Prolonging the agony

Contrary to the earlier pronouncement, construction delay has rendered the Cebu City Medical Center incapable of starting its operations by March. This was according to Councilor Mary Ann de los Santos, who oversees the development of the hospital.

The hospital’s first three levels may only open in April due to delay in the construction’s second phase that has to undergo a public bidding, De los Santos, deputy mayor for health matters, told The FREEMAN.

It’s really unfortunate that several setbacks have delayed the building of the new city hospital. The facility would have been operating by now had the local government aggressively pushed for its speedy construction.

It has been more than five years since a powerful earthquake rendered the CCMC useless. However, the new building is still in its initial phases as the city government complains about the slow pace of its construction.

It seems the construction of the new facility never runs out of problems. During the previous administration, the major concern facing then mayor Michael Rama was on how to generate hundreds of millions of pesos needed to start its construction.

With budget no longer a major issue, the concern now lies with the construction speed. Since last year, the city government did not get along with the contractor. In fact, in May last year, Mayor Tomas Osmeña gave contractor C.E. Padilla Construction Inc. an ultimatum, threatening to cancel the contract if it could not finish even a single floor by the end of the year.

The project should have been classified a high priority since the CCMC is the only public hospital that caters to majority of the city residents, especially the poor who cannot afford those expensive private medical facilities.

Certainly, the delayed opening of the city hospital only prolongs the agony of Cebuanos. The city and other CCMC stakeholders seem to have forgotten that what is at stake here is the welfare of the city residents.