This building is worth saving

The hospital of Dr. Leandro A. Tojong has been identified to this writer years ago by Mrs. Yolanda Sanson-Oporto, Founding Member and Trustee of the moribund Kaguikan sa Parian Foundation, Inc., as that abandoned old building in between equally abandoned Happy Emporium Building and the Manila Bulletin Office along D. Jakosalem Street, Cebu City.

It is right across from the side of the University of the Visayas on Colon Street.

I was not so interested back then since Dr. Tojong was from Ginatilan, Cebu and not from the Parian of Cebu City.

However, today, the architecture of this hospital begs for more than just a passing glance. Even in its state of decrepitude, its painted two-story edifice with cast concrete statuary crowning the façade, Tojong Hospital remains quite beautiful.

Oporto estimates that Tojong was built in the 1950s, or at least she remembers it already there at that time when she lived with her husband as newlyweds in nearby Simoun Street.

The style may be of an exuberant Philippine Art Deco and may be one of two buildings in downtown Cebu City with sculptures on it, the other being the more famous Vision Theater on Colon Street.

The hospital was founded by the multifaceted doctor-cum-politician and movie producer Dr. Tojong whose facility served as a maternity and general hospital. A Tojong Hospital now operates in Mactan Island.

I have not the faintest idea who now owns the old Tojong Hospital Building, but it is, in my opinion, worthy of saving. As lives have to be saved, some buildings like Tojong must be saved for History's sake.