Willie Ong | |
|---|---|
| 許偉利 | |
 Ong in 2018 | |
| Born | Willie Tan Ong (1963-10-24)October 24, 1963 (age 62)[1] Manila, Philippines |
| Alma mater | University of the Philippines Diliman (BS) De La Salle Medical and Health Sciences Institute (M.D) University of the Philippines Manila (M.P.H) |
| Occupations |
|
| Political party | Aksyon (2021–present) |
| Other political affiliations | Lakas (2018–2021) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| YouTube information | |
| Channel | |
| Years active | 2007–present |
| Genre | Informativevlogging |
| Subscribers | 10 million |
| Views | 1.58 billion |
| Last updated: April 28, 2025 | |
Willie Tan Ong (Chinese:許偉利;Pe̍h-ōe-jī:Khó͘ Úi-lī;pinyin:Xǔ Wěilì;[2] born October 24, 1963) is a Filipinocardiologist,internist and media personality who rose to prominence for giving medical advice through hisFacebook page andYouTube channel. Ong was also a candidate for the2019 Philippine Senate election, largely capitalizing on his social media presence. He was a candidate forvice president in the2022 Philippine presidential election as the running mate of formermayor of ManilaIsko Moreno.
Ong was born inManila on October 24, 1963. His father, Ong Yong, was an immigrant fromJinjiang,China who settled in the Philippines in 1922. Better known as Co Tec Tai (許澤台) in theChinese Filipino community,[2] the elder Ong was an active charity worker who served as president for various civic organizations.[3]
For his elementary and high school education, Ong attendedXavier School inSan Juan, Metro Manila. He studiedbotany at theUniversity of the Philippines Diliman[1] and then earned his medical degree at theDe La Salle Medical and Health Sciences Institute, which was then the College of Medicine ofDe La Salle University, in 1992.[3]
Ong completed hisresidency ininternal medicine atManila Doctors Hospital, where he was the chief resident. He then completed hisfellowship incardiology at thePhilippine General Hospital, where he was the chief fellow. He also achieved the award for the highest academic performance when he earned hisMasters in Public Health at theUniversity of the Philippines Manila.[4]
Ong has also authored books. His first publication is theMedicine Blue Book which is often used by Filipino medical students and neophyte doctors. He also wrote theCardiology Blue Book, which is a guidebook for diagnosis and treatment of heart conditions.[5]
He has also worked as a consultant with theDepartment of Health from 2010 to 2014.[5] Ong also established the Co Tec Tai Medical Museum inPasay, named in honor of his father and reportedly the first medical museum in the Philippines.[3] The museum documents the history of healthcare in the Philippines.
In 2005, Ong became part ofRJTV where he produced his own television show.[6] From 2008 to 2018, he made appearances onABS-CBN'sSalamat Dok. He did not have a regular segment on the television show and only participated as a volunteer. He leftSalamat Dok in October 2018 to pursue an electoral bid for the Senate in 2019.[7][6] Ong also wrote forThe Philippine Star and its sister publications,Pilipino Star Ngayon andPM PangMasa as a columnist.[5]
Ong was also a resident doctor and host atDZRH's public service programDocs on Call from 2009 to 2017.[8]
Ong started maintaining an online presence when he set up aYouTube channel in 2007, where he posts videos providing health tips and medical explainers targeted to a general audience.[7] As of November 2023, his YouTube channel "Doc Willie Ong" has 9.04 million subscribers, and is the 15th most subscribed YouTube channel in the Philippines.[9]
According to Ong, he established his presence in Facebook in 2013 after he confronted an impersonator who created a Facebook page using his name and reposted his medical columns and newspaper articles. The impersonator handed control of the page to the real Ong, and met with him every week to help grow his Facebook presence while Ong continued to write original content for the page.[6] Ong is currently the 10th most followed Filipino personality on Facebook, with 17 million Facebook followers as of November 2023.[10]
Ong launched a bid to get elected as aSenator in the2019 Philippine elections.[11] His electoral campaign had a focus on health issues, particularly on providing a "holistic approach to providing total health care", leveraging on him being the "only doctor running for the Senate". Had he won, he would be the fifth physician to be elected in the Congress' upper house precedingJuan Nolasco (1931–1935),Jose Locsin (1954–1957),Juan Flavier (1995–2007) andLuisa Ejercito Estrada (2001–2007).[12] Outside of health issues, Ong also expressed openness for the introduction ofdeath penalty for heinous crimes, the lowering of theminimum age of criminal responsibility, and the adoption offederalism as the form of government for the Philippines.[13]
Running on the banner of theLakas–CMD political party, Ong said he did not rely on campaign donations to "avoid being indebted to anyone". Instead he relied on his online presence onFacebook andYouTube where he has 9.7 million followers and 1 million subscribers respectively as of March 2019.[12] His campaign was also backed by 23 other pages with over 800 thousand followers and 28 groups with about 87.6 thousand members in Facebook. According to Ong's wife, some of these presence were managed byOverseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who volunteered to support Willie Ong's campaign. Ong was also backed by other social media pages which supported other candidates backed by PresidentRodrigo Duterte's administration such asImee Marcos andBong Go.[7]
Ong also supported theAnakalusugan Party-list'selection bid, by featuring for two seconds in an advertisement supporting the organization.[7]
He failed to win one of the 12 contested seats in the Senate, finishing 18th in the polls with 7.5 million votes. According to his wife, they spent around₱500,000 on his personal campaign. Counting only votes by OFWs, Ong ranked second behindBato dela Rosa.[7]
On September 21, 2021, it was announced that he will run forvice president in2022 as therunning mate ofManila mayorIsko Moreno.[14] Ong left Lakas–CMD a day later after his announcement to run for vice president.[15] He joined Moreno's political party,Aksyon Demokratiko, on September 25.[16] On May 9, 2022, Ong lost in his bid toSara Duterte, placing fourth out of nine candidates. Ong conceded to Duterte on May 11.[17]
Despite undergoing treatment for cancer inSingapore, Ong filed his certificate of candidacy for senator on October 3, 2024 for the2025 Philippine elections through his wife, Anna Liza Ramoso.[18][19] He said that he will not run a regular electoral campaign, stating that his senatorial campaign will be run with no funds and no connection with other political personalities in order for him to run "the cleanest way."[20] On February 13, 2025, he announced his withdrawal of his candidacy to focus on his recovery.[21] He later endorsed the candidacies ofBam Aquino andImee Marcos for senator.[22][23]
Ong is married to Anna Liza Ramoso, who is also a physician.[1][5] They first met each other in 1988 while both were students at DLSU-EAC Medical School. They got married 5 years later.[8] They have two daughters.[5]
On September 14, 2024, Ong revealed that he had been diagnosed withsarcoma and was undergoing chemotherapy.[24] He was also diagnosed withneutropenic sepsis two days later.[25] With his brother's help, Ong had gone to Singapore to undergo treatment atParkway East Hospital under oncologist Ang Peng Tiam.[26][19] On October 8, after six weeks of treatment, Ong publicly revealed that his sarcoma has been reduced by 60%, stating that given the exceptional difficulty in treating sarcoma, "It's really a miracle".[19]
| Year | Office | Party | Votes received | Result | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | % | P. | Swing | |||||
| 2019 | Senator of the Philippines | Lakas–CMD | 7,616,265 | 16.10% | 18th | — | Lost | |
| 2025 | Aksyon | 7,371,944 | 12.85% | 27th | -3.25 | Withdrawn | ||
| 2022 | Vice President of the Philippines | 1,878,531 | 3.59% | 4th | — | Lost | ||
Prominent cancer specialist Ang Peng Tiam of Parkway Cancer Centre[...]