Acting Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia visited Guba Community Hospital on June 1. Courtesy of Cebu City PIO/Allan Defensor
CEBU CITY, Philippines — After so much delay, the Guba Community Hospital will be fully operational soon.
This was after the contractor of the community hospital assured Cebu City Acting Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia that the project would be completed by July this year.
Garcia said this in his Facebook post last night, June 5, following his meeting with the community hospital’s contractor, Alsher Construction, together with a representative of the Department of Health and the head of the City Health Department, Dr. Daisy Villa.
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“This matters to me, kay ang ospital sa Barangay Guba ang dangpanan sa atong mga taga mountain barangays kon duna silay mga medical emergency,” Garcia said.
(This matters to me because the hospital in Barangay Guba would be the go to place of our people in the mountain barangay when they would have a medical emergency.)
Furthermore, he said that he learned during their meeting that “the contractor failed to process the necessary building requirements, leading to this close-to-five-year delay” because there was a problem about the land title where the community hospital was constructed.
P15 million project
Garcia said that it had already been sorted out. Therefore, there will be no more reason to delay the P15.79 million-worth project which started in 2019.
Garcia was able to find out about this issue after he visited Barangay Guba last June 1, Saturday.
“Daghan pa ta’g himuonon in the remaining five months and one week nga ako ang Acting Mayor. But, with the commitment nga mahuman na ni nga project this July, at least makuhaan og usa ang atong mga atimanunon,” Garcia added.
(We still have lots to do in the remaining five months and one week that I will be the acting mayor. But, with the commitment that the project will be completed this July, at least one of our problems would be gone.)
Earlier, Garcia had instructed the Office of the Building Official (OBO) to fast-track the building and occupancy permits.
“Ang contractor man gyuy motrabaho ana, unya kay private contractor. Although it is DOH (Department of Health)-funded, private contractor may mobuhat ana. Dapat the project contractor should have done his or her job regarding getting all of those necessary permits,” Garcia said in a press conference.
(The contractor will be doing that, and that is the private contractor. Although it is DOH (Department of Health)-funded, it is still the private contractor who will do the project. The project contractor should have done his or her job regarding getting all of those necessary permits.)
In a report by the city’s information office, Architect Florante Catalan, OBO head, said that last October 5, 2023, they already inspected the building and told the contractor to secure the permits necessary for the project.
Catalan said that the contractor was not able to work with the application, hence, until now, which is the current situation.
Catalan assured that their office would fast-track the processing of the permit once the contractor would submit all the necessary documents.
“Ihatag nato ang ilang permit, i-process nato ilang application, assuming okay tanan ha, in an hour,” Catalan said as quoted by the PIO.
(We give them their permit, we will process their application, assuming that all are in order, in an hour.)
“Napakadali. Less than an hour, you have your building permit for as long as kumpleto lang imong documents ug supporting requirements,” Catalan said in a media interview on June 4.
(It is really fast. Less than an hour, you have your building permit for as long as your documents and supporting requirements are complete.)
The Guba Community Hospital is reported to be an “extension” of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) and was constructed to cater the needs of the residents in the upland barangays in Cebu City.