📰 From the news · Impersonating a real college/agent
A Korean "doctor" in Clark, a Chinese "doctor" in Manila, a man who practised for twenty years: the NBI arrests under the Medical Act of 1959, and the licence register that caught them
The Philippines regulates doctors through the Professional Regulation Commission, whose licence register is public, and its National Bureau of Investigation has spent 2025 and 2026 using it.
According to the NBI's own press release, on 14 August 2025 its agents arrested a Korean national, named in the release as John Suk, in the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga for violating sections 8 and 10 of the Medical Act of 1959, after intelligence that he was practising medicine without PRC registration. When he could not present a licence or accreditation he was arrested on the spot. The Inquirer reported a Chinese national arrested on 12 March 2026 by the NBI's National Capital Region office after the PRC confirmed he held no licence, board certification or special permit, and charged under the same act. GMA reported an earlier case of a man who had practised for twenty years without a licence before the NBI arrested him, and The Star reported a Cavite arrest in August 2026 over invasive cosmetic procedures, including injections and "jawtox", sold at low prices from an unauthorised clinic.
The Philippines is also a destination for foreign medical students, and these cases are relevant to them in two ways. First, the register that caught the impostors is the same one a graduate of a Philippine medical school must get onto; "studied in the Philippines" and "licensed in the Philippines" are different claims, and only the second is checkable. Second, foreign nationals cannot simply practise on a home-country qualification; the special-permit route exists precisely so that the PRC can verify it, and the Clark and Manila arrests happened because nobody had asked the PRC.
For a student weighing a Philippine MD, the practical questions are the regulator's: is the school on the CHED list, do its graduates sit and pass the Philippine licensure exam, and does your own country's council accept the degree. Those answers come from the regulators, not the recruiter.
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This is a news-sourced case summary written by the TrustMBBS team, not a first-person account; see the sources above. They reflect one person's experience and are not a verdict on any institution. Report your own: Report a scam or tell your story.