EDITORIAL - Decaying health centers

Ordinary people wait in long lines even in emergency wards to get medical care in government hospitals. Whether in crowded urban centers or in rural areas, there is a clear need for more health facilities all over the country.

So it is dismaying to see images of what is supposed to be a “super health center” in what looks like a state of deterioration while awaiting completion. The multimillion-peso concrete structure is falling into disrepair even before its completion while the grounds have become overgrown.

The city government of Marikina and the Department of Health are pointing fingers at each other as the entity at fault. The DOH had previously included the four-story health center in Barangay Concepcion Dos in Marikina in a list of 297 super health centers that have yet to become operational.

Marikina Mayor Marjorie Ann Teodoro described the DOH report as misleading, saying the department released funds only for the first phase of the project, which was finished in April last year. Construction was halted after the DOH ignored requests for P180 million more to complete the health center, the city government said.

Teodoro’s husband Marcelino, who was Marikina mayor when the project got underway in November 2023, said the city could not fully provide the funds needed to finish the project because of issues such as the suspension of several city officials as well as the transition following the local elections.

DOH Secretary Teodoro Herbosa had flagged the health center as one of several across the country that were unfinished, substandard or non-existent or ghost projects.

Marikina officials have said they will tap funding from their local resources to finish the super health center.

The issue raises concerns on how many other public health facilities across the country are in the same situation, in limbo after millions of pesos in public funds have been spent for the construction. Other health centers have remained unused for lack of health professionals, the DOH has said.

Public health care remains woefully inadequate, and every centavo allocated for providing health facilities and services must be spent judiciously. Failure to do so, whether through negligence or inefficiency, or deliberately for corruption, must be dealt with decisively.