Commissioner Dr. Nona S. Ricafort of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) promised to help organize an Educational Mission to the US and Canada for prospective Region VIII investors of MT business. She made the promise during the meeting with a group of local businessmen on June 5, 2006 at Leyte Normal University (LNU), in response to issues raised by Dr. Manuel Santamaria with regard to starting a local MT company.

Dr. Santamaria, a practicing physician and a local businessman, stated that without government support, it would be difficult for a start-up local MT company to compete with established MT companies in Manila and Cebu. With the current move of universities here to offer MT as a course, there must be a local MT company to absorb the graduates.

The proposed educational mission will give local businessmen the opportunity to talk with Filipino doctors and chiefs of hospitals in the US and Canada as a vehicle in obtaining MT contracts with hospitals and clinics from these countries.