Stop sale of Kidney Center lot, P-Noy urged

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino should stop the sale of the 1.6-hectare Quezon City land occupied by the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) or Kidney Center, Bohol Rep. Erico Aumentado said yesterday.

At the same time, he called on the committee on good government of the House of Representatives to investigate the planned sale of the property, which is apparently owned by the National Housing Authority (NHA).

The NKTI is one of four specialty hospitals in Quezon City built by then first lady Imelda Marcos, now an Ilocos Norte congresswoman, during the Marcos regime.

Aumentado said the late President Ferdinand Marcos, through Presidential Proclamation 2381, had given what was then known as the National Kidney Center the exclusive right to use the property, which is composed of at least two lots.

He said the NHA could not just disregard the proclamation as it has the effect of a law, which has to be obeyed unless scrapped or amended by the Office of the President.

Aumentado said Aquino has to stop the sale since NKTI would have to close shop if its lot were sold. He added that the Marcos regime envisioned the four specialty hospitals to be near each other in Quezon City. The other hospitals, located along East Avenue and Quezon Avenue near the city hall, are the Heart Center, Lung Center and Children’s Medical Center.

Bad faith

The NHA has already advertised the sale of the NKTI lot in a newspaper. Aumentado accused the NHA of bad faith since at the time the agency put out its advertisement, it was negotiating with NKTI officials on the transfer of the lot to the hospital.

“In fact, according to NKTI medical director Jose Dator, NHA and the hospital had actually come to a tacit agreement on the mode of payment…that they agreed that compensation will be in the form of medical services to NHA personnel,” he said.

He said the NHA should not sell its Kidney Center lot because it is occupied by a vital facility, which attends to tens of thousands of people with kidney ailments.

Aumentado noted that the housing agency had already sold its other Quezon City lots or entered into joint venture agreements with private developers for their development.

He pointed out that NHA, being an agency subsidized by taxpayers, should just let kidney patients continue to benefit from the NKTI, instead of selling the lot it occupies to real estate developers.