GOV. Aris Aumentado stressed that “We can’t claim our province is improving (if) our constituents are sickly. And we cannot deliver quality services if we don’t have good facilities.”
These must go together, he told crowd during the recent blessing of the Congressman Natalio Castillo Memorial Hospital situated in new location in Loon town.
Almost nine years when its construction began after the 2013 earthquake, the said hospital was blessed recently in barangay Canghangdon.
The governor gave credit to the past administrations who started the construction after the quake destroyed the old one in barangay Basak. “Na impatient na mi ni Aster” when every time they visit the construction that the building remained unfinished.
He said that even if the hospital is still not compete, the health services should continue.
The opening and inauguration will follow, provincial administrator Aster Caberte said.
In his short speech, Mayor Elvi Relampagos said that “delivery of basic services including health is wealth. This is the envision of the town for quality health services. It’s not for Loon having 67 barangays only, but for all the neighboring towns.” He thanked the provincial government and their partnership with the province will continue.
Hospital chief Dr. Cyrilda Tallo said that at long last the hospital is finished. She cited the governor’s promise to finish the hospital. She said that the 20-bed hospital is still in the infirmary level and it’s applying with the Department of Health for level 1 soon.
Earlier, the contractor, Medikotek, Inc., who was tasked to build a new building of the new hospital is liable for damages and its failure to finish it, Provincial Engineer Camilo Gasatan bluntly told this writer in an interview.
The construction of a new hospital building and the area, owned and managed by the provincial government, was prompted after its buildings and the site where it sits were badly destroyed by 7.2 magnitude earthquake on October 15, 2013.
Some three buildings of the old hospital were rendered unfit for patients and its site for a hospital. The Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (MGB-DENR), earlier, advised and recommended to relocate the hospital after the earthquake.
Then the late President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, who spent a night in Loon town, personally handed over the check of P70 million to hospital authorities in a ceremony held at the ruined old hospital building just few days after the earthquake hit the entire Bohol. The seed money was meant to start construction for an entirely new hospital building.
The construction was supposed to start (2016) three years after the earthquake and two years after that, the hospital construction began reportedly. The delay was further aggravated due to difficulty in locating a suitable site for the new buildings to construct based on MGB’s recommendation.
Gasatan said that the Manila-based contractor was given by incumbent Gov. Aris Aumentado deadline to finish the job, first, in March this year. But no completion was done.
He said that the contractor was sent by a notice to terminate the job. And they responded that made the provincial government give them another chance to finish it by June 2023. But still it did not finish. The provincial government has to terminate the contract and blacklisted the contractor, he added.
The contractor said earlier in a report that the slowdown of its works was caused by material prices increase and its slow delivery of these materials procured from Manila, according to report of the weekly, Bohol Chronicle.
It also cited the impact of the pandemic and super typhoon “Odette” that hit the entire province on December 16, 2021 as reasons for the delay, Gasatan said.
This writer tried to contact the engineer/contractor for comment but the latter did not reply. (rvo)
