CEBU CITY (Oct. 18, 2022) – Mayor Mike Rama has decided to designate back Dr. Daisy S. Villa, MD, FM, RN, MPA as head of the City Health Department (CHD).
He advised and conferred with her and Dr. Jeffrey B. Ibones, MD, acting CHD head until this development, while over the bridge that connects South Road Properties (SRP) and Mambaling during a walkthrough last Friday.
Villa said she will not assume as CHD head until she receives her appointment documents. In the meantime, she said, she will continue to oversee the Purok System Vaccination Program (PSVP).
Villa had served in the same role at CHD as officer-in-charge in 2014, then in acting capacity in 2015 to early 2016, when Rama then served his second term as mayor.
After Rama’s term then got interrupted, the succeding administration assigned her to oversee the health centers in Talamban and the northern mountain barangays, then back as city health officer when Mayor Edgardo C. Labella assumed office.
When the pandemic reached the city, Villa supported Dr. Peter Mancao on the medical side in operating the New Oasis for Adaptation and a Home (NOAH) complex that served as community isolation center for Cebu City south district.
When NOAH shifted to become a Mega Vaccination Center after a year by June 2021, she stayed with the original NOAH team and subsequently pursued the PSVP, the same strategy she applied in fighting dengue some years back.
She started PSVP in December last year after Rama ascended as mayor. It operated apart but complemented with the operations of the City Vaccination Storm Rollout Program.
She worked with a team with Dr. Denzel Zchallet Abejo that included nine nurses whom the Department of Health provided, four that USAID hired, and two from CHD, serving at least 200 to as much as 1,000 vaccinees per day.
Days after he earned a fresh mandate, Rama assigned Dr. Villa to lead the city’s efforts to contain the rising cases of dengue in January of 2022, and further to oversee CHD and Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) as the mayor’s special assistant for health.
Villa said she will keep the status quo at CHD towards the yearend while she studies how to make the department more efficient and responsive to the pressing needs of the city to help attain the Singapore-like vision.
“I am really glad to be given an opportunity to handle the city health department again. In my age, it is time to build the legacy that I want to leave behind after I retire. That is implementing the Universal Health Care for the Cebuanos,” she said.
“I have started it way back 2019 but was impeded during the pandemic. It is also in sync to the Mayor’s vision for a Singapore like cebu city in terms of the health care system,” she added.
Biology & Nursing
Daisy Sariego Villa took BS Biology as her pre-med course at Cebu Doctors College that she finished in 1984, then completed Medicine six years after at Southwestern University – Matias H. Aznar Memorial College of Medicine.
She specialized in Family Medicine, while she studied Nursing through the University of Lan Salette, an autonomous institution in Isabela, and became a Registered Nurse.
She further took Masters in Public Administration in 2014 at Southwestern University Graduate School. She just defended her thesis last July for her degree in Doctor of Public Health Care Management.
Dr. Villa joined the Cebu City Government today in 1994 as Medical Officer III and took charge of the health centers in the south district as well as of barangays Tinago and Parian, then got promoted as Medical Specialist.
She developed for the City the expanded immunization that lowered the age of immunization against measles from nine down to six months. It earned her the honors as grand slam Model Employee in 1997, 1998 and 1999.
The system she developed became a model program that earned the spotlight during the September 2001 mid-year convention of family physicians.
By 2003, she initiated the opening of five new health centers and oversaw the North Health Area based in Mabolo, with special attention in Nivel Hills, plus Guadalupe.
As CHD head seven years ago, she established 16 health centers and six maternal and birthing centers. As she assumes the same role again, she intends to strengthen anew the health centers that can already handle laboratory examinations.
She intends to develop the city’s capabilities with regards to DOH’s priority health areas, including cancer, expanded immunization, maternal child development, dengue, leprosy, tuberculosis and STD-HIV/AIDS programs.
“In my age, it is time to build the legacy that I want to leave behind after I retire. That is implementing the Universal Health Care for the Cebuanos.”
Dr. Daisy S. Villa, MD, FM, RN, MPA
Dr. Villa is married to a mechanical engineering graduate, who now runs a small business. Their eldest daughter, 29, is a registered nurse who now prepares for her medical board exams.
Their second daughter is also a Philippine registered nurse, and is about to finish Nursing at Daekin University in Melbourne, Australia; while their youngest just finished junior high at Don Bosco Cebu, and has pursued the STEM strand for senior high at the University of San Carlos in Talamban, preparatory to Architecture and Civil Engineering. (PIO/cte)
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