CEBU CITY?THE DEPARTment of Health (DOH) has taken steps to professionalize the massage therapy industry and remove the stigma of prostitution that has been associated with it.

Josie Hipolito, presiding officer of the DOH Human Resource Development Secretariat, said the department has started implementing Presidential Decree No. 856 that required massage clinics and spas to have at least one licensed massage therapist (LMT).

Section 62(a) of PD 856, or the Code on Sanitation, mandated that a massage therapist should have a certification issued by the DOH Committee of Examiners for Massage Therapy before practicing this skill.

Hipolito was in Cebu Friday last week for the oath-taking of 23 licensed therapists from the Visayas and Mindanao who passed recent licensure examinations.

?I urge you to uplift your profession. Getting your license is not merely a right to practice your profession because anyone can have the right to massage. However, your passing the licensure exam would verify to us that the public will be safe in your hands,? Hipolito told the new licensed therapists at the oath-taking rites.

Of the 136 who took the licensure exam last month in Davao, only 65 passed, or about 55 percent of the examinees. The Philippines now has about 4,000 licensed massage therapists.

Hipolito said the DOH introduced amendments to PD 856 to provide therapists better compensation.

A massage therapist has to undergo training from any of 12 DOH-accredited training institutions before taking licensure exams given in June and December each year.