Manila Mayor Isko Moreno (in dark shirt), along with (from left) third district Rep. Yul Servo, Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna and Councilor Irwin Tieng lead the groundbreaking ceremony of the soon to rise President Corazon C. Aquino General Hospital in Baseco.
Photo by JERRY S. TAN
Isko, Honey lead groundbreakimg of Pres. Corazon Aquino Health Center
THE President Corazon Aquino Health Center in Baseco will soon become a fully-operational general hospital to better serve the some 100,000 residents of the said community. It will be the eighth hospital to be offering free services in Manila.
This was announced by Manila Mayor Isko Moreno as he and Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna led the groundbreaking of the soon-to-rise hospital along with Congressman Yul Servo, Councilor Irwin Tieng, city engineer Armand Andres, city architect Pepito Balmoris, city electrician Randy Sadac and tourism chief Charlie Dungo, barangay bureau chief Romy Bagay and the fifth district Councilors led by Charry Ortega. He credited all of them and Lacuna for helping him realize the said three-storey hospital through its P110 million budget allocation.
Moreno said the name of the said hospital will be the same, in deference to the late President Corazon Aquino and Mayor Fred Lim who originally had the said health center built in her memory.
The mayor said that unlike other politicians, he is not into the habit of erasing the legacy, credit or memory of predecessors by tearing down projects and renaming them.
“Ayoko na pagpalit ng administrasyon, buburahin na lang… nananakit tayo ng damdamin pag ganun. As a matter of respect to Mayor Lim and President Cory Aquino na naglingkod sa Maynila at sa bansa, ito ang aming paglingon sa nakaraan, patuloy naming i-immortalize those who have served our city and I am comfortable and okay with that,” Moreno said.
Moreno said that with the new hospital, the residents of Baseco need no longer travel all the way to the Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center (GABMMC) headed by Dr. Ted Martin as its director. Said hospital is nearest to Baseco although it is located in the first district of Manila.
It was learned from Andres that the features and amenities of the said 50-bed hospital will include the following: a 24/7, fully-operational emergency room with community inclusive outpatient department; digital x-ray equipment for radiology department; laboratory and central diagnostics department; centralized medical gas system with oxygen supply line; a pharmacy;isolation wards; a dietary department; male and female wards; a maternity department; pediatric ward; surgery and internal medicine department; a service elevator dedicated for patients in bed and a passenger elevator with a capacity of 11 to 14 persons.
In the same event, Moreno, Lacuna and Servo, along with social welfare chief Re Fugoso, led the distribution of relief items and financial aid to the victims of fire in Baseco.
Fugoso said about 150 families were displaced by a recent fire that razed to the ground about 100 houses.
Once finished, the said hospital will be the eighth in the city of Manila. The seventh is the Manila COVID-19 Field Hospital which was built in 52 days.
