By Cyrus A. Natividad

Dr. Aileen Riego-Javier is an Outstanding Centralian, and one of the Top Pathologists of the Philippines.

The long list of achievements and awards of Outstanding Centralian Dr. Ailen Reigo-Javier backs up her label as “best pathologist in the country.” Dr. Javier is listed in Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, and Dictionary of International Biography, and Who’s Who in Medicine and Health Care. Javier received several awards in Pathology and was declared 1995 Pathologist of the Year.

The Philippine Society of Oncology conferred on her the Most Outstanding Oncologist Award on September 13, 2014 and the Lifetime Achievement Award on September 22, 2021 by Philippine Council for Quality Assurance in Clinical Laboratories.

Javier helped set up the Anatomic Pathology Division of the Philippine Children’s Medical Center and Lung Center of the Philippines and organized the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) in 1991, where she was also Executive Officer of its Department of Laboratory Medicine, as well as Deputy Executive Director for Administrative Services from 1994 to 2001.

She was also the Institute’s Quality Management Representative and TQM Chairman, responsible for the ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 9001:2008 certification program from Feb. 2001 to Feb 2011, making the NKTI the 1st government hospital to be ISO certified. The NKTI Laboratory is the 1st ISO 15189:2007 accredited hospital-based laboratory in the country.

Dr. Aileen Riego-Javier is presently Consultant of the Department of Pathology and Patient Safety Committee Chair of the VRP Medical Center. She is former Chairman of the Department of Pathology, Deputy Medical Director, and Medical Director of the same Center.

Dr. Javier earned both her Bachelor of Science and Medical Degrees at the University of the Philippines. She finished the academic requirements of a master’s degree in Hospital Administration at the Ateneo Graduate School of Business. She became a licensed physician in 1972 and obtained a certification from the Philippine Board of Pathology in 1977. She had post-graduate training in Pathology at the University of the Philippines – Philippine General Hospital System. She was also a fellow in General and Renal Pathology at the University of Singapore as well as a fellow in Pediatric Pathology at the Babies’ Hospital, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, New York. She was awarded the 2006 Outstanding Career Executive Officers (CEOs) Program of the Career Executive Service Board (CESB) at the Queensland Univ. of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.

She was an instructor, then, assistant professor, and finally, senior lecturer at the University of the Philippines in 1972 – 1980 and 1987 – 1994, respectively. She was also lecturer on laboratory management at the Ateneo Graduate School of Business. She is past president of the Philippine Society of Pathologists, Philippine Society for Quality in Health Care, Philippine Blood Coordinating Council and Philippine Council for Quality Assurance in Clinical Laboratories, past councilor of the International Academy of Pathology, Asia Pacific Association of Societies of Pathologists, Philippine Society of Oncologists, past chairman of the Philippine Board of Pathology, past board member of the Philippine National Red Cross, Rizal Chapter, and charter board member of the Fetus as a Patient Institute. She is a life member of the Transplantation Society of the Philippines, U.P. Medical Alumni Society, U.P. Alumni Association, Quezon City Medical Society, Philippine Medical Association, and Philippine Bible Society. She is a past member of the Central Philippine University Corporation (CPU, Inc.).n July 17, 1995, she was conferred her Career Executive Service (CES) Eligibility and was one of the top 20 Managerial Aptitude

Test Battery (MATB) examinees. On February 16, 1998, the President appointed her to Career Executive Service Officer Rank IV (CESO IV). On September 10, 2007, the Civil Service Commission appointed her to Career Executive Officer Rank IV (CEO IV).

On September 25, 2006, she was given the CESB 2006 Outstanding Career Executive Officer (CEO) Award by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Malacanang. In 2007, she received DOH Certificates of Commendation for her Comprehensive Management and Operation Assessment of Rizal Medical Center (August 2007) and Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (September 2007).

Dr. Aileen Riego-Javier, CPU High School 1963, is a third-generation Centralian. She was the 1962 Miss Annual Picnic of CPU and graduated valedictorian. In 1997, she was one of five Outstanding CPU Alumni of Metro Manila awardees for Excellence in the field of Medicine. She was the commencement speaker of the Class of 2003 during the CPU Development High School’s 79th Commencement Exercises and was a 2003 Distinguished Centralian awardee in Medicine-Pathology during CPU’s 98th Anniversary. On August 3, 2005, she was a CPU Centennial Academic Lecturer. She has been a Board Member of the CPUAA-Greater Metro Manila Chapter since 2005. She was the CPU’s 85th Commencement Exercises Speaker of the University Colleges 1st Semester SY 2012-2013. She served as a Board Member (Coopted Sector) of the CPU Corporation in 2013-2016.

Her grandfather, the late Inocentes Alteros, worked for and studied under Rev. William Valentine at the Jaro Industrial School, the forerunner of the Central Philippine College and Central Philippine University, in 1908-1910.

In 1935-1937, Dr. Riego-Javier’s mother, Dr. Alicia Alteros-Riego, was among 21 children of Jaro Industrial School alumni who were enrolled at Central Philippine College, where she finished her Associate in Arts degree and was the recipient of the Alma Mater Prize. Dr. Alteros-Riego served CPU as a member of the Board of Trustees and of the University Corporation.