THE Department of Health (DOH) will give P500 million to the Cebu City Government for the construction of a new Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC).
The City learned from DOH Assistant Secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial about the help, which was promised less than two weeks after a powerful earthquake hit Bohol and Cebu last Oct. 15 but wasn’t announced until yesterday.
In a one-page letter dated Oct. 25 yet, Ubial said the recommended financial assistance is only awaiting President Benigno Aquino III’s signature.
“We hope this will be approved soon so that rebuilding the lives and normalizing the local situation will happen at the soonest possible time for your affected Cebuano constituents,” she said.
CCMC chief of hospital Dr. Gloria Duterte welcomed the news of the assistance. “Happy kaayo ko kay mao ni akong hangyo sa DOH. I thought wala pa (I’m very happy because this was what I appealed to DOH for, but I thought it hadn’t been approved),” she said.
Quake toll
The City condemned the public hospital after inspectors found out that the M7.2 earthquake had left it unsafe for occupancy. It was among the public buildings and infrastructure worth a total of P2.2 billion that the quake destroyed or badly damaged.
The quake, which occurred less than a month before typhoon Yolanda swept across the central Philippines, has also displaced at least 348,000 persons, many of them in Bohol Province, and destroyed 14,512 houses. The national disaster council has listed 222 dead, eight missing and 976 injured as a result of the quake.
Long before that calamity, however, the CCMC has been asking the DOH for financial assistance in order to improve the health services of the city hospital, Duterte recalled.
Last year, CCMC asked for P300 million from DOH to purchase hospital equipment and cover the cost of the proposed CCMC expansion, but only P50 million has been approved.
The amount was used to acquire medical equipment.
The City, particularly Mayor Michael Rama, had sought the assistance of DOH through Sec. Enrique Ona for the construction of a new CCMC.
P1.5B needed
After 45 years of use, the 300-bed public hospital was found unsafe because the quake compromised its foundation.
The CCMC has relocated to the Bureau of Fire Protection 7 compound along N. Bacalso Ave., located across their condemned building, and currently has only 100 beds.
The construction of a new, bigger (1,000-bed) hospital is expected to cost the City at least P1.5 billion.
Considering the huge amount needed for the project, the City has been trying to funds after the earthquake.
Aside from tapping the National Government, the City has also launched a campaign dubbed as “Piso Mo, Hospital Ko” for the project. The campaign has already raised at least P7.8 million.
The piso-piso campaign, though, has recently been questioned by the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas, which wants it stopped.
Permit
Deputy Ombudsman Pelagio Apostol said the City should secure a permit from the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas before the campaign can proceed.
City Legal Office chief Atty. Gerone Castillo begged to differ.
In an interview yesterday, Castillo said the basis of Apostol’s statement is Presidential Decree (PD) 1564 or the Solicitation Permit Law, handed down in 1978.
Section 2 of that decree provides that “any person, corporation, organization or association desiring to solicit or receive contributions for charitable or public welfare purpose shall first secure a permit from the regional offices of Department of Social Services and Development.”
Castillo believes that particular decree does not apply to the piso-piso campaign of the City since it did not mention local government units.
“We are unanimous, all the lawyers of the City Legal Office are unanimous, in saying that this law does not apply to us. So with all due respect, I cannot agree with the opinion of Ombudsman Apostol,” he said.
Iligan
Castillo then invoked the Section 18 of Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code, which allows local government units to raise funds.
Castillo said he will be seeking an audience with Apostol not to question his pronouncements, but to clarify things.
Meanwhile, the Iligan City Government donated P500,000 worth of financial assistance to the City for the repair of structures damaged by the earthquake.
Whether the City wants to use it for the reconstruction of the CCMC or for other post-earthquake activities, Iligan City Mayor Celso Regencia said it will be up to the mayor to decide.
Regencia said they decided to give assistance to the City since the City also helped them when they were hit by Typhoon Sendong in 2011.
“We are just returning the favor,” he said.
DOH: P500M for new CCMC | Sun.Star
DOH: P500M for new CCMC
Originally Posted by cliff_drew
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