THE tarpaulin announcing the Lim administration’s contentious Maternal, Children and Lying-in Hospital was taken down on Thursday by the City Engineer’s Office, a clear indication that it will no longer be pursued by the incoming administration of Acting Mayor Belen Fernandez.

Fernandez, the mayor-elect of Dagupan who will officially start her term on July 1, said the hospital, an initiative of outgoing Mayor Benjamin Lim that he planned to construct at the Juan Guadiz Elementary School (JGEC) in Dagupan, will not be a priority for her.

Lim wanted the lot occupied by JGES as the site of the P70-million Maternal Children and Lying-in Hospital.

“The hospital is the least of my priorities,” said Fernandez, stressing that city funds should go to projects that will have more impact on the health welfare of the people of Dagupan, home of the expanding Region 1 Medical Center (R1MC).

Meanwhile, Fernandez ordered City Engineer Virginia Rosario to elevate and pave the assembly area of the JGES Tuesday soon after she visited the school Tuesday morning.

She found the flooding in the school assembly area where some 200 pupils gather for the flag-raising ceremony daily, worsening with the rise of tidal water.

3-STOREY BUILDING

Fernandez told newsmen she will meet with City Schools Superintendent Gloria Torres and West Central School officials to discuss options for the three-storey school building built by Lim, where he planned to relocate the JGES pupils to make way for the hospital.

“I want their guidance on this,” said Fernandez who assumed as acting mayor on May 16, four days after Lim was hospitalized after suffering a massive stroke.

The new three-storey building was constructed on a lot of the West Central School where Lim planned to transfer the JGES students.

The Department of Education withheld its approval to the transfer of the JGES pupils to the 3-storey building.

“The three-storey school building built by the outgoing city administration should go to West Central School where it is located since it lacks classroom for its expanding school population so the millions spent for the structure will not go to waste,” said Fernandez.

Fernandez is still determining how much was spent for the building.

City Accountant Teresita Manaois said the school building was funded by the “non-office accounts” under the Office of the Mayor, but she did not mention the amount.

The non-office accounts are not included in the city budget approved by the Sangguniang Panlungsod but without mention of projects to be funded.

IMPRACTICAL

Fernandez who expressed opposition to the hospital project early on maintains that it is impractical to put up a city-owned hospital when the public R1MC is already expanding to 1,500 beds under a program approved by President Benigno Aquino III and Health Secretary Enrique Ona.

The acting mayor said she would rather have the city government deposit a fund to R1MC to bankroll the hospitalization of all indigent residents of Dagupan instead of spending P70 million for the hospital building alone.

Another option, she said, is to enroll all the indigents not yet covered by the Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program (4Ps) with PhilHealth to cover hospitalization costs in R1MC and in private modern hospitals in the city.

Fernandez said she will work closely with Dr. Roland Mejia, chief of R1MC, to ensure R1MC provides Dagupan patients premium health care and priority.

She added that to further cement relations and guarantee priorities for Dagupan indigent families, the city will turn over donations of hospital equipment from abroad to R1MC for free use on Dagupan patients.

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