CEBU CITY, Philippines — The new building of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) recently opened its second and third floors to in-patients on September 18, 2021, after years of construction.
The CCMC Administration said they have devised a transfer plan for the non-COVID-19 patients and facilities from the temporary facility in the old Bureau Fire Protection (BFP) building to the second and third floors. The first floor of the new CCMC building is for outpatient services.
But Cebuano businessman Arturo Barrit questioned in a Facebook post why the CCMC is already used when it has no occupancy permit yet.
Barrit, who has become an outspoken critic of the city administration, also recently called the attention of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to the possible graft and corruption cases with the city’s procurement of food packages from a local caterer.
READ MORE: NBI-7 starts probe on Cebu City Hall’s contract with ‘unqualified caterer’
The businessman said that CCMC may not be safe for the patients because as of September 21, 2021, the building has no proper occupancy permit or Certificate of Occupancy.
“Catalan boasted for faster processing of building and occupancy permits due to the use of OBO Information System V2, a digital system of approving permits. But a reliable source from his office confided that the city-run hospital has not been issued an occupancy permit. In either case, then, there is no such thing as a partial or temporary occupancy permit. That is illegal,” said Barrit.
The Office of the Building Official (OBO) confirmed that CCMC still does not have an occupancy permit as it is still being processed.
Since the CCMC is managed by the city government, the processing of the permit is already an internal process and is currently being undertaken by the Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW).
“Actually on going pa siguro na silag file. For the record, wala pa miy nadawat as of now, pero nag inform nako sa atong admin, sa Office of the Mayor, ug sa atong engineering nga magapply na sila,” said Building Official, Architect Catalan.
Catalan said that technically, the building should not be occupied but because of the pandemic and the need for space for COVID-19 patients, it is understandable that the city will use all its available resources.
He said there is a degree of consideration because of the urgent need for hospital space.
However, he assured that the building is safe because every week there is an inspection of the facility and the DEPW has an onsite team that is supervising the construction of the remaining floors.
“Safe ra gyod na kay naa ra man atong engineers pirmi didto,” he said.
City Administrator Floro Casas, Jr., said the occupancy permit is already under process and the public do not need to worry about the safety of the building.
/bmjo
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