ONLY the architectural works and other structures on the third and fourth floors of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) could be fully completed by Oct. 28, 2022, the birthday of Mayor Michael “Mike” Rama.
This was what Michael Sicat, the owner of project contractor M.E. Sicat Construction, told Rama during a site inspection at the CCMC on Wednesday, July 27, 2022.
The P916.8-million contract to build the Phase 4 of the CCMC was awarded to M.E. Sicat on April 6, 2022.
Rama has threatened to cancel M.E. Sicat Construction’s contract if it fails to complete CCMC’s remaining floors on or before Oct. 28, the mayor’s 68th birthday.
Cannot comply
Sicat admitted that they cannot comply with Rama’s demand as they have found some problems in completing some of the remaining floors, including in some of CCMC’s columns.
“Unfortunately kasi when we were doing our engineering study, we realized that the columns are not into direct alignment and that’s really a cause of concern for the City,” he said.
Sicat said that in order to address this, they hired a third party firm to conduct a detailed engineering study of the CCMC’s misaligned columns and beams.
Sicat said they hired a third party firm to ensure that there won’t be any bias.
Weekly visit
Rama, on his part, said he will be visiting CCMC personally every week to check on the ongoing development.
Engineer Lowell Corminal, officer-in-charge of the city’s Department of Engineering and Public Works, said he was confident that the third and fourth floors of the CCMC can already be used by Oct. 28.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, who is Rama’s consultant for public health, said the completion of CCMC’s third and fourth floors could greatly improve the hospital’s capability as these floors will be dedicated to additional facilities such as a dialysis center, operating room and other specialty departments.