MARIANO M. ALIMURUNG, M.D.

The Moving Spirit

By Willie Lagdameo

            Many years have elapsed and still his memory lingers on. To the present generation whose lives he touched, his presence is still felt. This speaks of the magnitude of the man, that was Mariano Alimurung.

          Dr. Alimurung had all the qualities gifted from above. He was a brilliant physician, an excellent speaker, a dynamic leader, a dedicated teacher and a deeply religious-man, all the ingredients of a man capable of changing the world for the better and creating a mark in history.

          In March, 1952, he organized the Philippine Heart Association and became its founding president. A year later, the first journal of the Philippine Heart Association was launched with him as the editor. In 1962, it was his idea and it was mainly thru his efforts and close association with the officers of the American College of Cardiology that the memorable First International Circuit Course of the College was held for the first time in a foreign country and in our own campus in Manila. This was conducted by renowned cardiologists and was attended by no less than 1,600 physicians. The success story of this course, pave the way to subsequent circuit courses of the American College of Cardiology in  other countries.

          Dr. Alimurung was a firm believer of the concept that Medicine is a life long study that unless medical education becomes a continuous process, the high quality of medical care cannot and will not continue. It is because of his devotion to teach that the major portion of his life was spent in imparting knowledge to his students. He was a renowned figure, a much traveled man and as such had established communication with all parts of the world. He organized the best postgraduate courses, conventions and scientific meetings. Every time an eminent physician happened to be in town, he never missed the opportunity to bring him to different institutions so that colleagues in the profession especially the young house staff would learn. The regular clinico-pathological conferences, the traditional residents' paper presentation and the perpetual Dr. Luis E. Guerrero Memorial Lecture, could all be traced to his pioneering efforts. Convinced that the best way to learn medicine was thru preceptorship, he unselfishly trained graduate physicians seeking further training in Cardiology. He endorsed most of them to his friends abroad for further advancement.

          Realizing that many alumni physicians from abroad were coming home during the Christmas holidays, he thought of the month of December as the best time to gather them together in a class reunion or a school homecoming spiced by scientific sessions to showcase their multidisciplinary clinical practices. Thus, the UST Balikbayan Postgraduate Course was born. He nurtured this annual event toward Christmas time and soon it became institutionalized, with the Silver Jubilarians forming the core faculty. It was precisely for this purpose in 1980 that as he was traveling in the USA, in Miami, Florida inviting the Jubilarians when

death came as an unwanted invitee. Thereafter this Postgraduate Course was rightfully named after him - The Dr. Mariano M. Alimurung Memorial Postgraduate Course.

           As currently practised to this date. this postgraduate course brings alumni together to share many things after being separated by time, distance or priorities. More than the scientific output of the postgraduate course is the fleeting opportunity the alumni get to be with themselves and their former seatmates and classmates, reliving the times of the yesteryears with their mentors and recalling those occasions when they were at the University of Santo Tomas.

           More than a Post-Graduate course, it is a sentimental Homecoming.