integration

It's an exciting time for our doctors- as well as accountants and dentists- since Southeast Asian ministers recently signed agreements allowing them to practice in the entire ASEAN region.

The borders of nation-states in the ASEAN mainly follow those delineated by former colonial powers, despite the many similarities in our cultures. In pre-colonial times, the Kingdom of Namayan, with its royal capital in Sapa (later renamed Santa Ana, Manila), had ties of blood and marriage to the Madjapahit Empire. Had colonization not intervened, the development of nation-states in the region might have turned out differently. Today, ASEAN is a market of about 550 million people with a gross regional product of US$1.1 trillion and total trade of US$1.6 trillion.

Here are our future doctors viewed from inside the ribcage of a skeleton during a recent anatomy exam in the U.P. College of Medicine. I took this in the course of doing research for the biography of Dr. George Eufemio, president of Philippine Cancer Society. U.P. is known for producing world-class physicians. Later on, the Philippines might sign similar agreements with countries in other regions, like the E.U., but it's only prudent that we begin with neighbors which have a history, culture and economy similar to ours.