Headline Medical community praises Brillante Mendoza’s ‘Hilom’

MediaTitle Manila Times(manilatimes.net)

Date 07 Jun 2019

Section NEWS
Order Rank 1
Language English
Journalist N/A
Frequency Daily

Medical community praises Brillante Mendoza’s ‘Hilom’

Internationally-acclaimed director Brillante Mendoza triumphantly screened his latest masterpiece,
“Hilom, A tribute to the doctors to the barrios,” with an overwhelming support from the medical
community.

Director Brillante Mendoza, SM SVP for Marketing and Communications Millie Dizon and
Undersecretary of Health Dr. Mario Villaverde
Held at SM Megamall’s Cinema 12, the event saw top representatives of the Department of Health
(DoH) in the audience as well as a great number of members of the agency’s The Doctors to the
Barrios (DTTB) program, to whom the film is dedicated.
Family of Doctors: Dr. Fidel Pasion Jr., (left) with wife Dr. Cesaria Pasion and their daughter Sara
Micol Pasion (center)
Written by Boots Agbayani-Pastor, Hilom follows the story of Dr. Elenita “Ellen” Sancho-Peralta
as she goes to a remote municipality in the Bicol region to serve her two-year stint. At the same
time, her husband, Doc Alex, whom she recently married, goes to another Bicol town to serve his
term as a “Doctor to the Barrios.”

DTTB Batch 18 Alumna and educator Dr. Pretchell Tolentino

Starring Julia Montes and Kean Cipriano in the lead roles, the rest of the cast includes Archie
Adamos, Ruby Ruiz, Philip Palmos, Red Ibasco, Bibo Bayona, Ryan Sandoval, Dexter Macaraeg,
Cataleya Surio, Lito Capina and Red Martin.
According to Mendoza, Hilom is actually a project of the Department of Health through the Health
Promotion and Communication Service and the Health Human Resources Development Bureau. It
is based the DTTB program of the DoH Human Resource for Health Deployment programs, which
was created in May 1993 to respond to the inequitable distribution of scarce resources and varying
pace of development in the 271 doctorless municipalities identified in 1992.
Mendoza together with the Doctors to the Barrio alumni.
The DTTB program is a strategy of national government to redistribute doctors to increase access
to quality healthcare services by the marginalized, vulnerable and underserved population of the
country.
Ultimately, this project between DoH and Mendoza aims to highlight the efforts of volunteer doctors
and other medical staff who regularly visit barrios to hold free checkups on the poor as well as
encourage future doctors to be part of the program.