CEBU, Philippines – Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña has continued to taunt Governor Gwendolyn Garcia on her claim of the assets of the Provincial Government.
Osmeña, whose move to bar non-city residents from seeking treatment at the Cebu City Medical Center, was criticized, said that he will have a vehicle on stand by to take patients from Cebu Province to the governor’s office.
“I’m assigning a transportation at CCMC, multicab, if there is a patient from the province they will transfer them to the Governor’s office,” Osmeña said.
He said the action is part of the implementation of the Executive Order aimed at improving and maximizing the services for the residents at CCMC.
“Let them take care of their own sick, plenty of patients at CCMC are not from Cebu City, they refuse to take responsibility of their sick they don’t even have a hospital and then she brags that they have plenty of money,” Osmeña said.
He said as for Cebu City residents, the barangay health centers will be empowered to take care of what they can and the rest will go to CCMC.
“For emergency cases of course we don’t turn anyone down,” Osmeña assured.
Another exception to the rule are the residents of Cordova town.
He said the Cordova residents will just have to obtain a referral from their respective barangay captains.
“We are also making an arrangement to include Cordova residents in our financial assistance to senior citizens later part this year,” he said.
He said he had challenged Governor Garcia to do the same but instead she passed the issue to her spokesman Atty. Rory Jon Sepulveda, who according to him said, “they will teach them how to fish.”
“What, you teach the senior citizens, who are in their twilight years for livelihood, why can’t you just give it to them, they can’t overprice because that is P2,000 cash and they just prioritize the P900 million for the CICC, I just want to show how poor the provincial government is,” he said.
Osmeña said Garcia passed the giving of financial assistance to the mayors when the mayor’s were not bragging that they have plenty of money.
Osmeña also criticized the governor’s decision to build an international port in Naga when no one has ever heard of a shipping company that expressed interest of transferring their docking area in Naga.
“You know what it takes to build a port, it needs feasibility study, Naga is exposed to open sea, all international ports are sheltered, why did Magellan chose to land in Cebu, because there is Mactan; Subic on the other hand is in a bay, you call that an intelligent decision,” Osmeña said.
He went on further stating the darkness of the remaining parts of the province.
“You step into Talisay and even the priest gets killed because it is covered in darkness,” he said.
On the other hand, Sepulveda said Osmeña’s pronouncement may seem like a joke, but they are not taking it for granted.
“Hesus Maria Josep! Ipanguros nalang nato. Pagka bankrupt naba jud intawon og idea og polisiya si Tomas,” Sepulveda said.
He however assured that he had already met with Provincial Health Officer Dr. Cristina Giango to come up with a contingency plan.
“Rest assured, however, in such eventuality, the persons denied medical attention can expect human care and attention from the province and other ethical medical professionals, institutions and or facilities.
“Tomas will however be held responsible to any and all adverse effects to the patient due to the initial denial,” Sepulveda said.
Cebu Province has no provincial hospital, but gives assistance to the nationally-operated Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC).
There are 16 district hospitals in the entire Cebu province.
In its website, the provincial government targeted to construct two provincial hospitals since 2008.
CCMC on the other hand is receiving a yearly appropriation of P140 million and is manned by 600 personnel.
Osmeña recently expressed plans to sell CCMC because of several complaints despite its assistance received from the city. — With Garry B. Lao/NLQ (THE FREEMAN)