ANOTHER GOOD PROJECT DUMPED

THE committee on health and sanitation of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, manned by the majority bloc, rejected a draft resolution authorizing Mayor Belen Fernandez to enter into a memorandum of agreement on behalf of the city with Department of Health-Center for Health Development 1 for the construction of a Dagupan City Maternity and Children Hospital.

A two-page committee report signed by Councilor Marilou Fernandez submitted during the November 21 SP session, stated: “This is to clarify that this committee report shall not be considered as a favorable committee report in accordance to Section 40 of the Internal Rules”.

This, despite a committee hearing held on November 14 attended by DOH’s Drs. Veronica Guadiz-De Guzman, Amadeo Zarate and Mc Milan Tagulinao; City Health Officer Ophelia Rivera, OIC-City Engineer Josephine Corpuz, and City Legal Officer Aurora Valle.

In refusing to favorably endorse the draft resolution authored by Councilor Michael Fernandez, Committee chair Fernandez cited specifically the need for the committee:

1. To determine sufficiency of funding to complete the project, i.e.,  budgetary considerations regarding the purchase of medical supplies and equipment; hiring and training of hospital employees, the hiring and employment of doctors and nurses.
2. To investigate and conduct an ocular inspection on the proposed site of the hospital, particularly determination of the ownership of the land by inviting the owner or owners of the land to appear before the committee for clarification questions.
3. To investigate and determine if the land owner or owners are in any way related or connected to any incumbent public official in Dagupan City, aware that the land proposed to be the site of the hospital on Jose de Venecia  Expressway, will be donated by the family of Mayor Belen Fernandez.
4. To submit proofs that no pecuniary benefit shall devolve to such public official or his/her family through the establishment of a hospital on the property.
5. To obtain public documents from the City Assessor and/or the Registry of Deeds pertaining to the land ownership, including that of adjacent real estate to ensure transparency.

Further, the committee said a property donated to the City of Dagupan, can only be

accepted as a donation by virtue of a Sangguniang Panlungsod resolution outlining the parameters or such donation; that more committee meetings are needed to asses City Health Office’s capability to run a government hospital since it has no experience in this field.

The minority bloc noted that the rejection of the draft resolution by the majority bloc is opposed to the plan of then Mayor Benjamin Lim, husband of Councilor Celia Lim to establish a maternal and children hospital in the city. (Leonardo Micua)

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