Dr. Marcelo Y. Jaochico, one of the health workers in Pampanga who may had battled the invisible coronavirus disease (COVID 19), succumbed on Tuesday night, March 24, 2020.
He was 56. Jaochico, known to many as Doc Mar, is one of the first ever all-around Doctor to the Barrios assigned in Calanasan, Apayao for almost 16 years.
He served Pampanga as the Provincial Health Officer since 2013.
He graduated Zoology from the University of Sto. Tomas and took up Medicine at the Angeles University Foundation.
He then became a scholar at the University of the Philippines Manila, where he finished Cum Laude in Master of Hospital Administration.
Jaochico also became a resident at the Manila Medical Center and a substitute instructor at the Emilio Aguinaldo College where he met his wife, who is also in the medical field and currently working as an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW). He was a father of three.
In his daughter, Cielo, last post for him, she wrote “Dad, sabi ko pa naman pag nakapag-abroad ako, bibilhan kita ng gusto mong massage chair sa Ogawa na lagi mong tinitignan sa Fairview Terraces.
Sinabi ko iyon habang nasa kotse tayo tapos tumawa ka lang at na-touch ka kaso wala ka na, dad.” Because of his notable service in Calanasan, Apayao where he made medical services more accessible to people in remote areas, he received the Dr. Jose P. Rizal Memorial Award.
Doc Mar received a lot of love and prayers when his daughter, Cielo, posted on Facebook when he got sick last March 11.
He was remembered as a humble and one call and text away doctor.
Another doctor, Dr. Raul Jara, cardiologist at the Philippine Heart Center, also passed away due to COVID-19.