Brief History of SLP development and Education
SLP was first established in the Philippines in 1978. Professor Rosella De Jesus-Sutadisastra, in collaboration with two U.S. Peace Corps volunteers, Kathleen Mary Boehigheimer and Kathleen A. Quigley, developed and implemented a four-year bachelor’s degree program in SLP after receiving approval from the Board of Regents of the University of the Philippines-Manila (UPM). In 1982, Maria Teresa Castillo became the first and sole graduate of UPM. By 1989, there were only 15 graduates from the program. The College of Allied Medical Professions at UPM (UP-CAMP) opened the Master of Rehabilitation Science-Speech Pathology (MRS-SP) program in 1998. A total of 377 SLPs had graduated from the program by 2010. The University of Santo Tomas (UST) opened their Bachelor of Science in Speech-Language Pathology (BSSLP) in 2009. Cebu Doctors’ University became the first university to offer the BSSLP program in the Visayas and Mindanao regions in 2012. Finally, in 2014, De La Salle University’s Institute of Health Sciences opened their BSSLP program. Currently, of the aforementioned universities, four universities offer undergraduate SLP programs, and one also offers a master’s SLP program. At the same time, a ten-month speech pathology training program is offered at the University of Visayas. This program has not been approved by the Commission on Education and is not recognized by the Professional Regulatory Board of Speech-Language Pathology.
Licensure system
In 1991, 30 speech pathology graduates founded the Philippine Association of Speech Pathologists (PASP). While the profession’s work in increasing its presence in the legislative space had continued during the early 2000s, PASP moved towards self-regulation amid reports of individuals providing SLP services despite not having adequate training. Members of PASP recognized the urgency to meet the Filipino public’s need for access to qualified clinicians and to obtain data to justify opening more university programs, training more clinicians, and nudging the profession toward national recognition. In 2008, Prof. Jocelyn Marzan and two other SLPs, Carla Cuadro and Barbara Munar, presented a validation research paper on the core competencies that are expected of SLPs practicing in the country to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). The paper became the basis for the development of a core SLP curriculum. By 2009, the Technical Committee for Speech-Language Pathology Education panel was established. The committee put out a CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) 29 series of 2011: Policies, Standards and Guidelines for Speech-Language Pathology Education (CHED, 2011). The memorandum outlined a five-year, competency-based SLP degree program whose fundamental structure promoted the “end view of meeting the national health service delivery needs and keeping pace with the demands of global competitiveness” (CHED, 2011).
In March 2019, President Rodrigo Duterte signed a bill, the Republic Act No. 11249 regulating the practice of speech-language pathology in the Philippines. By 2021, the first chair for the Professional Regulatory Board (PRB) of SLP, Mae Catherine Sadicon, was sworn into office, along with Juan Paolo Santuele as its first member. Rowena Arao-Ynion became its second member in 2022. These individuals became the first registered speech-language pathologists (RSLPs) in the Philippines in April, 2022. By virtue of the grandfather clause that applied to Filipino SLPs who graduated before the law was signed, the historical milestone was achieved when these SLPs participated in the very first oath taking at the Manila Hotel in March, 2023.
Prior to the professionalization of audiology in the Philippines, trained audiometricians performed audiology work. A course had been made available to ENTs for reading and interpreting auditory brain response (ABR) results. For a time, it was only these ENT graduates who, as non-audiologists, were trained to diagnose hearing loss via ABR. By 1999, a Masters of Clinical Audiology program had been established at both UP (as MClinAud) and UST (as MClAud). Today, any graduate with a master’s degree in clinical audiology can practice as an audiologist.