The Philippines

Mayor Eutiquio Bernales

Mayor Eutiquio Bernales' path to governing Ubay is less than traditional, yet throughout the unique trajectory of his career, he has always worked to improve his community. At 74, Mayor Bernales leads integrated approaches to solving issues related to PHE (population, health and environment) by including matters of food insecurity, poverty, social conflicts, reproductive health, and family planning into his solutions.

After he finished his medical training in 1962 at Southwestern University, Mayor Bernales was a successful physician who happily provided medical services to the people of Ubay. After 16 years Mayor Bernales, against his will, was appointed to Officer in Charge of the Municipality of Ubay by the late President of the Republic of the Philippines, Ferdinand E. Marcos. Upon the end of the Marcos regime in 1986, Mayor Bernales took the opportunity to return to his private practice. However in 1992, with the support and encouragement from the local community, he found himself drawn to serve in the government again. Over the preceding 20 years, Mayor Bernales has held the title of Mayor several times and at present, actively supports and implements PHE's IPOPCORM strategies and approaches.

Mayor Bernales' inspiration and awareness developed naturally growing up in Ubay. A lack of family planning education in the area often led couples to bear families of ten or more children. Many of these families struggled to find the resources to feed their families, which frequently led them to engage in illegal fishing activities. As a child, Mayor Bernales participated in such desperate and harmful activities such as blast fishing, a mechanism to kill and access fish involving dynamite. His observations of the destruction of coastal habitats and inadequate fish supply, coupled with his experience of the daily struggles local families faced, led Mayor Bernales to identify a connection between the strength of the environment and population development. To Mayor Bernales, Ubay's sustainability issues were clear evidence of the correlation between public health and the environment, and ultimately led him to support integrated programs. Further, as Mayor, he encourages other local officials to support integrated PHE approaches for sustainable development in their respective municipalities.

Please find attached, Dr. Ronaldo Quintana's report, PHE: Champions-Local Leaders, which highlights the contributions of Mayor Bernales and his colleagues.