Cebu City Acting Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia | CDN Photo/ Pia Piquero
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia wants more budget poured into the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) to complete its construction, as he requests the Cebu Medical Society once again to turn over donor funds meant for the hospital.
“Until now, those donors did not turn over the money to the City of Cebu as a donation, that’s why I have been asking the [Cebu Medical Society] to do so,” Garcia said.
Garcia announced on Monday that he had submitted Supplemental Budget 1 (SB 1), amounting to P635 million, to the Cebu City Council for deliberation.
The request comes just two months after approving the P14.6-billion annual budget for 2025.
The proposed supplemental budget will cover urgent infrastructure needs, road repairs, and economic support programs, Garcia said.
READ:
CCMC still unfinished after nearly a decade, P2B expenditure
CCMC: A decade of delays and still no clear end in sight
Rama wants to finish CCMC reconstruction without a ‘single centavo’ spent from City Hall coffers
CCMC construction: Where are the donations?
A substantial portion of SB 1—P210 million—has been allocated to complete the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of CCMC.
These floors were initially intended to be funded by donations collected through the Cebu Medical Society (CMS), but Garcia disclosed that the city has yet to receive the pledged funds.
“Akoy paninglan sa mga tawo nganong wa na mahuman ang CCMC. Kay ang donors wa nay klaro, CMS, wa nay klaro,” he added.
(The public would blame me for failing to complete the CCMC. Because the donors were not being transparent.)
The delay in receiving these donations has further stalled CCMC’s already protracted construction.
While the city government has set aside P700 million to develop the 3rd to 6th floors, Garcia said the lack of funds for the upper floors has left his administration with no choice but to tap into city resources.
Despite these financial setbacks, the bidding process for the next phase of CCMC’s construction is already in motion, with work expected to commence within the month.
November 2024: Garcia’s earlier call for direct donations
In November 2024, Garcia had already called on donors of the P205 million for the completion of CCMC to withdraw their contributions from CMS and donate them directly to the Cebu City Government through the City Treasurer’s Office (CTO).
The mayor noted that the donated funds should be handed directly to the city to ensure “clear accountability of the funds”, citing legal opinion from the City Legal Office (CLO), which affirmed that the donations were meant for public use and should be handled by the government.
Garcia argued that channeling the funds through the CTO would subject them to Commission on Audit (COA) regulations, allowing the city to proceed with the necessary procurement processes to complete CCMC.
Legal disputes over CCMC donations
The Rama Baena Tan & Ang (RBTA) Law Office, which was involved in the trust agreement for CCMC donations, clarified that it had never received any funds for the project.
The firm stated that its role was only to facilitate the legal process as the attorney-in-fact for the trust agreement, representing the trustor or donor.
Mikel Rama, RBTA partner and son of dismissed mayor Michael Rama, said their firm had called on the City Council, COA, and the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate the transaction, questioning why P100 million in pledged donations was never directly transferred to the CTO.
He explained that the trust agreement was not a donation deed but a safeguard to ensure that funds were used solely for CCMC’s completion.
The donors had explicitly requested that their contributions not be deposited directly to the city government due to concerns about possible mismanagement or diversion to other projects.
Instead, CMS was tasked with handling procurement for hospital equipment, construction materials, and civil works for CCMC’s last three floors./ mme