DOH coming to ‘Children’s’ rescue

MANILA, Philippines–The Department of Health (DOH) will ask for money from the national government to stop the “eviction” of the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC) in Quezon City, according to Health Secretary Enrique Ona.

Ona on Friday said the DOH would ask for funds from either the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) or the Department of Finance (DOF) so that it could pay the P1.1 billion price tag that the National Housing Authority (NHA) had put on the lot on which the PCMC stands.

“What will happen is that we will ask for money from the DBM or the DOF so that we can pay the NHA,” Ona said in an interview. “That would be like (government) taking (money) from one pocket and (putting it) to the next,” he added.

Ona downplayed the NHA demand for payment from the PCMC, which stands on a 6.3-ha property  at the National Government Center in Diliman. He said media might have “played up” the matter.

“Maybe you (journalists) were the ones who put the word ‘eviction’ there,” he said.

Ona noted that former President Ferdinand Marcos had given the land to the PCMC through a presidential decree.

“(But) the title is with the NHA. It has yet to give it to the hospital … The argument here is who really owns the land,” he said.

“It’s government (but) the NHA wants to be paid. Where will the PCMC get the money? We’ll ask DBM or DOF,” Ona added.

PCMC officials earlier said that the NHA’s demand that the hospital pay up was a tacit eviction notice. They said NHA officials want to sell the lot and suggested in a recent meeting that the hospital build a high-rise building on a 2,500-sq m property owned by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), also in Quezon City.

The PCMC officials balked at the suggestion that they build a high-rise building since this would endanger their patients who are mostly children.