Dakay construction says: CCMC defects drive cost up

CEBU, Philippines — A substantial amount of additional funding will be needed to complete the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC), not only to finish the ongoing construction but also to correct serious deficiencies left by previous contractors, said Engineer Pericles Dakay of Dakay Construction and Development Corporation.

Dakay, the current contractor for Phase V of the CCMC project, explained during the City Council’s executive session that the hospital cannot be fully delivered unless substandard mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection systems are rectified.

“The whole building is a system… if the sum of the other parts are lacking, then you’ll never have a whole…The whole is always equal to the sum of the parts,” Dakay told councilors.

The evaluation revealed several defective installations left by previous contractors.

Ceiling-mounted air-conditioning units installed during Phase IV are obsolete, with no warranty or available spare parts. Refrigerant piping was bent and installed without proper copper tubing.

Sanitary pipes were laid without leak tests, while their slopes were below the required two percent standard, raising the risk of backflow. Required clean-outs were also missing at prescribed intervals.

The fire protection system showed corrosion, incomplete valve assemblies and a pump that was not UL-listed.

Electrical works were likewise found to be substandard. Bus ducts were installed too close to refrigerant piping, while PVC conduits were used in sensitive areas such as intensive care units and operating rooms, potentially causing interference with medical equipment.

Dakay said these deficiencies are interconnected with the Phase V works, making their rectification unavoidable if the hospital is to operate safely and efficiently.

Councilors recalled that of the P900 million originally contracted to M.E. Sicat Construction Inc. & AVECD Corp, only 4.1 percent of the project was completed before the contract was terminated. A new procurement was subsequently awarded to Dakay Construction for nearly P700 million.

In total, the city has already spent around P2 billion over 11 years on CCMC, yet the hospital remains incomplete.

Dakay emphasized that the additional costs would not be for Phase V alone but would also cover the correction of defects left by previous contractors.

“I am sure that there will be additional cost that will be incurred to actually rectify all the defects and standard works, and maybe some omissions that were done in the previous phases,” he said, declining to estimate the amount because his contract is strictly limited to Phase V deliverables.

Despite the deficiencies, Dakay assured the council that CCMC is structurally safe for occupancy.

He said the building withstood the magnitude 6.9 earthquake and Typhoon Odette without global structural distress.

Reinforcements, including I-beams at the vehicle ramp, have also been added to strengthen localized weak points.

“There is an imputed factor of safety because the building was designed for 10 floors… structurally, capability is not an issue,” Dakay said, adding that the decision to proceed with the full expansion rests with the executive branch, although costs would be far higher than originally estimated.

Earlier, professional electrical engineer Brian Pasilan, who led a volunteer audit in 2025, warned that CCMC was “very unsafe” because of incomplete bus ducts, uncommissioned generator panels, missing grounding systems and exposed wiring.

“If I may say honestly, it’s very unsafe as of now,” Pasilan said, stressing the urgency of rectifying the deficiencies before further construction.

His findings were also echoed by Dakay, who stressed that correcting deficiencies from previous phases is necessary before the hospital can be fully completed and operated.

With billions already spent and additional funding needed not only for Phase V but also to correct defects from earlier phases, the City Council now faces the challenge of determining how much more public funding will be required to finally deliver the 10-floor hospital envisioned for Cebu City.

As Dakay concluded, “The only way to open and move forward is closure of the previous business.” — /FPL (FREEMAN)