THE construction of the Cebu City Medical Center’s (CCMC) fifth phase will proceed after the Cebu City Government awarded the P700 million contract to Dakay Construction and Development Corp.
Outgoing Cebu City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia announced in a press conference on Friday, June 27, 2025, that the construction of Phase 5 of the CCMC is set to commence.
This phase covers the construction of the third to seventh floors of the hospital building. Garcia said that it does not include hospital equipment.
Garcia, representing the Cebu City Government, and Pericles Dakay of the construction firm signed the contract on June 26, 2025. The bidding occurred on Dec. 23, 2024.
The project is set to begin within seven calendar days following the date of issuance and receipt of the notice to proceed. Garcia did not specify when the construction would start but said that a notice to proceed was already issued.
This crucial phase of the long-delayed public hospital is expected to be completed within 240 calendar days, or around eight months.
The period of completion remains fixed unless the City allows additional time for the contractor.
According to the document, the City can terminate the contract if the contractor does not show satisfactory progress and has incurred a negative slippage of 15 percent or more. The City may also terminate the contract if the contractor incurs delays for more than seven days in any phase of the project.
Garcia said he is optimistic that the project would be done on time, given that there would be no delays during construction.
While this marks a significant step forward for the CCMC, Garcia said that the construction of the remaining upper floors, specifically the eighth to 10th levels, will be the responsibility of the incoming administration.
Department of Engineering and Public Works head Lowell Corminal said that a total of P1.138 billion has been spent for the civil works at CCMC.
Corminal said that there have been at least five phases of CCMC’s construction since 2014, with Phase 1 (P566 million); Phase 1.1 (P36 million); Phase 2 (P299 million); Phase 3 (P99 million); and Phase 4 (P136 million was disbursed out of the P916 million contract).
Phase 5 was once a project with the contractor M.E. Sicat Construction but this was terminated in November 2022 due to delays.
The City had allocated P210 million for the eighth to 10th floors of the CCMC. This was asked by the executive department in the first supplemental budget and was approved by the City Council in March 2025.
The old CCMC building was rendered unsafe after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in October 2013.
In the following year, the building was demolished. The construction of the new CCMC building began in 2015. / JPS, NECOLYN CLAIRE BALANSAG, CNU INTERN