Margot looks for P900M pledges for city hospital

CEBU, Philippines - Where is the P900 million worth of foreign pledges for the construction of the new Cebu City Medical Center?

This question was raised by Councilor Margarita Osmeña who said the executive department wants to follow up the pledges.

“My question is who would have that list? Since there were pledges amounting to almost P900 million coming from abroad, there seems to be no knowledge as to who these pledges are coming from. It’s a question that I have,” said Osmeña.

The issue came after the City Council received a letter from City Accountant Arlene Rentuza informing the legislative body that the city does not have a list of pledges from abroad.

Rentuza said the office has only recorded the P21.79 million donations from different groups under the Piso Mo, Hospital Ko account of the city.

Under the Piso Mo, Hospital Ko account, there is P2.298 million total foreign donations such as the P10,000 from Dr. Tim Wu from Kaohsiung City, Taiwan; P4,706 from Haarlemmermeer; P429,478 from Social Affairs Bureau of Kaohsiung City Government; P692,020 from Xiamen Red Cross; and P1.16 million from Yeosu South Korea.

With this, Osmeña asked Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera if the latter might have the list of pledgers. Pesquera, for her part, said she could remember the pledge by Operation Smile international.

Osmeña said the Operation Smile will donate P100 million for the CCMC building which is designed to cost at P1.5 billion.

“So, that’s only one? There was also from USA. There was a power point presentation on the specific floors funded by these pledges. It was also mentioned that it is a matter of following it up. So, we want to follow it up but we have to know who we follow them up with,” Osmeña said.

Councilor Eduardo Rama said he believes that the previous pronouncements of the mayor not to continue constructing the new hospital prompted the pledgers to abandon their pledges.

“As far as I can remember, during the first few months when the honorable mayor came in, there was a bit of uncertainty on the status of the CCMC. And maybe that would be the one of the reasons why these pledges didn’t push through,” he said.

If he was to pledge on a project which is “uncertain,” Rama said he would not push through to give funds for the project.

Osmeña said the pledges from abroad started in 2014 a year after the magnitude 7.2 quake hit the Visayas that destroyed the CCMC building. She said the current administration did not halt the construction of the new hospital.

The only time the construction was interrupted was when the administration found out that there was no building permit for the project, she said.

“I think that reason would not suffice that they’ve been waiting for two years. Operations smile pledges but only P100 million so there is still P800 million of pledges that we would like to follow up if can still follow up,” she said.

In the August 2014 archives of The FREEMAN, it was reported that former mayor Michael Rama tapped the Philippine Visayas Society in Nevada, USA which agreed to adopt the hospital’s second floor.

Also, Rama announced the promise of National Federation of Filipino-American Association in San Diego to assist in the construction of the hospital’s second floor; Filipinos in Houston expressed commitment to adopt the medical facility’s third floor, while those in Seattle pledged to take care of the fifth floor.

He said there were also those from Salinas City who assured him that they would finance the construction of the sixth floor.Sought for comment, Rama said the pledges were gathered through the efforts of Team Rama.

"What is her problem? Why is she asking for that listing?" he told The FREEMAN.

Rama said his party will be the one to follow up from the pledgers. (FREEMAN)