THE full operation of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) has been pushed back to June 2028 due to P400 million worth of construction defects inherited from previous administrations, Mayor Nestor Archival announced Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025.
Archival said volunteer engineers discovered major deficiencies in the 10-story hospital’s structure. These defects, he said, must be rectified before continuing construction. “Kay kon gitarong pa nila, wala unta tay trabahoon (If they had done it properly, we wouldn’t have anything to fix),” he said.
The repair works alone are estimated to cost P403 million, while completing the remaining phases will require another P600 million to P700 million, bringing total additional funding to as much as P1.1 billion.
Archival said his team aims to finish the rectification within three to four months and hopes to complete the entire hospital by late 2026 under ideal conditions. The 2028 deadline accounts for potential delays.
A decade of delays
The CCMC project, launched after the 2013 earthquake destroyed the old hospital, has faced more than a decade of delays caused by funding issues, design changes, and shifts in leadership.
According to Archival, out of the P1.8 billion in awarded contracts for Phases 1 to 4, P940 million has already been paid to contractors between 2014 and 2025. To illustrate inefficiencies, he cited the eight-story cancer center at Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, completed for around P500 million. “We could have built four hospitals already with that budget,” he said.
The Phase 5 contract — worth nearly P700 million and awarded to Dakay Construction and Development Corp. under former mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia — is now under review due to inconsistencies between the project of work and estimates before and after bidding.
Archival said the project’s fate will depend on the findings of the Bids and Awards Committee and the City Legal Office.
A rebidding could further delay completion, but the administration aims to make CCMC fully operational by June 2028. / EHP