The Cebu City government has filed for insurance claims for three city-owned buildings damaged by the 7.2-magnitude earthquake on October 15, but none so far for the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC).
Members of the City Council yesterday asked Government Services Office (GSO) head Rolando Ardosa and CCMC chiefGloria Duterte to inquire on the insurance claims of the earthquake-shuttered public hospital.
Councilor Margot Osmeña said insurance claims may be used to help fund the planned construction of a new hospital building.
Asked by Councilor Sisinio Andales if the insurance claims for the CCMC has been filed, Ardosa and Duterte pointed at each other.
“I have not thought of the matter because we rely on GSO,” Duterte said.
But, Ardosa said that Duterte should be the one to process for the hospital’s insurance claims because CCMC is a special account that is operated independently from City Hall.
“Clearly, naay rason nga mag tan-aw ta ug unsay atong ma claim (there is a reason why we are looking in the insurance claims). We have to declare CCMC as damaged and collect insurance to be used as seed money in building a new hospital,” Osmeña said.
He added that insurance claims for CCMC may not cost much because the hospital was enrolled for insurance coverage using the P7.1 million construction cost of the 45-year-old structure.
Improvements on the building amounting to more than P300 million, he said, were not properly recorded and included in the CCMC insurance coverage.
An option, he said, is for the city to prepare a Program of Works and Estimates (POWE) for the planned rehabilitation of the damaged building and submit this to GSIS (Government Service Insurance System) as basis for the city’s insurance claims.
GSIS will be sending adjusters to look into the damaged property, verify the POWE and recommend the amount of insurance claims, said Ardosa.
Ardosa added that in the case of the city legislative building, the city government declared a P140 million building cost for insurance coverage.
They filed for a 2 percent of the building cost as insurance claims because the building only needed a small amount to rehabilitate its fallen light bulbs, damaged ceilings and wall cracks.
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