Children’s hospital settles land row with NHA

MANILA, Philippines - No more threats of eviction or relocation.

The Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC) will finally acquire ownership of the 3.7-hectare property in Quezon City after the National Housing Authority (NHA) agreed on the terms for the transfer of the titles of the land where the specialty hospital stands.

Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Janette Garin and NHA general manager Chito Cruz yesterday signed a memorandum of agreement to end the decades-long struggle of the hospital to acquire the property.

Senators Paolo Benigno Aquino and Teofisto Guingona III, party-list Reps. Leah Paquiz and Emmy de Jesus, and PCMC director Julius Lecciones witnessed the signing of the agreement.

The agreement was signed months after the Senate conducted hearings to facilitate the dispute between the PCMC and the NHA, which argued that the hospital should pay for the almost P1.4 billion property as the agency needs the money for its housing projects.

Property swap

During the Senate hearings, the PCMC administration presented a 1992 document signed by representatives of DOH and the NHA over a supposed property swap between the agencies.

The document showed that the NHA agreed to swap the 3.7-hectare PCMC property with a 5.7-hectare DOH property in Cebu City on a value-for-value basis.

Another document showed that the DOH has issued deeds of conveyance for the Cebu properties in favor of the NHA in 2003.

The Department of Justice, in an opinion in November last year, recognized the 1992 document as valid and affirmed DOH’S ownership of the Quezon City property.

The properties involved in the land swap were appraised based on 2003 zonal valuation, when the deed of conveyance for the Cebu property was issued.

Based on the valuation, the Cebu property – while significantly larger than the Quezon City property where the PCMC stands – was appraised only at P452 million. The latter is appraised at P1.395 billion.

The appraisal left the DOH and PCMC with a net amount of P942 million payable to the NHA.

Congress saves PCMC

The net payable amount, according to the agreement, will be paid on two tranches by the PCMC through the appropriations provided for the hospital by Congress.

Cruz said the deed of absolute sale will be issued to the hospital once the housing agency receives the initial payment of P500 million.

The remaining P442 million will be given to the NHA in 2016.

Cruz said the money that they will receive will be used to fund different housing projects, including for over 3,000 families who lost their homes during the New Year fire in Quezon City.

In November, the House of Representatives allotted PCMC an additional P1.2 billion for the acquisition of the land title and further improvements of the hospital.

Part of the additional budget (P500 million) will immediately be turned over to the NHA, while the remaining (P700 million) will be used to develop the current PCMC building and construct a new wing for patients.

“We will build a state of the art hospital with modern facilities for our children,” Lecciones said.