Help pours in for CCMC

In less than a week donations to rebuild the Cebu City Medical Center have reached over P6.6 million.

The biggest single contributor so far is Chong Hua Hospital which gave P1 million yesterday to Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.

With this, the hospital wants to “send a message of hope and empathy to the victims of the entire province of Cebu in the midst of this state of calamity,” said Lim Liu, CEO of the hospital and president of the Asociacion Benevola de Cebu, Inc. which owns the hospital.

When the “Piso Mo, Hospital Ko” campaign was launched last Monday, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano donated P100,000 while Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte gave P500,000.

SM Prime Holdings president Hans Sy also gave P5 million to the city last week for earthquake victims and rehabilitation. Rama said he would be use the amount for the new CCMC.

During the distribution of cash incentives to barangay officials last Tuesday, officials were able to raise around P48,000 as well.

With the closure of the 300-bed city hospital due to severe damage from the Oct. 15 earthquake, the city’s indigent patients have nowhere to go.The mayor estimates it would cost over a billion to replace it wiht a 1,000-bed hospital.

City Information Officer Carlo Dugaduga said each vendor in all markets in the city pledged to give at least P50 a day for the drive.

“We’re bringing the campaign directly to the people. We are happy that even ordinary people like trisikad drivers donated some of their hard-earned money,” Dugaduga said.

The PIO is conducting a caravan in the barnagays.

So far, they have visited barangays Labangon, Tisa, Punta Princesa and Inayawan.

“We’re thankful that Cebuanos are rising to occasions where unity is needed,” Rama said.

CCMC patients are currently housed in the compound of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) 7.

Rama sent a demand letter to the Department of the Interior and Local Government to vacate the entire compound./Jucell Marie P. Cuyos and Jose Santino Bunachita