Minguita PADILLA, MD
Philippines

Dr. Ma. Dominga Cecilia “Minguita” B. Padilla is the president and CEO of the Eye Bank foundation of the Philippines, a humanitarian NGO that made corneal transplants accessible to blind Filipinos from all walks of life in the Philippines and in some parts of Asia since 1995. .  She is a founding Council Member of the Asia Cornea Society (ACS) and current Head of the Association of Eye Banks in Asia (AEBA).  She is an active consultant at the St Luke’s Medical Center, where she is also the Head of the Ocular Tissue Transplant Service.  Other current positions include membership in the Commission on Legislation of the Philippine Medical Association and the sector skills development group of the Unilab Foundation. 

She was a Clinical Associate Professor of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine from 2008 to 2021 and chaired the Committee on Ethics and Discipline at the St. Luke’s Medical Center from 2015 to 2021.

She was Head Executive Staff of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation during the latter part of the Aquino administration (2015-2016) and then became spokesperson for the Universal Healthcare (UHC) Study group of the University of the Philippines until the UHC Act was signed in 2019.  

Dr. Padilla is an author and co-author of various published papers on Ophthalmology as well as socio-political essays.  Her interests include eye banking, dry eyes, ocular infections, keratoprosthesis, public health and good governance. 

Dr. Padilla is a recipient of multiple awards for her work in Eye Banking, prevention of blindness, community service, curbing health insurance fraud; and service during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.