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Tuesday, December 03, 2002
Editorial: BBRC and CCMC
There are other things common to the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) and the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) than just the word “center” in their names.
For one, both have landed in the front pages of local dailies ever so often, and not for any worthwhile achievement but for the failure of some of their personnel to do their jobs well (add to that corruption, in the case of BBRC).
Last Saturday, an inmate escaped from the BBRC but surrendered several hours later. That act compounded the woes of jail officials who are being investigated for other irregularities (alleged existence of drug trading inside the facility, special treatment given to some prisoners, cuts in the budget for inmates’ meals, etc.).
Then last Sunday, an unattended patient in the emergency room of CCMC fell from his bed and when he was finally attended to was found to be already dead. That, too, compounded the woes of hospital personnel, whose leadership recently underwent a revamp due to the complaints of relatives of some of patients.
But there are obvious differences, too.
For one, BBRC is under the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), although the Cebu City Government is contributing funds for its upkeep. CCMC is run by City Hall. Yet, City officials seem to be more interested in running the affairs of BBRC than in looking into the problems bugging the CCMC and solving these.
Not that the City Government’s interference in jail matters is totally wrong. Indeed, there is a need to shake up BBRC and BJMP officials—and even their superiors at the Department of Interior and Local Government—given the magnitude of the ills seen in the said detention center.
But CCMC is directly under the City Government, thus officials must do more than just provide the band-aid solution it is giving the facility lately (remember that saying about cleaning one’s own backyards first?).
Maybe, the City can start that off with Mayor Tomas Osmeña not letting only his deputy, Councilor Cristopher Alix, run CCMC. And he should change his mindset, which was shown in his previous statement that he would rather appropriate funds for the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center than allocate money for CCMC.
In short, he should pay more attention to that facility.
Alarm systems failure
Is it a case again of “what if”?
Theft and Robbery Section chief Ambrosio Ibones said that had the alarm system of Metrobank Mabolo not failed during last Friday’s robbery, the police might have caught up with the robbers. The Mabolo police station is not far from the crime scene.
But Ibones must also be told it was not only that bank’s alarm system that failed—so, too, that of the police.
And the components of the police alarm system that conked out?
The intelligence network, that would have warned the police of the possible strike of robbers; the information net around the station, which could have noted the incident while it was still in progress; the invisible beat patrol, etc.
So if CCPO officials want the bank’s alarm system repaired, then they should do the same to their own system.
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