Davao Occidental execs welcome Senate’s OK of bill creating tertiary hospital

Davao Occidental Governor Claude P. Bautista during the groundbreaking rites of the P200-million medical center. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

DIGOS CITY – Davao Occidental officials welcomed the approval on the third reading of Senate Bill 1616, which calls for the establishment of the first tertiary hospital in the province and providing for a P900 million regular budget for its operation each year.

Davao Occidental Rep. Lorna Bautista-Bandigan, who authored House Bill 7321, the counterpart bill in the Lower House, said the approval would greatly boost the state of public health in the province as people no longer had to travel two or three hours away to Davao City to bring their sick to the hospital.

She said both Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, chairperson of the Senate’s health committee and Senate Minority Floor Leader Franklin Drilon pushed for the passing of the bill and its yearly P900 million operational budget.

Both insisted that regular funding for the hospital’s operational expenses should already be reflected in the 2022 national budget, Bandigan said.

Davao Occidental Rep. Lorna Bautista-Bandigan (left) , Governor Claude Bautista (second from right) prepare the time capsule of the proposed medical center in Davao Occidental province recently upgraded into a general hospital following the Senate’s approval of its regular operational budget under the General Appropriations Act. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

In 2018, officials started the construction of a P200-million medical center facility funded by the Department of Health (DOH) in Barangay Lacaron in the province’s capital town of Malita. The project, which is expected to be operational in the first or second quarter of 2022, is a 100-room facility.

Davao Occidental which is composed of the towns of Sta. Maria, Malita, Don Marcelino, Jose Abad Santos, and Sarangani has been a relatively new province carved out of Davao del Sur following a referendum five years ago.

/MUF