EDITORIAL - A loan for CCMC will hospitalize city

Health services make up one very important component of local governance. When the devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck in 2013 and rendered the Cebu City Medical Center unsafe for occupation and had to be torn down, Cebu City residents missed a very vital basic service. Of course the city eventually managed to make do with what it can from a temporary site.

But there is nothing better than a real hospital. And so the city government is casting around for the means to build one. Unfortunately, Cebu City is not Makati City, which apparently can afford to build billion-peso edifices without having to drop on its knees. Cebu City does not have a fortune. It tried to raise some money from peso donations. But as everybody knows, a stack of peso coins can only rise so high.

It is now looking at the possibility of securing a loan in the amount of P120 million. The amount is about 10 percent of the estimated cost of a new CCMC, which is pegged at P1.3 billion. Apparently, if the city can put up 10 percent of the total cost, the World Bank will provide the bulk of 90 percent, supposedly in the form of a grant.

Despite the P120 million proposed loan being just 10 percent of the total estimated cost of building a new CCMC, that is still a very hefty amount. In fact it is a very scary amount considering that Cebu City is not actually lying down on a financial bed of roses. Indeed, its finances are rather shaky, operating as it is on a budget funded by money that has yet to be sourced.

Going into another multi-million-peso loan does not look like a very healthy proposition for Cebu City even if it is meant to provide better health services. The city should not press the issue if it cannot afford it. If it cannot build a new CCMC because it cannot afford it, at least it will be deficient only in health services.

If the city presses the issue, for no other reason than that it wants to look good by being able to resume providing health services, it runs the real risk of jeopardizing the delivery of other basic services in the event it winds up in a financial straight-jacket by going into a loan that it might not be able to pay. The city needs to be realistic and practical in approaching its obligations.

Despite the loss of CCMC, the city has not collapsed from the failure to deliver adequate health services. In fact, it is doing quite well under the circumstances. For as long as it can continue delivering the other services, the city will survive without a full hospital, at least until such time that it can truly afford to build a new one without having to go into a loan that has the potential to cripple it later.