Dagupan to lose P150-M MCH fund if unused by yearend
THE P150 million fund allotted by the Department of Health for the establishment of the Mother and Child Hospital (MCH) in Dagupan City will revert to the national coffers by the end of the year unless utilized soon.
DOH Regional Director Paula Paz Sydiongco, speaking during the formal opening of Dagupan’s Super Family Health Center in Barangay Bolosan on August 3, said the MCH fund can only be downloaded to the Dagupan local government if the city council passes a resolution authorizing Mayor Belen Fernandez to sign a Memorandum of Agreement with DOH for the project.
A resolution for the agreement was submitted last year but remains pending after the seven opposition councilors in the Sangguniang Panlungsod submitted a “not favorable” committee report following a series of closed-door hearings last year, citing provisions that still need to be clarified.
The majority councilors hinted that they will only agree to pass the resolution if the MCH is built either at the boundary of Dagupan and San Fabian, at the present location of the Juan P. Guadiz Elementary School, or at the CSI Market Square beside the Dagupan City Hall.
However, the acquisition of any of these sites is practically impossible.
The site chosen by the city government is a 2-hectare lot along Jose de Venecia Expressway Extension in Barangay Pantal, which was donated in 2022 to the DOH by businessman Kerwin Fernandez, the mayor’s brother.
The SP majority is opposed to the site, claiming that the donation of the family of Mayor Fernandez is motivated by a pecuniary advantage – a higher property valuation of the family’s properties in the area after the hospital is built.
The SP majority also refuses to see that the credit for the project will go to the Mayor Fernandes and asserts that the MCH was conceived by the late Mayor Benjamin Lim and it was his son, then-Mayor Brian Lim, who secured the funding from DOH in 2021. The younger Lim lost his reelection bid to Fernandez in 2022.
City Health Officer Ophelia Rivera warned that it would be a big loss to Dagupan if it forfeits the P150 million fund. (Leonardo Micua)
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