CCMC contractor given ultimatum

Council panel approves P469M supplemental budget

Finish even just a floor by yearend. That's Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña's marching order for C.E. Padilla Construction Inc., contractor of the Cebu City Medical Center project, amid questions on whether the city should hire a new builder because of the reported delay in the structure's completion.

If the firm could not make even a single floor operational by end of 2018, the mayor said he is determined to cancel the city's contract with it.

"That's what I will throw to them (to do the construction by floor). If we cannot come to an agreement, we'll cancel the contract and we'll do it by floor, by administration," Osmeña told reporters at a press conference yesterday.

At the moment, the builder is working on the foundation

The Cebu City Council's committee on budget and finance has recommended the approval of the executive department's proposed P469.46 million Supplemental Budget-1 this year.

During the regular session yesterday, the legislative panel approved the report of the Committee on Budget and Finance.

"This committee therefore interposes no objection to the submitted SB No. 1 for CY 2018," read a portion of the report.

Councilor Margarita Osmeña, vice chairperson of the committee, said the budget ordinance will be submitted next week since the committee will accommodate first the Annual Investment Plan this week as per Department of Budget and Management guidelines.

On May 23, the committee conducted a budget hearing to review the proposed additional budget for the year.

In its

four-page of the hospital building.

Cebu City's engineering office earlier asked the contractor to explain the delay in the construction of the project's first phase. The parties are still in talks to come up with an agreement.

If no agreement will be reached, then Osmeña said he will proceed with the termination of the contract.

Nevertheless, the mayor said he understands the position of the contractor because of the city's "screwed up building design" which he attributed to the previous administration.

Osmeña said the design was made by a firm that did not have background on hospital building designs.

Under the plan, the first phase should have been finished by May 27 this year yet since the contractor began the works in July 2015.

As of last week, however, the city's Department of Engineering and Public Works reported that the contractor incurred 23 percent slippage, meaning it was behind the target date of completion. committee report, the committee noted that the sources of funds will include the general fund proper and the special accounts.

About P38.9 million will come from realignment from current appropriations for personal services; P305.9 million from realignment from continuing appropriations; P58 million from prior years' adjustments; and P67 million from reversion of accounts payable.

Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera expressed her reservations on the proposed supplemental budget, saying a realigned budget is supposedly intended to acquire a lot for a public school in Barangay Calamba.

She said the barangay does not have any public school at the moment.

Pesquera was also concerned about the realigned P13 million supposedly for waterways, aqueducts, seawalls, river walls, which is also now being cited as one of sources of funds.

"Another

thing

City Engineer Kenneth Enriquez said the contractor has not responded to queries about why the project has been delayed.

It has been four years since patients of CCMC have had to make do with the makeshift hospital at the former office of the Cebu City Transportation Office and Bureau of Fire Protection along Natalio Bacalso Avenue in Cebu City.

This is why Osmeña wants to see an operational floor of the hospital building before the year ends.

"We have to get something open. Nauwaw na gyod ko sa mga tawo," he said.

In February 2014, former mayor Michael Rama ordered the old building demolished after sustaining cracks from the earthquake that hit Central Visayas in 2013.

Osmeña would not have wanted to build a new hospital but instead have the cracks repaired and the old hospital retrofitted.

Osmeña assured though that he will not scrap the new CCMC project. reservation with the realignment of the water orthodoxy and rivers and walls and that particular budget is needed to protect lands and properties," she said.

Osmeña, for her part, clarified that the recommendations only came from a committee report, adding that the deliberations will take place when the budget ordinance will be presented to the City Council.

She said the Calamba school issue has present since 2009 yet but has not been acted upon. If the fund will be needed in the future, Osmeña said, the council can always discuss it again.

As for the budget for the waterways questioned by Pesquera, Osmeña said five years have passed but nothing has happened.

The final deliberation of the budget ordinance for the Supplemental Budget-1 is scheduled for June 5.