Garcia on donation for CCMC: City treasurer to keep funds

CEBU, Philippines —  Amidst issues surrounding the donation drive for the completion of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC), Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia has suggested directing the funds to the city’s Treasury Office rather than routing them through the Cebu Medical Society (CMS).

The review of the Tripartite Agreement between the Cebu City Government, CMS, and the contractor for the donation drive to fund the construction of the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of the CCMC is still under consideration by the Cebu City Council.

While CMS is currently receiving donations on behalf of the city, Garcia, however, advised that all donations go directly to the Cebu City Government through the Cebu City Treasurer’s Office (CTO).

“My advice is, tanang donations intended to finish the CCMC should be donated to the City of Cebu, courtesy of the CTO, para wa nay question, so that para klaro na,” said Garcia.

Garcia explained that the current donation setup raises various questions over accountability, which could lead to finger-pointing between parties, including the CMS.

Previously, the City Legal Office (CLO) issued a legal opinion on the tripartite agreement, which some say they have sought clarification on, particularly regarding its legality.

In their legal opinion, the CLO raised three issues that they felt needed to be “considered, properly addressed, and resolved.” These issues included the nature of the funds covered by the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), as well as CMS' authority to accept the donation, and the requirement for a public bidding process for the project.

According to Garcia, the same opinion also states that the donation drive is intended for public purposes, specifically to complete the CCMC.

In his “personal opinion,” Garcia said he would prefer for CMS to return all accumulated donations to the donors, and then ask the donors to re-donate the funds, this time directly to the CTO.

“I think that is the best solution, kay para there will be no question anymore as to the funding og kung giunsa pag gamit, mao man nay gi question sa council ba, ang accountability sa funds because it is not in government's possession, it is in a private entity,” said Garcia.

He clarified that if this suggestion moves forward, CMS would still need the consent of the donors to transfer the funds to the CTO. This now leaves the decision to CMS to take the first step in returning the funds to the donors.

“Then donors, if you really want to donate it to the city, be, i-donate sa city, pa-issuehan pa ta mog resibo sa city treasurer’s office para the accountability is there, it becomes a public fund,” said Garcia.

Once transferred to the city government, Garcia said the funds would be processed under the rules of the Commission on Audit (COA) and would go through a procurement process.

Garcia further explained that although there would be a tripartite agreement, CMS would be the entity holding the funds, and thus questions of accountability would still arise for their part.

During the seventh executive session to tackle the matter, Dr. Peter Mancao, CCMC head and former president of CMS, told the council that the donated funds are currently at P205 million, held in a bank account under the name of CMS.

He added that it is a separate account designated solely for the donation drive. Mancao, however, refused to disclose the identities of the donors due to a non-disclosure clause.

Mancao also clarified that, as of that discussion, no funds from the donations had been disbursed.

“To put an end to all of these doubts, as to where the funds are being deposited or being spent on, why not just donate everything to the Cebu City Government and then mag procurement process ta?” said Garcia.

In their opinion, the CLO also noted an indication of an “undisclosed trustor,” which the CLO mentioned “explicitly chooses Dakay Construction as the designated third-party contractor to accomplish the CCMC project."

The CLO recommended that, in order to satisfy the public’s demand for transparency and accountability, the RBTA Law Firm, which represents the donor—in this case, the “undisclosed donor”—should be required to submit a Special Power of Attorney (SPA) or any document proving that it is indeed the authorized representative.

According to Garcia, to address these issues, he had already instructed the management of CCMC to gather all the donors, to meet with them, and also ask them to redirect their funds to the CTO.

“Pero wa pa koy balita kinsa ni sila (donors),” said Garcia.

ON LEAKAGE OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS

Previously, some members of the Cebu City Council questioned the alleged leakage of the CLO opinion and its attached documents, which includes the draft of the tripartite agreement between the Cebu City Government, the donors, and the contractor of the project.

Councilor Mary Ann de los Santos sought an explanation from the CLO as to why it was posted online despite not having a received stamp, questioning the manner in which it was released before reaching the intended recipient—the city council—and the addressee.

Garcia, however, believes that the CLO opinion was a public document, and therefore no further instructions were necessary to prevent such an instance from occurring again.

“I don’t know if you consider that as a private document, dili man tingali, kay it is a legal document. It came from the CLO. If it comes out, then it is already a public document and it is already for the consumption of the public,” said Garcia. (CEBU NEWS)