Dr. Florentino B. Herrera, Jr. was Dean of the UP College of Medicine from 1967 to 1979, and founding Chancellor of UP Manila from 1979-1983. Dean Herrera advocated for excellence in Philippine Medicine be it as clinicians, medical educators or physician-scientists. All were valued, along with the patients served. Dean Herrera supported the medical students and faculty with his personal commitment, vision, as well as with convictions instilled from working in PGH with his co-residents during WWII. He received the Bronze Medal of Valor from the Philippine Government, and the Medal of Freedom from the United States Government. During his tenure as Dean, the National Teacher Training Center in the Health Professions was established in 1975 “as the first in the Philippines to enhance the instructional skills of health professions teachers.” Close to his heart, he worked with a team of faculty members within the auspices of the UP system to set up the shared vision of the School of Health Sciences (SHS) in Palo, Leyte, established in 1976. The SHS embodied the vision of teaching future Philippine health care professionals in a community-based, step-ladder approach from uniquely selected students for their commitment to serving in remote and underserved provinces. In 1979, when UP Manila was made the Health Sciences Center, an autonomous unit for the UP system, Dean Herrera became the first UP Manila Chancellor from 1979 until his retirement in 1983. The UP Manila Health Science Center unified the different medical and health institutions of UP, including the Philippine General Hospital, as one center. The UPCM library is named in his honor, the FB Herrera Jr Medical Library, which will continue his legacy for promoting excellence in clinical care, research and teaching the future of Philippine Medicine.
Speaking to the UPCM graduating class of 1978, Dean Herrera advised that “doctors are, first of all and basically, human beings who must respond to the humanity of their patients. When they treat an infection, it is not the infection alone they are treating; it is the patient’s fears, insecurities, and other pains. When they are confronted with an incurable or malignant disease, they should consider the patient’s qualities his strengths and his frailties in their approach to treatment. And above all, they should be instilled with the conviction that because the science of healing is lifegiving, it is, therefore, also an art.”
