Construction of the Cebu City Medical Center has been delayed by 45 days after engineers discovered substandard work in older building sections, requiring safety tests before Phase 5 continues.
The Commission on Audit and Department of Health have instructed the city to document all defective installations and conduct technical assessments before deciding whether to repair or replace existing structures.
Cebu City had spent P1.13 billion on the project as of December 31, 2025, with an additional P1.4 billion in funding needed for further construction, structural repairs, and medical equipment procurement.
THE long-awaited completion of the new Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) has run into yet another roadblock. Construction has slowed down after engineers discovered substandard work left behind by previous contractors on the 12-year-old hospital project.
The newest delay happened when the current contractor, Dakay Construction and Development Corp., started linking its new Phase 5 work with parts of the building that were finished years ago.
Because the hospital has been built in pieces by four different contractors over more than a decade, engineers had to check if the older structures were safe to build on. Consultants quickly found that several older parts of the building simply did not meet technical and safety standards.
To make sure the hospital is safe for future patients, Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival temporarily paused parts of the construction so engineers can run safety tests.
"The corrective measures are necessary to ensure the hospital meets engineering and safety standards before it becomes fully operational," Archival explained.
While city officials have not publicly shared exactly which parts of the building are defective, the project has a history of structural issues. Back in 2023, a separate investigation ordered by former mayor Michael Rama found crooked columns, peeling concrete surfaces, and weak structural beams. That same year, the city canceled a P907-million contract with a previous builder over major delays.
To figure out what to do next, the Department of Health (DOH) has ordered the city not to tear down the questionable parts of the building just yet. Instead, workers must run technical tests to see if the existing structures can still be saved or if they must be completely replaced.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has also stepped in, instructing the city to fully document all of these taxpayer-funded installations before anything is removed.
This safety testing has pushed the construction timeline back by about 45 days. However, Mayor Archival maintains that the city is still aiming to finish the hospital by December 2026.
If the testing reveals that the older parts are too weak to use, the city will demand that the previous contractors come back and fix their mistakes. If those contractors refuse, the Cebu City Government will have to step in and do the repairs themselves, which could cost taxpayers even more money.
The struggle to build the CCMC began all the way back in 2013, after the original hospital building was badly damaged and declared unsafe following the historic magnitude 7.2 Bohol earthquake.
Since then, the replacement project has faced a nonstop cycle of legal fights, changing builders, bidding issues, and sudden shutdowns across multiple city administrations. According to the COA’s 2025 Annual Audit Report, Cebu City had already spent an incredible P1.13 billion on the hospital project as of December 31, 2025.
To finally get the hospital finished, the city still needs a massive amount of funding:
P700 million is currently allocated for Phase 5 to finish the fourth through seventh floors.
P400 million is being eyed for structural repairs to fix past mistakes.
P300 million has been requested from the DOH to buy vital medical equipment, including MRI and X-ray machines, laboratory tools, dialysis units, and operating room facilities.
To make sure local patients do not lose access to healthcare during the ongoing construction, the city is using a floor-by-floor strategy.
Workers will prioritize finishing the fourth floor first. Once that is done, hospital services can safely move up one level at a time, allowing the lower floors to be rehabilitated without shutting down the facility.
When the entire hospital is finally completed, CCMC will expand its capacity from 150 beds to about 400 beds. This long-awaited expansion will allow Cebu City's only public tertiary hospital to treat more patients and finally ease the severe overcrowding that has impacted local families for over a decade. CAV