Newks, Bing trade barbs over hospital construction
BACOLOD CITY -- Lone District Representative Monico O. Puentevella blamed the Office of Acting City Legal Officer Atty. Vicente Petierre Jr. for the delayed construction of Heart, Lung and Kidney Center situated at the compound of Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH).
Atty. Petierre earlier wrote CLMMRH Chief of Hospital Dr. Domingo Vega requiring the latter to secure an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) and a temporary building permit.
Puentevella said that the Heart, Lung and Kidney Center was envisioned by the national government to cater to the needs of the poor Bacoleños who cannot afford the services of private hospital.
He said that the project incurred delay when Atty. Petierre wrote the Chief of Hospital seeking compliance of ECC. Puentevella questioned the acts of the city as he had sensed the selective implementation of the projects.
He cited three major projects that were constructed even without the ECC and these include the New Slaughterhouse in Brgy. Handumanan, the New Government Center and the Felisa Dumpsite.
Puentevella added that the signing of contract for the New Slaughterhouse was done is February 7, 2007 but the ECC was issued only last July 14, 2008. As to the New Government Center, the Lone District Representative said that the deed of donation was signed and entered into on June 14, 2006 and the signing of contract for the construction and site development of the New Government Center was done last December 26, 2006 and the ECC was only granted last February 12, 2007.
The Felisa Dumpsite which was opened last February 2005 do not have ECC until now, said Puentevella.
Puentevella said that there is already an initial P8 million appropriation for the construction of Lung, Heart and Kidney Center taken from the Department of Health (DOH) budget.
"I strongly question the selective implementation of the law embodied in City Ordinance 308 relative to the issuance of ECC requirements," Puentevella lamented.
Meanwhile, Mayor Evelio Leonardia answered the allegation hurled by Puentevella relative to his alleged selective imposition of the law. Leonardia said that the three projects cited by the solon were urgent, most particularly the establishment of the Felisa dumpsite which posed health hazards to the Bacoleños.
He also answered that if the city government did not push for the new slaughterhouse, the safety of the public is also at stake because of the “hot meat” consumed by the people.
Leonardia denied Puentevella's claim that he is trying to sabotage the Heart, Lung and Kidney Center by stopping this project. "In the first place, I'm not a saboteur by nature, and I never intervened on the issuance of ECC because it is the duty of the Office of the Building Official and all this will undergo a natural and legal process," Leonardia said.
Meanwhile, Acting Office of the Building Official Head Engineer Teresita Guadalupe said that there is no truth to the claim of Puentevella because the New Government Center was discontinued before when the contractor Hillmarc's Construction never secured an ECC from her office.
She said that all the projects in Bacolod City had an ECC and that's the reason that she urges the CLMMRH to secure an ECC before the project could continue.