Dr. Benito P. Atienza, MD
Blessed Brother Arnould Reche FSC Distinguished Alumni awardee for Science, Technology and Research, Dr. Benito Palines Atienza hails from Taysan, San Jose, Batangas. Born on April 26, 1962, it was the same year that De La Salle Lipa was established.
His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Fausto Atienza, sent him to De La Salle Lipa in 1975 for his secondary education where he graduated in 1979.
He completed a degree in medical technology at the University of Santo Tomas and later on pursued medicine in another Lasallian school, De La Salle Health Sciences.
After a year of practice as a pediatrician, he was put to the test. It was the time when his sense of community was challenged. A typhoid outbreak loomed in his hometown afflicting thousands of residents, most of whom were his patients and grade school students. It was out of this unfortunate event that prompted him to come up with a project that will equip and empower the members of the community to combat and prevent diseases and focus on health care.
With the help of his colleagues, they created the Child Community (Bulilit) Health Workers Foundation in San José, where school children were trained as health workers. From its creation in 1999, the foundation has already spread to other provinces such as Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan, Quezon, Pampanga and Gen. Santos to name a few. To date, around 2,000 school children and hundreds of teachers and mothers have taken part in the training.
From a founder, to achiever. Since the establishment of his foundation, not only did he receive praises and compliments, he was likewise honored in 2004 and 2009 by the Dr. José P. Rizal Memorial Awards of the Philippine Medical Association in the community leadership category for founding and spearheading the Foundation, the first ever child-to-child program to be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In 2005, he was named one of the Caring Physicians of the World by the World Medical Association. And the list goes on. In 2009, he was one of the honorees of The Outstanding Filipino Physicians by JCI Senate Philippine. In 2010, he received an Achievement Award from De La Salle Health Sciences Institute. And these are only a few of his awards from a long list of achievements.
He is currently an active member of various professional and non-governmental organizations where he has held or currently holds major positions; and one of the respected and most sought after pediatricians in the province.