Private groups agree to help build new CCMC

OFF LIMITS. The Cebu City Medical Center’s main building has been closed after it sustained major damage in last year’s 7.2-magnitude earthquake.

Two Cebu-based nongovernment organizations will sponsor the construction of  sections of the new Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) building.

The Pediatrics Society of the Philippines – Cebu Chapter pledged to construct the hospital’s pediatrics ward while the Operation Smile has pledged to construct a hospital’s building floor of their choice, Mayor Michael Rama said yesterday.

Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung of the Operation Smile’s board of governors and the founding chairperson of the Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung Charitable Foundation, Inc., committed to allocate P100 million for the CCMC construction.

Rama said he spoke with Yeung about the matter while he was administering the wedding of one of her office personnel at the Yeung residence in Lahug during Valentines Day.

“Commitment is just one thing but we will follow this up,” Rama said.

Rama earlier said he will ask the different consular offices in Cebu to adopt a section of the new CCMC building. The city government already raised about P11 million from local and foreign donations for the hospital’s reconstruction project.

Rama also wants an allocation for the project to be included in the Supplemental Budget 1 which he will soon be submitting to the City Council. But he could not yet say this early on how much budget he will be asking for.

The amount, he said, will depend on how much money the Local Finance Committee (LFC) will be able to identify to fund SB1.

Rama also wants to check the allocation of P172.4 million for CCMC rehabilitation which was included in the 2014 budget.  The money should instead be realigned for CCMC re-construction.