Senator Cynthia Villar on Monday, September 21, urged the University of the Philippines (UP) System to build a public general hospital and medical school in Southern Luzon – after hearing of a plan to build a branch of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in the UP Diliman campus.

“Why Diliman when there are so many hospitals in Quezon City?” Villar asked UP president Danilo Concepcion during a Senate finance committee hearing on the proposed 2021 budget of state colleges and universities (SUCs) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

“There is no public hospital with a medical school in the whole of Southern Luzon considering that it’s a very big region in the Philippines. Why not UP Los Baños?” Villar added.

Concepcion said UP is already studying building a PGH – a general hospital with a medical school – in Los Baños, Laguna, or somewhere near it.

“In fact, we are already constructing all the necessary facilities that will complement this general hospital in the south,” Concepcion added.

UP is also looking into building a PGH in Mindanao. Concepcion said he will finish all studies necessary in case plans for these future PGH branches are carried over to his successor when his term ends in 2023.

Citing “health experts,” Concepcion said Quezon City needs one more general hospital to complement the specialized hospitals in the area, such as the Philippine Heart Center, the Lung Center of the Philippines, and the National Kidney and Transplant Institute.

The East Avenue Medical Center is the only public general hospital in the Diliman area, Concepcion said.

Villar noted that the Quirino Memorial Medical Center is also in Quezon City – and it is a large public hospital.

“All the hospitals built by Mrs [Imelda] Marcos are in Quezon City,” Villar added, referring to the Marcos-era hospitals Concepcion mentioned.

Senator Imee Marcos, daughter of Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos, said the original plan, according to her mother, included hospitals for Southern Tagalog “in Los Baños or elsewhere.”

Villar insisted that building a government hospital and medical school in Southern Luzon should be “more of a priority” than in Diliman.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon teased Villar that perhaps her family’s real estate company could help build a PGH in Los Baños through a public-private partnership (PPP).

“Maybe we can offer it to the Villar group of companies. How does that sound to Senator Cynthia – a PPP project?” Drilon said.

“It’s not our line,” Villar replied. She then suggested the group of tycoon Manny Pangilinan, which has a portfolio of hospitals.

“You can always establish a new line,” Drilon told Villar.

UP-PGH so far only has one campus – in Ermita, Manila.

UP-PGH Diliman

Based on the plan, UP-PGH Diliman will be built in the UP Arboretum area in the Quezon City campus. It will include a College of Medicine, and a Cancer Research Center, Concepcion said.

The Cancer Research Center will use genomics as a tool to find a cure for cancer, he added.

With a planned capacity of 700 beds, UP-PGH Diliman will almost double the number of students of the UP College of Medicine. This would be a way to prepare for possible public health crises in the future, Concepcion said.

The first phase of building UP-PGH Diliman will cost P9 billion. The project is considered a priority by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), which funded a P50-million feasibility study completed in September 2019.

Concepcion told the Senate panel that a second feasibility study will be completed by the end of September 2020, after which the proposed project “will be rolled out for marketing” as a possible PPP project, as suggested by NEDA.

Concepcion said that if a private partner is identified, the PPP project to build UP-PGH Diliman may begin before the end of the year.

However, there are 650 families of informal settlers currently living in UP Arboretum, according to the UP System’s presentation to the panel, and they will have to be relocated before the project starts.

10 regions without public medical schools

Senator Joel Villanueva, principal author of the “Doktor Para sa Bayan” medical scholarship bill, noted that 10 regions in the country have no public medical schools:

• Cordillera Administrative Region
• Central Luzon
• Calabarzon
• Mimaropa
• Central Visayas
• Zamboanga Peninsula
• Northern Mindanao
• Davao Region
• Soccsksargen
• Caraga

Three SUCs, meanwhile, have pending applications to open medical schools:

• Cebu Normal University
• Western Mindanao State University
• University of Southeastern Philippines

CHED Chairperson Prospero de Vera III said it would require roughly P1 billion to enable these 3 SUCs to open their own medical schools.

Villanueva said the goal is to have a public medical school in every region in order to fulfill the objective of the medical scholarship bill, which is to have at least one public doctor in every municipality.

Villanueva and Senate finance committee chairperson Senator Sonny Angara backed Villar’s push for a PGH in Southern Luzon.

De Vera said the initial implementation of the medical scholarship bill will require a budget of more than P4.6 billion.

CHED’s proposed budget in the 2021 National Expenditure Program (NEP) is P50.9 billion. The UP System’s proposed 2021 budget under the NEP is a little over P19.6 billion. – Rappler.com