City Hall wants Japan to bankroll hospital project

Councilor Mary Ann De Los Santos

Foreign institutions will be tapped to bankroll the construction of a new building to house the Cebu City Medical Center, Councilor Mary Ann Santos said yesterday.

The councilor said she will present the plan to officials of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) who will visit Cebu City next week.
Delos Santos said the Japanese government shifted efforts by giving out grants to help calamity-affected localities to recover.

“This (hospital construction) is something very urgent and we hope to get their help on this,” she said.

The city government of Haarlemmermeer in The Netherlands is also sending experts to Cebu City to assess how they could help in the hospital construction project, Mayor Michael Rama said last Monday.

Haarlemmermeer is a sister city of Cebu City.

“They are sending people to Cebu but I do not know yet if they will also be raising money for the hospital construction project,” the mayor said.
Cebu City has so far raised P8 million under its “Piso Mo, Hospital Ko” fund drive.

Architect Miko Espina of the Espina-Perez-Espina and Associates presented to the City Council last Jan. 8 a design for a 409-bed capacity hospital meant to replace the CCMC building that was damaged in the Oct. 15 earthquake.

Espina said the proposed building is three times bigger than the old CCMC building.

Construction of a new hospital building and an integrated command center in the area is expected to cost P1 billion and is expected to be completed in 2017.

Vice Mayor Edgar Labella yesterday wrote Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol to clarify the issue on whether the city government-initiated “Piso Mo, Hospital Ko” fund raising campaign needs the approval of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Apostol earlier advised Cebu City officials to secure a DSWD permit in compliance with a Commonwealth era law as amended by a Presidential Decree issued by President Ferdinand Marcos.

But Regional DSWD asst. director Nemia Antipala said City Hall’s fund drive need not secure a DSWD permit. She said only private initiatives are mandated to secure solicitation permits from the agency.