SP questions city hall plan to build clinic
WHY a put a maternal-children’s clinic inside a school compound?
This question was raised at the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) during the initial evaluation of the plan of city hall to put up a Maternal and Children’s Lying-in-Clinic on a lot currently occupied by a public elementary school on A. B. Fernandez Avenue West.
Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, SP presiding officer, said while the project is laudable considering it will provide access and convenience to health services, especially for communities in the island barangays, its planned location is questionable.
Fernandez also expressed reservations on the priority for such a project as she pointed out that the Region 1 Medical Center is set to expand its capacity from 300 to 600-bed capacity.
Fernandez said an SP inquiry on the proposed project will clarify if the project has been cleared with the Department of Education which has jurisdiction over the Juan P. Guadiz Elementary School where the clinic is planned for construction.
She said the SP will invite City Schools Superintendent Alma Ruby Torio and other DepEd officials to shed light on the issue.
The council learned about the project from a list of development projects submitted by the mayor’s office to the SP last May 13 for funding by the city’s 20 percent development fund.
The list was prepared by the City Development Council headed by Mayor Benjamin Lim whose membership, said City Administrator Vlad Mata, has been expanded to include the 31 barangay chairmen of Dagupan City and representatives of various sectors in the city.
The clinic project, estimated to cost P43.0 million, will to be implemented in two phases: Phase 1 will cost P10 million while Phase 2 will cost P33 million.
All the 12 projects will be funded from the 20 percent development plan will cost P56.6 million, which will come from the city’s Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).
Meanwhile, the vice mayor noted that while the city hall already submitted the list of development projects, it has yet to submit a separate Annual Investment Program (AIP) which needs the approval of the SP as required by the Department of Budget and Management.—LM
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