A team of expert Filipino-American and Australian doctors and nurses with 50 members are setting their plans to conduct simultaneous surgical and dental missions in the province of Bohol to commemorate and honor the late Pres. Carlos P. Garcia, a Boholano former Philippine president who is known for his Filipino- First policy and humanitarian values.

The team which banners the name “Aloha Medical Mission” is composed of surgeons specialists and registered nurses coming from Hawaii, USA and from Australia. The said mission is slated on November 7-14, 2009 at the Garcia Memorial Provincial Hospital (GMPH) in the municipality of Talibon, Bohol which is the birth place of the former Pres. CPG.

To recall, Governor Aumentado, along with wife Mrs. Greenie Aumentado, had recently visited Hawaii where he was warmly welcomed by the Aloha medical group, led by its president Dr. Brad Wong, who hosted a fellowship dinner at the Royal Garden Restaurant in the Ala Moana Hotel, near Waikiki.

The abovementioned free medical outreach program is sponsored by the Provincial Government of Bohol thru the spearheading efforts of Governor Erico B. Aumentado, Vice Governor Julius Caesar F. Herrera, Provincial Administrator, Atty. Tomas D. Abapo, Jr. and SP Committee on Health Chairman, Dr. Cesar Tomas M. Lopez and the persistent coordination of Philippine Gift of Life Foundation thru its President and Chief Executive Officer, Mrs. Fancy Baluyot who is also the Consultant on Health and Services supported by the Department of Health thru DOH Secretary, Dr. Francisco T. Duque III and Dr. Elmer G. Punzalan- Assistant Secretary, Office for Special Concerns and Armed Forces of the Philippines(AFP) thru Gen. Charly Holganza.

The said activity is set to benefit hundreds of Boholano indigent and under-privileged patients for free dental services, major and minor medical-surgical operation for goiter, ovarian cyst, hernia, colostomy, and cleft-palate reconstructive surgeries.

The pre-screening activity for the said foreign-led mission has already begun earlier this week at the Bohol Health & Social Services Office with the advance arrival of a team of Australian doctors and nurses in the province.

Boxes of medicines, supplies and equipments will arrive here in the week prior to the scheduled mission via Philippine Air Force C-130 plane.

The mission teams will be welcomed to the mission site by Talibon Mayor Juanario Item and the teams will be ably assisted by doctors and surgeons from Talibon, Bohol led by GMPH Medical Director Dr. Harold Gallego, and by local doctors and dentists from the Provincial Health Office led by Dr. Reymoses Cabagnot and Dr. Felino Columnas and Association of Municipal Health Offices of the Philippines (AMHOP) headed by its president, Dr. Jude Doblas.