Longtime charity doctor PH bet for WHO regional post
Dr. Susan Mercado —Facebook photo
MANILA, Philippines The World Health Organization (WHO) in the Western Pacific on Saturday named longtime public health official Dr. Susan Mercado as one of the candidates poised to lead the region in responding to pressing health issues in the next five years.
Mercado is special adviser to the Department of Health. She is nominated by the Philippines and Guam to the Western Pacific’s regional committee and is running against four candidates led by Vietnam’s Dr. Tran Thi Giang Huong, the current director of the disease control program division of WHO in the Western Pacific.
The other three contenders are Dr. Song Li from China, Dr. Jimmie Rodgers from the Solomon Islands, and Dr. Saia Ma’u Puikala from Tonga.
This is the second time Mercado became a nominee for the same top WHO position. In 2018, she lost against Japan’s Dr. Takeshi Kasai, whose leadership was rocked by allegations of racist and abusive behavior that led to his ouster in March this year.
Over 20 years of experience
If she gets elected in October, Mercado will be the first female regional director of WHO for the Western Pacific.
She first gained fame as a young physician in the popular television charity show, “Kapwa Ko, Mahal Ko,” in the 1980s, but has also had more than 20 years of experience as a public health official. She has served WHO in various capacities from 2005 to 2017, as health undersecretary from 1997 to 2001, and as PhilHealth board director from 2019 to 2020.
Mercado is also a part of the National Telehealth Center of the University of the Philippines, which hosted more than a hundred webinars on the clinical management of COVID-19 during the pandemic.
