrollees.
The P75-million worth COM complex will be built at the Km.6, Cabanao in Barangay Balili within the BSU lot.
The complex will house the COM building, the medical research center, and primary healthcare centers.
It will implement green engineering and architecture though the installation of a rainwater harvesting facility, floating garden, operable windows and solar panels that will make it sustainable.
Earlier, through the initiative of Sen. Pia Cayetano, P45-million support was to jumpstart the coursewas included in the General Appropriations Act to be implemented this year.
The funding was also through the support of Reps. Eric Yap of Benguet and Mark Go of Baguio City.
On Dec. 20, President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. signed Republic Act 11970, which established the BSU COM.
The law was passed together with three other laws that would establish three other college of medicine at Southern Luzon State University in Lucban, Quezon (RA 11971); University of Eastern Philippines in Catarman, Northern Samar (RA11972); and at the Visayas State University in Baybay, Leyte (RA 11974).
Authored by Yap, the law aims to address the significant gap in medical education within the Cordillera.
The COM was envisioned to provide residents of Benguet and neighboring provinces opportunity to pursue quality medical education and training without the need to relocate to distant cities. – Ofelia C. Empian
