THE provincial government owned-and-run Congressman Natalio Castillo Memorial Hospital (CNCMH) in Loon town may not be in a sorry state but it’s still unfinished. After six years when it was started and almost 9 years after the killer quake on October 15, 2013 struck Bohol, the hospital completion remains elusive.
What aggravated the situation is that a dialysis building funded by the provincial government erected nearby the main building of the said hospital is still not finished. Only some rusting steels for foundation are being erected. The said proposed building costs the province P11.3 million.
These were some of the findings of the transition team represented by Dr. Arnold Cagulada in an ocular inspection of the hospital building sometime last week.
Cagulada was accompanied by hospital chief Dr. Tallo and Loon number one reelected councilor Leizel Orcullo-Go in the inspection. He was being tapped by Governor-elect Aumentado as member of the transition team in-charge of the ten hospitals owned by the province.
Cagulada in a brief meeting with hospital staff stressed that Governor-elect Aris Aumentado wanted their (staff) “good practice will be continued but bad practice will be scrapped.”
Aumentado is hell bent in pushing for his vision and goals based on good governance framework, which is to “clean the provincial government” and “Boholano first policy”.
The TIMES tried to get a statement on why the hospital remained unfinished but no one of the few workers gave a comment.
The new hospital building located in barangay Canhangdon was pursued after the old one in barangay Basac was destroyed by earthquake. The old one “must be abandoned since the area may no longer be stable” reportedly per advice by the Mines and Geographic Bureau of the DENR.
The late president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III personally gave to Loon officials the check amounting to some P80 million to start a new hospital building when he slept a night in the town few days after the quake.
The implementation of the hospital construction was done by the provincial government then led by Gov. Edgar Chatto.
Additional budget to the tune of P25 million for the new hospital has been appropriated to complete it, Provincial budget officer Peter Ross Retutal said in an interview.
HOSPITAL MODERNIZATION LOAN
Retutal confirmed that the province has borrowed money for the hospital modernization.
He added that there were two bank loans for hospital modernization program — one amounted to P265 million and the other, P196 million.
The loan includes some P215 million for the acquisition of brand new heavy equipment.
Provincial motorpool head Abraham Clarin confirmed this in earlier media interview.
Delivery of heavy equipment, such graders shown in motorpool yard of the new Capitol building, came before the election on May 9, 2022.
The said loan for hospital modernization and heavy equipment acquisition of the provincial government is anchored on the Department of Finance-Municipal Development Fund Office (MDFO) and Development Bank of the Philippines, appropriations committee report of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Bohol showed.
The SP approved an Ordinance authorizing the proposed borrowing of the Province of Bohol in the amount of Php.195,169,000.00 to fund the hospital modernization program- rehabilitation and improvement of hospital facilities and equipment in the Province of Bohol.
Another is an Ordinance authorizing the proposed borrowing of the Province of Bohol in the amount of Php 483,000,000.00 to fund the Hospital Modernization Program- Rehabilitation and Improvement of Hospital Facilities and Equipment and upgrading/ procurement of road heavy equipment in the Province of Bohol or a total of P678.1million.
The Provincial Government “has availed (of) loan facilities of the Department of Finance-Municipal Development Fund Office (MDFO) and Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) intended for the following: MDFO- Hospital Modernization Program-Rehabilitation and Improvement of Hospital Facilities and Equipment of the Provincial Government of Bohol amounting to P195.169 Million; and DBP- Hospital Modernization Program-Rehabilitation and Improvement of Hospital Facilities and Equipment (P265.00 Million) and Upgrading/Procurement of Road Heavy Equipment (P218.00 Million).
Part of the Loan Release Process “is the issuance of the Net Debt Service Ceiling (NDSC) and Borrowing Capacity (BC) by the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF), and that in relation to be proposed loan, the NDSC is P476.052 Million and the BC is P3.341885 Billion,” the report said.
Interest rates of the loan is three (3) percent per year. It has a term of 15 years inclusive of 3 years grace period on principal.
The DBP loan “has a term of 10 years inclusive of 2 years grace period at an interest rate of 3% per annum”.
The provincial government-owned-and-managed Cong. Simeon G. Toribio Memorial Hospital in Carmen town; Cong. Natalio Castillo Memorial Hospital, Loon; and Catigbian District Hospital, Catigbian town and other financial obligations relative thereto and Hospital Modernization- Rehabilitation are being prioritized to be funded by this loan and Upgrading/ Procurement of Road Heavy Equipment as well.
The procurement of the heavy equipment and hospital modernization “are certified to be local infrastructure and socio-economic development projects in accordance with the approved local development plan and investment program for the period 2016-2022 or for the current year 2020 of the Province of Bohol.”
The cost estimates for hospital equipment were validated based on Department of Health (DOH) pricings.
In approving the loan the SP “finds merit in authorizing the Provincial Government to enter into a Loan Agreement (Sub-Project Loan Agreement) with the Municipal Development Fund Office, in the amount of Php195,169,000.00) and a Loan Agreement with the DBP in the amount of Php 483,000,000.00.”
Provincial Board Member Restituto B. Auxtero, Acting Chairman (in lieu of its chair V-Gov Relampagos); BM Aldner R. Damalerio, Member; BM Vierna Mae Boniel-Maglasang, Member; and BM Romulo G. Cepedoza, Member were co-sponsors of the appropriation measures. (rvo)
