For one week in late June and early July, dozens of doctors, dentists, and volunteers from Houston and Melbourne set aside their routines to bring free medical care to six communities across Leyte, Northern Samar, and Cebu – some reachable only after long drives on rough roads.
By the time the 2026 Medical Mission wrapped on July 6, thousands of Filipino families had received checkups, dental work, eyeglasses, and pediatric care many had gone without for years.
The effort was organized by SamarLeyte Texas (SLT), a Houston-based nonprofit led by Clemente Logronio Jr., M.D., that has spent years pairing overseas Filipino volunteers with communities back home – through medical missions, disaster relief, livelihood projects, and college scholarships.
This year’s mission drew a 64-member international delegation, including 52 volunteers from the U.S. and a 12-member Australian dental team from Happy Dentistry in Melbourne, led by Dr. Jenny Liu. They worked side by side with Philippine health professionals, local officials, and community volunteers across sites in Anibong, Santa Cruz, Rawis, Catarman, Talisay, and the Sisters of Mary school in Cebu.
“The true measure of a mission is not only the number of lives we touch, but the number of dreams we help awaken,” said Logronio, reflecting on the week.
Behind that sentiment were dozens of coordinators managing logistics on the ground. SLT Board Director Robert Salazar, M.D., led the medical mission, while married couples Cesar and Vicki Lagrimas, and Nellie and Zosimo Bernadas, ran operations in Northern Samar and Leyte.
Anthony and Eliza Sollano oversaw the Cebu sites, and transportation (no small task across several islands) fell to Billy Laruda and Board Director Ryan Sudario, M.D. SLT also credited Congressman Stephen James “Jimboy” Tan of Samar’s 1st District for helping secure land transport for the teams.
Nearly a third of the patients who came through were children. Many families arrived for a single service and left with several – a dental check here, an eye exam there, medicine to take home. In total, volunteers logged more than 7,000 individual services, from consultations to circumcision procedures, with a 96.5 percent completion rate across all sites.
The mission’s largest turnout was in Santa Cruz, San Miguel, where more than 2,000 people completed care. Two smaller sites, Catarman and the Sisters of Mary school, managed something rarer still – every registered patient who showed up left having completed their care.
The week wasn’t only about medicine. A day before the mission began, SLT interviewed 18 new applicants for its college scholarship program at Eastern Visayas State University, a reminder that the organization’s work extends beyond a single week of clinics.
Local partners made the reach possible, including Happy Dentistry, the Dental Association of Northern Samar Chapter, the Philippine Nurses Association-Northern Samar Chapter, and a team of Manila and Cebu-based dental volunteers led by Dr. Nelson Esguerra.
The mission closed at the Sisters of Mary schools, where students greeted volunteers with a gratitude program after receiving checkups of their own. “Gratitude fills our hearts,” the school wrote afterward in a public message.
Editor’s note: All figures, quotes and details in this report were provided by SamarLeyte Texas from its 2026 Medical Mission Impact Report. This publication has not independently verified the statistics.
