The Senate Committee on Health and Demography chaired by Senator Bong Go has approved pushing for the establishment of the Bacolod City General Hospital.
Senate Bill No. 1647 filed by Senate Majority Leader Migz Zubiri is the counterpart of House Bill No. 6731 authored by lone district Rep. Greg Gasataya.
Gasataya said yesterday that it has long been the dream of the people of Bacolod to have a public hospital.
Gasataya said that Health Secretary Francisco Duque also attended the Senate Committee hearing and expressed his support of the proposed hospital.
The Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital is the only government-run hospital here that also caters to patients from the different cities and municipalities of Negros Occidental province.
Gasataya filed the bill in July last year before the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) pandemic.
It was approved by the House of Representatives in June this year.
It will then be scheduled for second and third reading until it is approved and signed into law by the President. (Dolly Yasa via The Daily Guardian (TDG), photo courtesy by TDG)