Saturday, September 13, 2008 Tomas asks tycoon to build hospital in SRP instead of buying CCMC By Linette C. Ramos Sun.Star Staff Reporter
INSTEAD of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC), Mayor Tomas Osmeña is keen on offering the South Road Properties (SRP) to business tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan for his hospital project.
Osmeña said he has not discussed the offer with Pangilinan, who is said to be the financial partner of the University of San Carlos (USC) in its plan to purchase the city hospital.
Pangilinan, chairman of the Metro Pacific Investments Corp., Philippine Long Distance and Telephone Co. and Smart Communications, reportedly intends to pour some P1.5 billion in investments in Cebu.
“There’s space in the SRP, depending on what kind of hospital he wants to put up. If I were to discuss this with him, I’d rather direct him to the SRP because there is a need for one good hospital there,” he told a news conference.
The mayor said, though, that he has not made any formal offer yet.
A high-end medical facility and a retirement home for foreigners, expatriates and balikbayans are included in the City’s plans for the 290-hectare SRP.
Pangilinan made an unannounced and unscheduled visit to CCMC on Thursday afternoon, around the same time the City got another offer from Chong Hua Hospital (CHH).
City Administrator Francisco Fernandez said the CHH administration informed him that they will be sending an independent appraisal team to look at the viability of CCMC.
CHH also asked for the CCMC’s financial statements, personnel and equipment inventory and the titles of properties that they can use in their due diligence studies.
“I heard from Chong Hua yesterday and they have already asked us to provide all the documents. They are the second interested party to conduct a due diligence study and these are very serious offers,” Fernandez told Sun.Star Cebu.
Dr. Myrna Go, the acting chief of CCMC, said the appraisers contracted by the USC have already visited the hospital to check the facilities, equipment and building.
USC has yet to give City Hall feedback on their appraisal.
Meanwhile, CCMC consultant Dr. Rodolfo Bigornia said he cannot accept the mayor’s offer to make him the medical director and chief of CCMC because of his private practice and his contracts with a private hospital.
He said, though, that he will continue to assist the CCMC management in running the facility, as he has been doing so in the last 32 years.
“I cannot accept it because I have a new contract coming. Besides, I don’t need to become a medical director to be able to help CCMC. I have been helping them for so many years already as consultant,” Bigornia said in a phone interview.
For her part, Go said she is not rushing her appointment as hospital chief on a permanent status, and that she does not mind being the chief in an acting capacity.
What’s important, she said, is that the hospital is able to continue delivering medical services. (LCR)
