Thirty years ago, a group of physical therapists and physicians assembled to push for the passage of a bill that would regulate the practice of physical and occupational therapy in the Philippines.

Their efforts were rewarded when on June 21, 1969, the bill drafted by Congressman Jose Aldeguer of Iloilo was passed into law – Republic Act No. 5680. Entitled the “Physical and Occupational Therapy Law” it provided for the creation of a Board of Physical and Occupational Therapy, a five-person body composed of a chair and four members, two of them physical therapists and another two occupational therapists.

The first Board was constituted on October 3, 1972 with Dr. Jesus Mendoza (the first registrant) as Chairman and Mr. Henry Pit-Og, Mrs. Josefina C. Rabino, Mrs. Conchita Abad, and Mrs. Fe Isaac-Saño as Members. The Board promulgated the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Physical and Occupational Therapy Law which was subsequently approved on November 2, 1972. The Board conducted the first licensure examinations for eighteen occupational therapists and twenty-six physical therapists on July 23, 1973.

It implemented partial computerization of licensure examinations in 1994 and full computerization a year after. In 1994, the PRC and the boards of the various health professions, including the Board of Physical and Occupational Therapy, signed an agreement with the Department of Education on the rules of school inspection.

With the agreement, the Board intensified its campaign to vigorously inspect schools offering PT-OT programs. In 1995, the Board participated in the Consultative Conference to draft the Standards of PT-OT Education which were embodied in CHED Memorandum Order No. 7, series of 1998. The Board also worked in close coordination with the Department of Health on the program of accreditation of affiliation centers in the training of PT and OT students and in the review of disability programs.