CEBU City Mayor Michael Rama has promised to complete the 10th floor of the new Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) building by February 2024 without any cost to the Cebu City Government.
“CCMC, 10th floor will be finished by February. We already have the money, money that did not come from City Hall. Pun-an pa sa (with an addition from the) trust fund nga (that is) P20 million. The money that we have is already sacred,” Rama said during the flag-raising ceremony on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023, two days after his return from a more than a month-long rest abroad.
However, Rama did not provide more details regarding the current amount of funds available for constructing the 10th floor of the CCMC or its source.
He said they could still increase their current funding to a certain amount but did not disclose the exact figure yet.
“Kon sultian ta mo, naay maningil dayon. Naa na ang kwarta,” Rama said.
(If we will tell you, someone will demand it immediately. The money is already there).
In March this year, then special assistant to the mayor Jerone Castillo said there were four Filipino private companies and a group of Chinese businessmen who pledged nearly P1 billion in funds to complete the construction of the CCMC’s eighth to 1Oth floors.
Last April, the City formed an investigation committee and discovered defects in the construction of the new CCMC building.
Months after that, retrofitting and fixing works were conducted by past contractors of the building, such as C.E. Padilla Construction Inc., C.B. Garay Philwide Builders, and M.E. Sicat Construction Inc.
In July, SunStar Cebu reported that Rama said he wanted the CCMC fully operational by the last quarter of 2023, saying that he is committed to finishing the construction before his term ends in 2025.
It has almost been a decade since the construction of the new CCMC building started. Under Rama’s leadership, the City held a groundbreaking ceremony to pave the way for the construction of the new CCMC on July 14, 2014.
The construction began on July 4, 2015, during Rama’s second term as mayor. The hospital is being built to replace the old CCMC building, which was damaged by the 2013 Central Visayas earthquake.
Since 2015, the City has spent almost P2 billion on the construction of the hospital — P566.085 million for Phase 1, P36.33 million for Phase 1.1, P299 million for Phase 2, P99.72 million for Phase 3, and P907.99 million for Phase 4.
The contract with M.E. Sicat Construction Inc., which was working on the seventh to 10th floors, was terminated in November 2022.