Manila Regional Office

Station Director: (vacant)

The Station Director heads the VA Manila Regional Benefit Office and Outpatient Clinic. Manila Office is the Department’s only office located in a foreign country; the Director also serves as the United States Attaché for Veterans Affairs at the United States Embassy in the Philippines. In this role, the Director provides executive direction to 175 employees who administer medical and non-medical benefits to Veterans, their dependents, and their survivors residing in the Philippines to include disability compensation, pension, and the Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation benefits.

Monthly monetary disbursements total $20.7 million for approximately 13,000 beneficiaries throughout the Philippines. The clinic provides outpatient medical services for service connected eligible Veterans. VA services are provided within an annual operating budget of $18.7 million.

Assistant Director: Kevin J. McAllister

Kevin J. McAllister was selected as the Assistant Director of the VA Manila Regional Benefit Office and Outpatient Clinic on 16 September 2018. The Manila Office is the Department’s only office located in a foreign country; therefor, Kevin also serves as an Embassy Officer for the United States Embassy in the Philippines.

As the Assistant Director, he is responsible for day to day operations of 175 employees who administer medical and non-medical benefits to Veterans, their dependents, and their survivors residing in the Philippines to include disability compensation, pension, education, veteran readiness and the Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation (FVEC) benefits.

Kevin is a Veteran of the United States Marine Corps (four years) and the United States Army (six years) and has over 23 years of total federal service. He began his career with the VBA in 2008, as a loan specialist with VBA’s Loan Guaranty Service in the Specially Adapted Housing Programs policy and procedures division at VBA Central Office, Washington, DC.

He transitioned to the Office of Management as a management and program analyst in March of 2012. In this role he served as a senior advisor to the director, Office of Management supporting the areas of Employee Development and Training, Acquisition, Administration and Facilities, Human Resources.

Kevin’s other professional accomplishments include the completion of the Partnership for Public Service- Excellence In Government Fellows leadership program (2016) and VBA’s Leadership Development Program (2011). He has also served on details as the Acting Deputy Director for the Office of Administration and Facilities (2018), Acting Deputy Director for the Office of Management (2016), Acting Deputy Director for the Office of Field Operations (2015), and Acting Chief of Administrations (2014).

Kevin was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and has three adult children. He currently resides in Manila with his wife Lucenia “Vicky” who was born in the Philippines.

Clinic Manager: John L. Stelsel

John L. Stelsel was appointed as the Health System Administrator (Clinic Manager) for the VA Manila Outpatient Clinic. In this role, he is responsible for the daily operations of VA’s only clinical location outside of the United States and its territories. The VA Manila Outpatient Clinic provides service-connected health care benefits to more than 6,000 unique Veterans annually. In addition to outpatient primary care, mental health, and specialty care, VA Manila also provides laboratory, radiology, and pharmacy services.

John began his VA career in 1992 as an Textile Care Manager Intern at the William S. Middleton VAMC in Madison, WI and served in various administrative leadership positions of increasing responsibility at nine VA facilities across the country.

Prior to this appointment John served as Assistant Director, VA Southern Nevada Healthcare System from September 2012-December 2022. He was directly involved in the day-to-day operations of VA Southern Nevada Healthcare System.

He served as the facility’s Acting Associate Director on several occasions; and in 2021, was detailed as Acting Associate Director of the VA Pacific Islands Health Care System.

John holds a both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in occupational safety from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He is also a graduate of several leadership programs including VA’s Health Care Leadership Institute and is a Fellow-Level Mentor in the national mentor certification program.

Veterans Service Center Manager: Hung Dinh

Veterans Service Center Manager is responsible for providing information and assistance to Veterans, their dependents and survivors regarding their rights to benefits under laws and regulations administered by VA and other agencies.

Hung Dinh was a Supervisory Veterans Service Representative at the Seattle Decision Review Operations Center (DROC). He oversaw fifty-two Seattle Regional Office DROC Decision Reviews Officer (DRO) responsible for adjudicating Appeals Modernization Act (AMA) claims. Hung was detailed to the Office of Field Operations and served as a management analyst in the Operation Management unit from January 2018 – March 2018. He also completed his detail assignment as Assistant Veterans Service Center Manager for San Diego Regional Office and graduated from Leadership Enrichment and Progression (LEAP) in August 2018.

Hung joined VBA as a Veterans Service Representative (VSR) at the Seattle Regional Office in November 2008. He progressed to an Authorization Quality Review Specialist (AQRS) where he gained a variety of technical and analytical skills and was selected as a challenge instructor hosted by Cleveland Regional Office. He was selected as an Assistant Coach in 2014. During this time, he was working with a diverse group of employees ranging from claim assistants to rating specialists. He led the “Clear Crew,” a post-determination team solely responsible for the rating production goal of the Seattle Regional Office. He also led the NWQ implementation effort for the Seattle Regional Office in 2015. After becoming a Coach, he transitioned to the Seattle DRAS to work with a group of rating specialists and successfully assisted with the specialized DES mission. Prior to his current post, he served as a Coach for Seattle DROC Higher Level Review team 3 & 4. Through these experiences, he gained valuable experience and insights of workload management, leading people, partnering, driving result and business acumen skills.

Hung earned a B.A. in Biochemistry and a B.S. in Economics from University of Washington in 2008. In 2014, Mr. Dinh graduated with a Master of Business Administration from Seattle University.

Support Services Division Chief: Maricar Tan, M.D.

Dr. Maricar Tan, Chief of the Support Services Division, serves as the station’s Head of Finance, Administration, Logistics, and Facilities Support for VBA and VHA operations.

Maricar’s VA career started in 2007 at the Martinsburg VA Medical Center as a Health Technician in Medical Service and since assumed many roles to include Administrative Support Assistant, GI-Endoscopy Technician, Performance Improvement Coordinator, Program Analyst-Quality Management; and in 2016, became the Executive Assistant to the Associate Director where she had oversight over Fiscal, Logistics/Supply Chain Management, Medical Administration, Emergency Management, Environmental Management, Public Safety, Facility Management, Privacy, Prosthetics, VERA, and Police Service; then later EA to the Associate Director-Patient Care Services where she had oversight over Nursing, Sterile Processing, Nutrition and Food Service, and Education and Learning Resources.

Besides overseeing the daily administrative, operational, and clinical services of the facility on behalf of the Executive Leadership Team, Dr. Tan has been trained under the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and served as Incident Command Staff on multiple emergent occasions; served as a Volunteer English to Tagalog VA Document and VA Voice Translator under the VA Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Program through the VHA Office of Communications; designated facility’s Information Access Management (IAM)/Customer User Provisioning System (CUPS) Facility Point of Contact through the Office of Information & Technology (OI&T), Austin Information Technology Center (AITC), Mainframe Access Management Team; trained in Green Belt/Lean Six Sigma and facilitated multiple performance improvement (PI) projects and workgroups; trained Fact-Finder through the Law Enforcement Training Center (LETC); and recently served as Acting Chief Supply Chain Officer.

Additionally, Dr. Tan is a 2022 graduate of the highly competitive VHA Health Care Leadership Development Program (HCLDP) that ingrained VA health system principles, values, and leadership philosophies.

Maricar was born in the Philippines where she got her undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Technology and graduate degree as a Medical Doctor (MD) from the Pontifical University of Santo Tomas in Manila. She immigrated to the United States in 2000 to start her family. She and her husband of 25 years have been blessed with two children; one pursuing a major in Criminology; the eldest graduated with a BS in Medical Microbiology and Immunology and will be pursuing a MD program.