Tom cuts off aid to Cebu City Medical Center

REP. Tomas Osmeña yesterday announced that he was cutting off aid from his congressional fund to the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC).

His estimated P1-million monthly release to the city hospital will instead go to the  Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center run by the Department of Health.

“Starting today I will no longer give assistance to CCMC and will transfer the funds to Vicente Sotto  Hospital. I will withdraw everything,” Tomas said in a press conference.

He was irked by Cebu City Mayor Rama’s reluctance to sign a  memorandum of agreement for a P2- million donation from elder brother Sen. Sergio Osmeña III for indigent CCMC patients over a disagreement about who would handle the fund.

Councilor Margot Osmeña, the congressman’s wife, was to be in charge of identifying beneficiaries of the aid but the mayor wanted the MOA to state the CCMC hospital administration as the authorized party for “proper protocol.”

“Why isn’t he doing this to me?” said Tomas, who recalled that during his term as city mayor, he would sign all MOAs concerning the city hospital.

“If Senator Osmeña wants to assign someone to monitor his donation, someone whom he can trust, is that unreasonable?” he said. He  added that “mine is also a Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).”

Mayor Rama said he was  not blocking the donation but only wanted to follow proper procedure.

“I just want to have it done with the right protocol. Why would they channel it to another person when we have the Office of the Mayor? Once it’s settled, then we can have the donation,” Rama said. In the draft MOA, Senator Osmeña named his sister-in-law Margot as the point person for the program.

“She’s not even the chairman for the committee on health in the City Council,” Rama said.  Tomas, the congressman, said the mayor is refusing the arrangement  “because he wants it all given to him.” The congressman said he’s channeled  more than  P10 million a year for medical assistance to CCMC.

“Most of their (CCMC) income came from me with a average of P1 million a month,” he said. Osmeña said Cebu City residents should not worry since they can still go to Vicente Sotto hospital to avail of his aid. “It’s CCMC that’s pitiful because they have no income,” he added.

In the same press conference, Tomas commented on news reports about the ill-equipped Cebu City Fire Department and the City Council’s scrapping of a P50 million outlay recommended by the mayor to upgrade equipment and purchase fire trucks.

Tomas said even if the fire trucks are 30 years old, they can still run with proper maintenance.

“Our Kaoshiong buses are as old as those fire trucks and they are running everyday, why are they still operational? It’s because of proper maintenance. So the problem is the maintenance and not the trucks,” he said. He said Cebu City needs more water tankers since a fire truck is useless in responding to an alarm without these backup water storage units.

Cebu Daily News this week reported the mayor’s frustration over the loss of a P50-million outlay to improve the fire department.

“And yet, after that report came out, I texted Secretary Robredo (of the Dep’t of Interior and Local Government) and asked him to give us a fire truck and he said yes. We will have one next year. Top-of-the-line brand-new fire truck without the city’s expense. Can Mike do that?” said Tomas.

He said if Mayor Rama was serious about the need for new fire trucks, he would have asked President Aquino for it when they last met.

“But instead of fire trucks, he talked about flyovers and other things.”