UP Forum Volume 21 Issue 2 and 3 - Final

A Clearer Vision for the Future
“Sayang
naman.”
Imagine hearing that as a response
to “I want to be a doctor.” Unusual,
right? Now, imagine that comment
coming from an educator interviewing
a UP student who was about to earn
his Biology degree, magna cum laude,
and was being considered as the “Most
Outstanding Graduate.” Surprising,
but perhaps a little less so, when that
educator was seemingly more impressed
with the leadership qualities the student
displayed.
“I was told I could go into community
leadership instead,” an ophthalmologist
and a researcher, Dr. Leo Cubillan,
recalled that incident in 1986. He had
asked himself then why his dream of
going into medicine was deemed a waste.
He believed the path he saw for himself,
especially after four years of studying
in UP Diliman (UPD), would lead him to
render greater service to the country.
JULY - DECEMBER 2023
More than three decades later, he would
mark one of the greater milestones in
his professional career. In 2019, one of
the research projects he led became
Republic Act No. 11358 or the National
Vision Screening Act. Turning research
into national policy showed Cubillan that
it was not “sayang” after all.
UP FORUM
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