NHA chief confirms giving hospital ultimatum to pay

National Housing Authority general manager Chito Cruz. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/NHA website

MANILA, Philippines—National Housing Authority (NHA) General Manager Chito Cruz said it had been almost a year since the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) expressed interest in the lot occupied by the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC).

“We [at the NHA] wrote the PCMC to accommodate the PIDS, which will occupy only 2,500 square meters. We gave them (PCMC) an ultimatum to pay for the entire property (3.7 hectares) … We have been waiting for a year,” Cruz said.

He said the PCMC could ask the national government for funding similar to what the National Kidney and Transplant Institute did to secure the ownership of the land.

“It (the 2,500-sq-m lot) is only a small portion of the 3.7-ha lot. [They can agree to the sale] so the budget for the PIDS will not expire,” the NHA general manager pointed out.

Asked if a donation by his agency of the property to the hospital was possible, Cruz said: “As far as a donation is concerned, it is not possible because we have our mandate. We also have to recover some of the money spent by the government to buy land … It is a standard resolution of the board to be able to collect funding.”

He stressed that the NHA was not evicting the PCMC main building should the hospital be unable to pay for its lot.

As for the possible disposition of other portions of the PCMC land in case the hospital is unable to pay for the property, Cruz said, “There is no longer any portion of the lot where the PCMC is on that we can offer. They [at the PCMC] have been doing a good job giving services to our people.”