SUPER DOCTOR KILLED BY GUNMEN

What is the purpose of living to die this way? Isn’t life meaningless? Perlas, 31, the eldest of two siblings, was a native of Batan town in Aklan province. He was a biology graduate of the University of the Philippines in Los Baños in 2007 and earned his medical degree from the West Visayas State University in Iloilo City in 2011.

As a scholar of the Department of Health, he was required to render two years of government service. He volunteered in the DTTB program, which was initiated by the late Senator and Health Secretary Juan Flavier in the 1990s.

Perlas was assigned to Sapad from 2012 to 2014 and was known for travelling solo to remote villages to conduct medical checkups. He opted to remain in the town, which had no municipal health officer for 12 years, after his stint.

Dr. Dreyfuss “Toto” Perlas of Sapad municipality was driving through Barangay Maranding Annex in Kapatagan on his way to Lala town around 7:30 p.m. when he was shot, said Kapatagan police chief Senior Insp. Melvin Loquinte.

Perlas died at the Lanao del Norte Provincial Hospital in nearby Baroy town from a single bullet that pierced his heart after it hit him on the left side of his back, police investigator SPO2 Michael Patalinghug said.

Loquinte told the Inquirer that witnesses thought the motorcycle rider, whom they recognized later as Perlas, had suffered a heart attack when he slumped on the road.

Dr. Reygene Caratiquit, Perlas’ colleague and batch mate, called on the government to review the DTTB program, particularly the safety of medical workers deployed to remote areas and poor communities.

“It was so painful. He chose to serve the poor and this tragedy befell him,” his father, Batan Councilor Dennis Perlas, told the Inquirer by phone on Thursday.

His younger sister, Louella Perlas-Patricio, said the family had worried about his safety and asked him to apply for a transfer.

“But he wanted to stay there because he had learned to love the community and did not want to leave the work he had started,” she told the Inquirer by phone.