When the March 2026 Physicians Licensure Examination results came out, Erwin Ken Angcual Parchaso stood outside his house and wept. His name was nowhere on the list. Then he spotted the topnotcher’s entry — flagged as “Name Withheld” and under investigation — and felt a flash of resentment.
“Sabi ko, ‘Siya siguro ang rason bakit hindi ako pumasa. Hindi ako pasok sa curve dahil sa kanya. Buti nga sa kanya! Under investigation siya!'” he said.
The person he was cursing was himself.
Parchaso, a graduate of Lyceum Northwestern University in Dagupan City, Pangasinan, delivered his account before the Professional Regulation Commission, the Philippine Medical Association, the Board of Medicine, and his fellow new physicians during the oath-taking ceremony. The speech, attributed to him directly, has since circulated widely.
His path to the license took a decade. He sat for the board exam three times — technically. On his second scheduled attempt, he never walked into the testing center.
“I sat at home, stared at my books, and admitted: ‘I’m not ready,'” he said. He later acknowledged the real reason was fear — of failing again, of letting down the people who believed in him, and of confirming what part of him feared most: that he was not meant to be a doctor.
The first attempt had already broken him in a different way. His girlfriend told him she was pregnant mid-exam season. “I thought, ‘How can I be a doctor when I don’t even know how to be a dad?'” He failed that exam. He credits that failure with giving him his family.
By the time he finally appeared at the testing center this March, he had spent ten years inside medicine not counting pre-medicine. He described the wait after submitting his papers, then not finding his name in the published results, then seeing that the top slot had been held back under the label “Name Withheld.”
The PRC had withheld Parchaso’s result for separate reasons from the five other examinees whose results were flagged for potential rule violations. In an April 20 press release, the commission said his “remarkable and consistent performance across all subjects” triggered a mandatory statistical review — not an integrity investigation. “This measure was undertaken not to cast any doubt on the examinee’s integrity or capabilities, but to affirm the accuracy and reliability of the results through the commission’s standard validation process,” the PRC said.
He was not informed. A colleague from Baguio, speaking publicly in his defense, noted that the PRC had no communication with Parchaso during the entire period, leaving him to conclude he had not passed.
His name was formally published on April 17 when the PRC updated its April 10 Facebook post. Alexis Bernardo Temblique of Cagayan State University-Tuguegarao placed second with a rating of 90.58 percent. Enrico Jose Pacatang Gomez of De La Salle Medical and Health Sciences Institute ranked third at 89.92 percent. The PRC has not released Parchaso’s rating publicly.
In his speech, Parchaso addressed retakers directly, drawing on what he described as years of crying in the dark so his wife wouldn’t hear, of holding his son and wondering if he was failing him too.
“You are not behind. You are not a failure. You are not your past scores,” he said.
He credited his wife, Jael Kei, as the anchor through the years, and named his son Zackary as his reason for continuing. He also acknowledged Lyceum Northwestern University, the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center where he completed his internship, and his review center, Wise.owl by LM Academy.
The PRC said 1,954 of 2,781 examinees passed the March 2026 examination, a passing rate of 70.26 percent. LNU described Parchaso’s achievement as the first time the university in Pangasinan has produced a topnotcher in this examination cycle.
Parchaso ended his remarks by introducing himself the way he could not during the weeks his name was withheld: “I’m Erwin Ken Angcual Parchaso. Not withheld. Not hidden. Just here.”
