Margot: I’m not blocking reconstruction of CCMC

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Council majority floor leader, Councilor Margarita Osmeña, has clarified that she is not blocking the reconstruction of the quake-damaged city hospital.

Osmeña issued the clarification after joining the majority bloc’s earlier position to push for immediate retrofitting of the Cebu City Medical Center in last Friday’s executive session with the city engineer and the consultant on structural engineer.

“Please allow me to clarify and reiterate that I am not against the reconstruction of CCMC and the rebuilding of schools. In fact, I am saying there are funds that allow us to construct right away and not make our patients and students suffer longer,” explained Osmeña in a statement sent to The Freeman.

The statement went on to say that Osmeña will heed “whatever the city decides” on what’s best to do with the badly-damaged 45 year-old city hospital building thereby “proposing that since we have a total of P103M available calamity funds, then we can start building right away.”

Last Friday’s executive session, City Engineer Kenneth Enriquez and city consultant Structural Engineer Ariel dela Cruz appeared before the council to brief the legislative body on the structural assessment of the city hospital which was earlier certified unsafe for occupancy following major structural  damage incurred from the strong magnitude 7.2 earthquake that hit Cebu and Bohol.

Discussion primarily involved on the initial findings and recommendation of the two engineers with private contractors to retrofit the hospital following an inspection conducted the same day as the earthquake shook, October 15.

Further, it questioned the declaration of Mayor Michael Rama on tearing down the old 300 bed capacity hospital building to make way for the reconstruction of a bigger one eyeing a 1,000 bed capacity.

Rama also quoted the same recommendation from Vice President Jejomar Binay who personally inspected CCMC after dropping by at Basilica Minore del Sto. Nino whose bell tower fell down.

Dela Cruz, despite signing a retrofitting recommendation reiterated that they have presented both retrofitting and reconstruction as options for local officials to ponder and decide on considering the circumstances surrounding the city government.

The structural engineer added that retrofitting costing about P20 million of the damaged building whose main columns were found to have not conformed to the Structural Building Code of the Philippines, will extend its life span to approximately 15 years while building a new one would certainly last longer.

Moreover, Osmena’s statement also pushed for immediate repair of damaged school buildings using the available P80 million Special Education Fund.

“This can be used for the operation and maintenance of public schools and the construction and repair of school buildings,” she said.

Osmeña is calling for the immediate transfer of available funds and submission of  Program of Work and Estimates (POWE) by the city’s Department of Engineering and Public Works “to get everything started.”

The mayor promised to release his statement today in answer to the council pushing for retrofitting than reconstructing a new hospital. — (FREEMAN)