CEBU, Philippines — A Cebu City councilor said it is best to do the donation drive for the Cebu City Medical Center’s (CCMC) construction via a Public-Private Partnership (PPP).
This, as she called as “highly irregular and improper” the suggestion of Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia for private donors to give through their donations straight to the City Treasurer’s Office, instead of the Cebu Medical Society (CMS) as “trustee.”
City Councilor Mary Ann de los Santos, who authored the resolution that called for a series of executive session tackling the CCMC construction, however, said the PPP is the best solution to the problem.
“That (Garcia’s suggestion) would be highly irregular and improper. To begin with, I cannot recall any deed of donation executed between these donors and the City Government of Cebu yet. And neither was there any valid donation drive conducted by the City Government of Cebu in accordance with the provisions of City Ordinance No. 2439,” she said.
CO 2439 is the city’s “Ordinance Establishing Guidelines for Donation Drives Initiated by the Cebu City Government.”
“Thus, the status of the said funds is not public in character. The donors, if indeed any, have all the right to decide where to put it and what to do with it,” said de los Santos.
The executive sessions,w hich caused further delays in the construction of the CCMC, is ongoing, tackling, in particular, the proposed tripartite agreement involving the City Government, the donors, and CMS, to fully document the donation drive,w hich is intended for the construction of the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of the hospital.
The donation drive was initiated under the administration of former mayor Michael Rama and was coursed through the CMS.
De los Santos suggested that a better alternative would be through a PPP, saying that the Cebu City Government already has a PPP unit. She said she has already discussed this option with Cebu City Legal Officer Santiago L. Ortiz.
“And it was a very good suggestion, as to what is the best solution or the best result of this situation. Because I think the end goal here is to finish the CCMC, so why don’t we apply for the PPP?” she said.
According to her, the PPP will begin by accommodating an unsolicited proposal to be submitted by the donors. She added that if there is a proposal approved by the city government, it will also go through the approval of the PPP unit.
“Then we can proceed. Sila ang mopili sa contractor, following all the guidelines. They will be in a way, donating a certain floor that they will finish,” de los Santos said.
With this, she said, the donation drive will no longer be coursed through the CMS or even through the city government.
She said her suggestion has already been proven as it is the same arrangement adopted in the construction of the “Operation Smile Philippines-Cebu Center of Excellence.”
Operation Smile took care of the setting up of the center, which occupies the whole seventh floor of CCMC, without any expense by the city government.
De los Santos argued that one of the reasons the donations are not directly given to the city government is because of the “cloud of doubt.”
“The CCMC project has been there since 2015. Close to ten years already. Wa gyud nahuman, nahimo na na siyang, sad to say, a milking cow to whoever is involved there,” she alleged.
She said that while the donation was coursed through the CMS to supposedly erase misgivings over possible misuse, considering that donors are private entities, the proposed tripartite agreement sia also “clad with technicalities, which could be remedied through a PPP.”
“I think if i-go through nimo diri sa Cebu City Government, as I said, there is always a cloud of doubt. Mo-go through na sad na og bidding process. Pag-abot sa bidding process, daghan na sad manghilabot ana. Of course, it will be tainted with ‘kinsa ang contractor, kinsay mangwarta dira’,” de los Santos alleged.
“Gihimo nilang kawatanan na, sorry to use that word,” she added.
De los Santos further said that over the years, the CCMC construction has changed contractors many times, with numerous “variations.” She said that in the past 10 years, multiple hospitals have been built in Cebu City, surpassing even the CCMC.
“I am appealing to everyone, spare CCMC of any corruption kay daghan kaayo ta’g mga tawo nga nanginhanglan,” she said.
Garcia, when sought for his comment on the proposed CCMC tripartite agreement during a press conference, had said that he would want that the donations go straight to the City Treasurer’s Office to prevent questions about the whereabouts of the funds, instead of the money going through CMS, which also charges a “fee,” through a tripartite agreement.
The agreement is still up for approval at the Cebu City Council.
Garcia explained that the current donation setup raises various questions on accountability, which could lead to finger-pointing among parties, including CMS.
Previously, the City Legal Office issued a legal opinion on the tripartite agreement, particularly regarding its legality.
In its legal opinion, the CLO raised three issues that it felt needed to be “considered, properly addressed, and resolved.” These are on the nature of the funds covered by the agreement, CMS's authority to accept the donation, and the requirement for a public bidding process for the project.
Durign the seventh executive session, Dr. Peter Mancao, CCMC medical director and former president of CMS, told the City Council that the donated funds are currently at P205 million, held in a bank account under the name of CMS.
He added that it is a separate account designated solely for the donation drive.
Mancao, however, refused to disclose the identities of the donors due to a non-disclosure clause. — (FREEMAN)