Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama| Emmariel Ares
CEBU CITY, Philippines — If he were to have it his way, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama wants the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) reconstruction project done without a “single centavo” spent from City Hall coffers.
Rama said this was one of the reasons for his aggressive “investment marketing,” a program that aims to tap funding from tycoons in the country.
“We are going to finish it [CCMC reconstruction] not by [using] City Hall [funds],” the mayor told reporters in an interview made on Friday morning, Feb. 24, after the city’s 86th Charter Anniversary program that was held at Plaza Sugbo.
Mayor Rama again mentioned of the plight of the CCMC in a message which he delivered during the testimonial dinner and awarding ceremony, which culminated the city’s Charter Day celebration, held Friday night.
The gathering was attended by private individuals and benefactors of the city government.
“Very important matters that I need to bring to all of you… CCMC completion. We would wish and pursue Operation Smile, and the CCMC, with no single centavo should come from the coffer of the City Hall. We will finish it within this year,” he said.
But for him to do this, Rama told the crowd that consisted mostly of businessmen, that the city government would again be needing their help.
As of November 2022, at least P1, 909,813,695.79 was already spent on the hospital reconstruction project.
On the same month, the city government and the contractor of phase four of the project “mutually agreed” to terminate the P908 million contract following delays incurred by the private contractor.
READ: CCMC project: Cebu City gov’t, contractor ‘mutually agree’ to terminate P908M contract
Rama said he wanted phase four to proceed the soonest as possible.
During his speech on Friday, Rama also mentioned that he wanted to see the CCMC fully operational by November 2023.
He said that by June, the installation of the ‘shell’ or the main structures of the hospital’s eighth to tenth floors should already be complete.
Come December, Operation Smile targets to already occupy half of the hospital’s sixth floor and start its operations there.
INVESTMENT MARKETING
To ensure the project’s completion, Rama said, he was prepared to do more “investment marketing” which he also referred to as ‘investment begging.”
Rama started the first-leg of his investment marketing in Manila in August 2022. He said in an earlier interview that he has managed to secure P800 million for the CCMC reconstruction project.
Manny Pangilinan of PLDT and MVP Group; Ayala Land Inc.; Robinson’s Land Corp.; Filinvest Land, Inc.; SM Group, and SBS Philippines Corp. have each committed to fund construction works on one floor of the CCMC.
When asked for updates on the hospital reconstruction project, Rama said that Dr. Anton Oliver Reposar II, the acting chief of hospital, has informed him that they already managed to transfer all of the patients and equipment from the temporary hospital at the Bureau of Fire Protection in Central Visayas (BFP-7) compound to the already completed parts of the new hospital building.
A temporary hospital was set up at the BFP-7 compound along Natalio Bacalso Avenue following the magnitude 7.3 earthquake in 2013 that badly damaged the old CCMC building.
Rama said that as soon as the CCMC reconstruction project is complete, the city government will also pursue its plan to recover the lot that is now occupied by BFP-7 and the Land Transportation Office in Central Visayas (LTO-7).
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