Bacolod City – The creation of the Bacolod General Hospital, under House Bill 1647, will be tackled by the Senate this week and hopefully, will be passed, Rep. Greg Gasataya said.
Gasataya said the creation of the Bacolod General Hospital will be in the agenda to be discussed by the Committee on Health and Demography, chaired by Senator Christopher Lawrence Go.
He said that once the bill creating the hospital is approved in the Senate, the budget for its construction will be included in the national budget for 2022-2023.
The only problem right now, Gasataya said, is the area where the hospital will be erected.
Asked how much is needed for the construction of the hospital, he said, it will be the Department of Health that will determine the amount to be raised for it.
Five families have, so far, expressed interest in donating their lots for use as site of the hospital.
These are in barangays Mansilingan, Felisa, and Bata, near the boundary of Bacolod and Talisay.
Gasataya’s office will coordinate with the DOH and the city government in choosing the appropriate site for the hospital.
He said the creation of the Bacolod hospital is already long overdue because Bacolodnons have been waiting for its construction for a long time already.
The bill creating the city’s hospital was filed in 2019 and was approved in the House of Representatives in June 2020.
Gasataya is also pushing for the passage of the Bayanihan 3 Act, or the Arise as One bill, adding that the national government is now looking for sources of funds. Under the bill, the national government needs to raise P405.6 billion in financial assistance for those who have been affected by the pandemic.
(Adrian Nemes III via The Visayan Daily Star, photo courtesy of The Daily Guardian)