| Bayani “Ani” Borja Elma Lutherville, Maryland Filipino Community National Leader Leadership With Compassion |
On a dark and humid Tuesday night on November 3, 1942, four
hours after the Santa Ana, Manila church bells rang out the
angelus, the third son of Medardo R. Elma, Sr. and Hiwaga B.
Elma was born with the obstetrical guidance of Dr. Iluminada
Santiago (who became the godmother of the newborn child).
Although christened as “Gerardo”, he was enrolled as “Bayani” in
the first grade at the tender age of six years. He has carried that
moniker ever since, but the first year of his life was already a
defining moment. Stricken with pneumonia and not responding to
sulfadiazine (the only antibiotic available at the time), the famous
town physician, Dr. Pantaleon J. Aguila, tensely informed his
parents that their frail and gravely sick son would not live to see
the next morning. But the Zodiac sign Scorpio states, ”Those born
on November 3 are fighters with the stamina and endurance to
hang in there.”
This infant, hanging by the thread in the throes of death, knocked
the world off its normal axis. After this precarious beginning (as
fate defies reality, with the singularity of purpose and many years
of hard work) who would have thought that he would become what
he is today— one of the 1998-1999 Awardees of the Twenty
Outstanding Filipino-Americans in the United States and Canada.
hours after the Santa Ana, Manila church bells rang out the
angelus, the third son of Medardo R. Elma, Sr. and Hiwaga B.
Elma was born with the obstetrical guidance of Dr. Iluminada
Santiago (who became the godmother of the newborn child).
Although christened as “Gerardo”, he was enrolled as “Bayani” in
the first grade at the tender age of six years. He has carried that
moniker ever since, but the first year of his life was already a
defining moment. Stricken with pneumonia and not responding to
sulfadiazine (the only antibiotic available at the time), the famous
town physician, Dr. Pantaleon J. Aguila, tensely informed his
parents that their frail and gravely sick son would not live to see
the next morning. But the Zodiac sign Scorpio states, ”Those born
on November 3 are fighters with the stamina and endurance to
hang in there.”
This infant, hanging by the thread in the throes of death, knocked
the world off its normal axis. After this precarious beginning (as
fate defies reality, with the singularity of purpose and many years
of hard work) who would have thought that he would become what
he is today— one of the 1998-1999 Awardees of the Twenty
Outstanding Filipino-Americans in the United States and Canada.
Bayani is a historical tourist, a conjurer of some kind, making the past present through the magic of his
imagination and memory. Reflecting on his childhood in Santa Ana, Manila, he recalls—swimming in the
Pasig River with his two older brothers, Justice Magdangal B. Elma and Medardo B. Elma, Jr., weekend treks
to the Santa Ana Race Tracks, and nightly sorties to the Santa Ana Cabaret.(Bayani’s third and younger
brother, Antero B. Elma was born eight years after him).
His maternal grandfather, Gerardo, wrote novels in Tagalog and Spanish, including his biography entitled
“Ang Talambuhay ni Gerardo Borja.” Echoing the name “Gerardo”, Bayani discovered that he had ink in his
veins when his composition, “ A Helpful Act I Did “ was published in the Santa Ana Elementary School
Digest when he was in the fourth grade. From that time on, writing struck a needle in his literary veins and
transformed his words into poems, and his phrases into essays and short stories. Substituting journalism
with industrial arts for his four years in Araullo High School, Bayani became the editor of his high school
paper “The Wall”. He won seven prizes in his school’s 1959 literary contest. As entrance scholar, Bayani
enrolled at the University of the Philippines still clinging to his dream— a dream of being a journalist.
But in a world of fragile dreams and life filled with hard edges and empty stomachs, he turned his drive and
determination to medicine, earning his Doctor of Medicine from the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay
Memorial Medical Center (UERMMMC) College of Medicne in 1968. He affirmed the truth of the oriental
proverb: Nothing is difficult in the world for someone who sets his mind to it. After teaching biochemistry for
one year in his alma mater, Bayani joined in the wave of Filipino physicians and fellow classmates to the
greener pastures of the United States in 1969. With the exception of one year internship at Nazareth Hospital
in the “City of Brotherly Love”, Pennsylvania, he has lived in Maryland for the past 28 years.
People born on the third of the month are supposedly ruled by the planet Jupiter. Those ruled by the number 3
have been said to rise to the highest positions in their sphere. Bayani is no exception. He became the first
non-Caucasian to be the Vice-Chief of Staff and member of the Board of Trustees of Maryland General
Hospital since the hospital’s establishment in 1881. His enthusiastic Jupiterian energies led to his elections
as president of the UERMMMC medical Alumni Association of America, president of the Philippine Physicians
in Maryland (APPM), Vice-Chairman of the Governor of Maryland Advisory Commission on Asian-Pacific
American Affairs, and a Baltimore city delegate to the Governing Council of the Medical-Chirurgical Faculty of
Maryland Section for International Medical Graduates and Medical-Chirurgical faculty of Maryland (State of
Maryland Medical Society) House of Delegates.
With all this myriad of activities, Bayani still finds time to do one of his greatest pleasures in life— writing.
Currently, he is the editor of the Association of Philippine Physicians in Maryland Newsletter. He has also
been the editor and a member of editorial boards of several medical societies’ scientific journals, as well as
for other alumni and community association newsletters. Additionally, he has contributed articles to the
Baltimore Sun, The Philippine News, and other publications.
Bayani’s commitment to excellence in education and the medical community has earned him other honors.
He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Quality Assurance and holds membership in the American
College of Physician Executives and the American Diabetic Association. He has been the recipient of the
“Citizen of Outstanding Merit” award twice given by the City of Baltimore, as well as awards for leadership and
outstanding service from the UERMMMC Medical Alumni Association and Foundation of America, and the
APPM. Bayani’s biography is published in the second edition of the 1999-2000 Marquis Who’s Who in
Medicine and Health Care.
Bayani states that beyond all this pageantry of success and achievement, these are the greatest pleasures
(“the apotheosis”) of his life— to be the proud father of his two children: Michael Anthony, a 1994 B.S.B.A.
graduate from Washington University in St. Louis and Mary Anne, a 1996 B.A. graduate from Bucknell
University; and a devoted husband to his wife of 27 years, Marie, a registered nurse, “the wind beneath my
wings”.
imagination and memory. Reflecting on his childhood in Santa Ana, Manila, he recalls—swimming in the
Pasig River with his two older brothers, Justice Magdangal B. Elma and Medardo B. Elma, Jr., weekend treks
to the Santa Ana Race Tracks, and nightly sorties to the Santa Ana Cabaret.(Bayani’s third and younger
brother, Antero B. Elma was born eight years after him).
His maternal grandfather, Gerardo, wrote novels in Tagalog and Spanish, including his biography entitled
“Ang Talambuhay ni Gerardo Borja.” Echoing the name “Gerardo”, Bayani discovered that he had ink in his
veins when his composition, “ A Helpful Act I Did “ was published in the Santa Ana Elementary School
Digest when he was in the fourth grade. From that time on, writing struck a needle in his literary veins and
transformed his words into poems, and his phrases into essays and short stories. Substituting journalism
with industrial arts for his four years in Araullo High School, Bayani became the editor of his high school
paper “The Wall”. He won seven prizes in his school’s 1959 literary contest. As entrance scholar, Bayani
enrolled at the University of the Philippines still clinging to his dream— a dream of being a journalist.
But in a world of fragile dreams and life filled with hard edges and empty stomachs, he turned his drive and
determination to medicine, earning his Doctor of Medicine from the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay
Memorial Medical Center (UERMMMC) College of Medicne in 1968. He affirmed the truth of the oriental
proverb: Nothing is difficult in the world for someone who sets his mind to it. After teaching biochemistry for
one year in his alma mater, Bayani joined in the wave of Filipino physicians and fellow classmates to the
greener pastures of the United States in 1969. With the exception of one year internship at Nazareth Hospital
in the “City of Brotherly Love”, Pennsylvania, he has lived in Maryland for the past 28 years.
People born on the third of the month are supposedly ruled by the planet Jupiter. Those ruled by the number 3
have been said to rise to the highest positions in their sphere. Bayani is no exception. He became the first
non-Caucasian to be the Vice-Chief of Staff and member of the Board of Trustees of Maryland General
Hospital since the hospital’s establishment in 1881. His enthusiastic Jupiterian energies led to his elections
as president of the UERMMMC medical Alumni Association of America, president of the Philippine Physicians
in Maryland (APPM), Vice-Chairman of the Governor of Maryland Advisory Commission on Asian-Pacific
American Affairs, and a Baltimore city delegate to the Governing Council of the Medical-Chirurgical Faculty of
Maryland Section for International Medical Graduates and Medical-Chirurgical faculty of Maryland (State of
Maryland Medical Society) House of Delegates.
With all this myriad of activities, Bayani still finds time to do one of his greatest pleasures in life— writing.
Currently, he is the editor of the Association of Philippine Physicians in Maryland Newsletter. He has also
been the editor and a member of editorial boards of several medical societies’ scientific journals, as well as
for other alumni and community association newsletters. Additionally, he has contributed articles to the
Baltimore Sun, The Philippine News, and other publications.
Bayani’s commitment to excellence in education and the medical community has earned him other honors.
He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Quality Assurance and holds membership in the American
College of Physician Executives and the American Diabetic Association. He has been the recipient of the
“Citizen of Outstanding Merit” award twice given by the City of Baltimore, as well as awards for leadership and
outstanding service from the UERMMMC Medical Alumni Association and Foundation of America, and the
APPM. Bayani’s biography is published in the second edition of the 1999-2000 Marquis Who’s Who in
Medicine and Health Care.
Bayani states that beyond all this pageantry of success and achievement, these are the greatest pleasures
(“the apotheosis”) of his life— to be the proud father of his two children: Michael Anthony, a 1994 B.S.B.A.
graduate from Washington University in St. Louis and Mary Anne, a 1996 B.A. graduate from Bucknell
University; and a devoted husband to his wife of 27 years, Marie, a registered nurse, “the wind beneath my
wings”.
Washington D.C. Since 1987
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