MBTF: Dagupan not demolishing buildings for MCH
NBI, DSWD, PMS OFFICES WILL STAY
DAGUPAN Mayor Belen Fernandez rejected the opposition councilors’ proposition to demolish a complex of buildings in Barangay Poblacion Oeste, which are on a lot owned by the city government, to make way for the planned P150-million Mother and Child Hospital (MCH).
In a speech after the flag-raising ceremony at the Dagupan City Plaza on October 7, she said she will never allow this option as long as she is mayor.
The seven majority councilors want the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and the Pangasinan Medical Society (PMS) to relocate from their current offices, which have long been made available to them by the local government.
“I will never allow these offices to vacate their present sites,” she said.
In 2013, then Mayor Benjamin Lim wanted the MCH to rise on a lot occupied by the Juan P. Guadiaz Elementary School in Poblacion Oeste, but the Department of Education rejected the proposed transfer of the school to another site.
The seven majority councilors previously proposed the lot vacated by the Land Transportation Office (LTO), but what was reverted to the city was only 850 sqm out of the 10,000 sqm area, too small for the MCH.
The Department of Health (DOH), which is providing the fund for the MCH construction, requires at least 2,000 sqm for the facility’s medical building and parking area.
Fernandez said the DOH still has the option to the facility to rise on a 1.2 hectare lot in Barangay Pantal donated by her family to the DOH. (Leonardo Micua)
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