EMERGENCE | The Doctor of the Masses: A Tribute to a Wonderfully Flawed, Brilliant Mentor

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews /18 June 2026) — In medical school, we are taught anatomy, ethics, and patient care. But my most profound education did not come from a lecture hall — it came quietly, at the bedside, watching my mentor. He never lectured us about social justice; he lived it. When a family could not afford his fee, it simply disappeared. Through these quiet acts, he conscientized an entire generation of doctors. Medicine, he showed us, was caught, not taught.

His practice was vast, his reach extraordinary. Affluent families claimed him as their trusted physician, while the most marginalized found in him a fierce ally who defended their dignity. He moved seamlessly between these worlds because activism was not an accessory to his career — it was its beating heart.

He was not only a healer but a defender. I remember vividly when a hotel worker was about to face dismissal for having Hepatitis B. My mentor responded with a letter that was both scientifically precise and laced with biting sarcasm. He schooled the hotel management on epidemiology, dismantling their prejudice with science, and defended the worker’s right to dignity. He wielded medicine as a weapon against injustice.

His rounds extended far beyond hospital wards — into prisons, where political detainees languished. For his courage, he himself endured six months of imprisonment. Yet confinement only confirmed what we already knew: he was a man willing to walk among the shackled if it meant standing with the people.

To be his student was to be ushered into a larger, braver world. He introduced me to activists not as a shadowing student but as a “doctor soon to be,” validating my future before I had earned it.

In quiet conversations, he shared the raw histories of those who struggled, teaching me the true weight of the white coat when worn for the masses.

Years later, when I became an anesthesiologist involved in surgical missions for children with cleft deformities, he did not just praise me — he acted. He sent generous donation, a quiet blessing that the seed he had planted had borne fruit.

Even when life carried him across the ocean to Texas, our friendship bond endured. I visited him there, where he proudly showed me his clinic and welcomed me into his home. That evening, he revealed another side — a man of joy and artistry. He performed a private concert, moving from violin to clarinet, while his wife teased him for showing off. In that living room, surrounded by music and laughter, I saw the complete man.

When he visited Davao City, his priority was not leisure but connection. He sought out close friends, relatives, comrades from the movement, and to my profound honor, he came straight to the hospital to visit me. Seeing him there, in the center of my clinical world, was a moment I will carry forever. He had crossed oceans, but his roots, loyalty, and love for his fellow healers never wavered.

Words cannot capture the depth of my gratitude. He was flawed, yes — wonderfully flawed — but brilliant. He was the doctor of the masses because he saw dignity in everyone: the affluent families, the exploited workers, the young students. He showed us that medicine is inseparable from justice. We, his students, are the living continuation of his unwritten prescriptions. As long as we heal both the patient and the society they inhabit, his melody will never fade.

We fought on the same side of life’s struggles, and it is hard to say goodbye. Yet I hold hope that when my own time comes, I will meet him again — not in silence, but in solidarity.

Rest in Power. Rest in Justice. Dr. Dante Escalante, your song will live on.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Dr. Jean A. Lindo is an anaesthesiologist. She chairs Gabriela Southern Mindanao and is Secretary General for Mindanao of the Gabriela Women’s Party. She teaches Community Medicine at the Davao Medical School Foundation, Inc.)