By Penelope A. Domogo, MD
Dr. Apolinario Pilit was my first boss. He was the Provincial Health Officer of Mountain Province when I got my first job as a government rural health physician in 1981. At that time, government health services in the provinces were under the Department of Health, whose main office was in Manila, unlike now when they are devolved to local government units. Thus I was directly under the Provincial Health Officer. Dr. Pilit was new to Mountain Province, having just transferred from Benguet where he was the Assistant Provincial Health Officer.
The Department of Health is highly bureaucratic and navigating the bureaucracy is not in the medical curriculum so I was lucky to have Dr. Pilit as my boss and mentor. I was with the Bontoc Rural Health Unit (RHU now Municipal Health Office) and the Provincial Health Office was also in Bontoc so our offices were close. He knew all the ropes, having started work as the Municipal Health Officer of Sayangan then Tublay until he was promoted. RHUs were required to submit many reports- reports from the barangays had to be consolidated, analyzed and submitted. I was lucky also to have then Mrs. Susan Cabalda as the RHU nurse and she took care of the reports but I had to read and analyze.
Early in my career, in early 1980s, a dengue epidemic broke out in Bontoc, the first ever dengue epidemic in the cool Cordillera. (First sign of global warming, by the way.) It was my initiation to public health. Handling epidemics is also not part of the medical curriculum as far as I remember. What more, this was not an ordinary epidemic, it was a dengue epidemic. The disease was not identified yet at that time so we called it “Bontoc rash”. Epidemics are disasters thus the national DOH machinery entered the picture and experts from Manila came to Bontoc to do tests and finally identified the disease as dengue. My anxiety was relieved when Dr. Pilit took the responsibility of directing us what to do. These events served as masteral field courses in public health for me. And these experiences facilitated my understanding when I pursued a Master Degree in Public Health in 1988-89.
Dr. Pilit is an Isneg from Apayao. He was from the old school. He taught by doing and he was meticulous in his job, including reports. His secretary, Tessie Beleo, was also so expert in her job that the reports of the PHO were well kept on file and are very good historical health records of Mountain Province. Dr. Pilit was there ready to guide and when problems in the field arose, he readily helped, even if it was confronting politicians. He was physically fit and easily hiked mountains to render his services. One time, he came with our Bontoc team to Dalican via Guinaang because there was an epidemic there and he walked faster than me, more than 20 years his junior! He took good care of government property. For example, he took very good care of his service car donated by UNICEF- wiping his shoes before entering, closing the windows so dust will not go in, etc.- with the goal of turning over the vehicle in good condition to his successor. What a wonderful attitude! Sana ol.
Dr. Pilit finished his Master Degree in Public Health at the University of the Philippines when he was still a municipal health officer. That’s where he met his lovely wife, Salome, from Bicol. He was a good manager. He knew how to delegate and encouraged and supported us, his subordinates, and our initiatives. When UNICEF partnered with Mountain Province in the 1990s, he appointed me as the Coordinator for Foreign-Assisted Projects in Mountain Province, in addition to my job as an MHO. He supported new ideas like the Health Scouts program where we trained schoolchildren as school-based health volunteers as far as their capabilities allowed. When health services were devolved in 1992, the RHU was placed under the direct control and supervision of the Municipal Mayor. At that time, Bontoc, just like the other municipalities in Mountain Province, was a poor municipality and had no vehicle. Dr. Pilit granted our request for one Toyota pick-up donated by UNICEF to the PHO. This was the first service vehicle in the Bontoc LGU and this facilitated our outreach visits to the barangays.
Above all these, Dr. Pilit was kind and humble. I haven’t heard him raise his voice. Perhaps I was far away most of the time. If ever he had comments, it was always with a soft voice. I never heard him assert he was the boss and I never heard him seek attention.
As dedicated he was to his job, was also his dedication to his family. He would go home to La Trinidad every weekend. And he was a religious person. After his retirement in 1996, he stayed with his family in La Trinidad, Benguet, and was active in church and community. Sometimes, we would visit him and his wife and they were always happy to see us, always the kind gentle people they are.
He crossed over to the great Beyond in January 2025 at the age of 94. He certainly lived a full life and I am fortunate to have been under his tutelage for more than a decade. The most important things I needed to learn in public health, I learned from Dr. Pilit. Thank you, po, Sir Ninong Pol, for the valuable lessons you taught and the good examples you have shown! Thank you for serving in Mountain Province! Thank you also to his dear family- Ninang Salome and the children and grandchildren- for letting him work in Mountain Province and sharing his life with us! Thank you, Lord, for his life and witness.
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“But those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness.” Proverbs 14:22
