A FULL-PLEDGED physician has been named assistant vice president-regional manager for Region 1 of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) effective last September.

Dr. Leo V. Cardona, Jr., a native of Borongan Samar, was reassigned to the Ilocos region Philhealth office based in Dagupan City following the promotion of former AVP Ilocos manager Ernesto Beltran.

Beltran is now Philhealth senior vice president based in the central office.

Cardona has been a department manager of the Philhealth from October 2001 assigned in Metro Manila until his reassignment here last September. Before that, he was Medical Officer of Philhealth in the Regional Office IV-A from May 1999 to October 2001 when he was promoted department manager.

Before joining the PHIC, Cardona served as provincial administrator of his native province, Samar, from September 1994 till March 1998. He was in private medical practice before his first stint with government; at various times a Palace physician in the Al-Rahmania Palace of the Prince Abdul Rahman al-Sudairi in Riyadh and ship physician of ocean liners.

The new Ilocos Philhealth head is a graduate of medicine from the Far Eastern University

An active member of the Philippine Medical Association, Cardona served as national treasurer of the Association from 2005 to 2006 and as PMA governor for eastern Visayas in 2005. He is also founding president of the Philhealth Physicians Asociation, Inc (PPA)

He is married to the former Eileen Abesamis with whom he has five children

Beltran, his predecessor to the Ilocos post, described the new Philhealth manager as a “thorough and competent public servant who brings to his new assignment a lot of training and experience in the public health insurance field.”