CEBU City Mayor-elect Nestor Archival aims to finish the construction of the long-delayed Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) within one year.
In a news forum on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, Archival said that among the problems he identified regarding the delays on the City-owned hospital was that the construction was divided into phases.
The construction phases were also awarded to different contractors at different time periods, he said.
Archival saw this as a problem regarding accountability in times of challenges, especially identifying which contractor would be held responsible due to various issues such as structural integrity.
Another problem was that the funding for the project was divided, and in each phase, their variance and design changes would add cost to the unfinished hospital.
He added the CCMC construction started alongside the construction of two other hospitals in the area; however, these two facilities were already finished, yet the CCMC was not.
“Until now, it remains unfinished and the problem is we chopped down the budget. The moment we have funds, we will push for it and we will put a completion date,” he said.
Archival said the City Government has already spent over P1 billion, but only the first three floors out of the 10-story building are operational.
CCMC construction started more than a decade ago after the old two-story building suffered structural damage following the 2013 earthquake in Bohol.
Archival said that upon his assumption on June 30, he will form a team that will review the overall plans and transactions, or conduct a construction audit, within three months. After this, construction will commence to finish the 10-story building in a single year.
The team will audit the finances and timeline of construction and aim to finish the city-owned hospital within the one-year goal.
“I promise with Tommy Osmeña and the rest of the team that we are going to finish CCMC in a maximum of one year,” he said.
“We need to clear it out with the consultants and designers as to whose responsibility it will be if ever there will be something happening in the construction like in the structural or architectural,” he said.
Archival added that their goal is to provide healthcare and hospitalization benefits for the constituents of Cebu City. / EHP