' No intention of changing hospital '
MANILA, Philippines—The grizzled military veterans got a little emotional as word spread that the Quezon City government plans to turn the Veterans Memorial Medical Center compound into an upscale residential area.
“It makes us sad because this is the only hospital where we get free treatment,” a 54-year-old retired Air Force lieutenant on Monday said as he waited for his turn at the state-run hospital’s dialysis center.
“Where else could we run to if this is demolished, especially now when prices are going up and we only get a measly pension?” said the outpatient, who asked not to be named.
“I agree completely,” said retired Army T/Sgt. Luis Lipardo, another kidney patient seated nearby.
An unsettling “rumor” that the 54.9-hectare VMMC property would be “sold” for commercial development had been lately making the rounds at the hospital and on the blogs kept by some of the interns.
Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte confirmed City Hall’s plans to “transform” the VMMC—but maintained that cash-strapped retirees like Lipardo need not worry.
“The residential area will be built where the golf course is,” Belmonte said, referring to the 18-hole course sprawled around VMMC’s cluster of buildings.
“But we have no intention of changing the hospital,” Belmonte explained in a Philippine Daily Inquirer interview on April 4.
Best economic use
It’s a matter of “putting the best economic use” for properties “that have been lying fallow,” Belmonte said, referring to plans to recast the VMMC property—as well as the adjoining 100-ha North Triangle and 100-ha East Triangle areas—into a “commercial business district.”
The envisioned urban makeover would cover a total of 250 ha.
“The presence of the TriNoma (mall) has already transformed North Triangle, and we will continue to put the best economic use for [those areas],” Belmonte said.
In the case of the VMMC, City Hall plans to convert the 37-ha golf course into a row of condominiums. “Gains” to be made from that conversion will go to the VMMC, Belmonte said.
Together with Vice President Noli De Castro, Belmonte co-chairs the Urban Triangle Development Commission created by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to speed up the transformation of the VMMC and the North and East Triangle areas into a “mixed-use urban community.”
The VMMC was constructed in 1955 by virtue of a US Congressional act providing for the medical needs of World War II veterans. In 1982, a presidential proclamation transferred ownership of the property from the National Housing Authority to the VMMC administration.
Over the last five decades, the facility has extended services not only to veterans but also to their dependents, as well as a limited number of Philhealth (Philippine Health Insurance Corp.) members. (From 2001 to 2003, its presidential suite served as the detention quarters of deposed President Joseph Estrada as he faced trial for plunder.)
No objections
Former Defense Secretary Fortunato Abat, president of the Cavalier Association of Veterans, said he didn’t mind “commercializing” the golf course if it would add to the veterans’ pension fund and if the hospital would stay.
“The veterans should realize that (release of their) pension funds is dependent on the availability of funds. If there are no funds for the purpose of benefits, the release is often delayed,” Abat said in a phone interview. “Better that there should be a source of funds for the pensioners.”
Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, himself a veteran who had served in the Armed Forces of the Philippines for more than 20 years, agreed.
“If it’s going to generate more funds, why not?” the senator said in an interview. Biazon proposed, though, that the revenues should be used for the construction of similar hospitals for veterans living in other parts of the country.
Biazon also stressed that the present VMMC should stay “where it is.”
Regional medical centers
Retired Brig. Gen. Rodrigo Gutang, president of the Alliance for the Amelioration of Veterans and Former Policemen and Reserves, said the revenues could also be used to build regional medical centers in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
“The perennial dream of veterans to have regional medical centers has remained a dream. And this development could probably make this dream come true,” Gutang said during a Senate hearing on March 14.
The hearing, called by the Senate defense committee chaired by Biazon, sought to assess the impact Quezon City Hall’s development plans would have on the VMMC.
The Senate inquiry was launched after protests greeted reports in early March that the VMMC property was up for sale.
Rumors
A group of VMMC employees, reportedly joined by some of the patients, staged a lighting rally shortly after “Korean businessmen” were seen touring the hospital and taking photos of the property, according to information reaching Biazon.
Curiously, Belmonte denied any knowledge of any Korean investor interested in the VMMC development at this point.
Rumors that the property was up for “demolition” had since spread.
But according to Defense Undersecretary Ernesto Carolina, these rumors were merely started by some VMMC employees who live in shanties in the adjacent North Triangle area, on fears that their homes will be demolished very soon.
Carolina, who also serves as acting administrator of the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) which oversees the VMMC, said the government had no intention to sell the hospital property to anyone.
“It’s not just a matter of us not allowing it; it’s against the law. The law provides that the government should take care of the veterans,” he said in an interview.
The undersecretary clarified, however, that the Department of National Defense and the Quezon City Government were still holding talks regarding the latter’s development plans and have not agreed on anything specific.
3 DND conditions
The DND had been invited to be part of the venture, Carolina said, but Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro set three conditions:
That the plan should result in a more modern, better equipped VMMC; that if VMMC is to be relocated, it should still be within the 250-ha area eyed for development; and that there must be “reasonable sharing of the revenues.”
“If that is acceptable to the Quezon City government, then why not?” Carolina said.
He disclosed that the VMMC golf course currently generates a monthly revenue of P500,000. The money mainly goes to the maintenance budget for the entire VMMC property.
If developed into a high-end residential area or upgraded into a first-class golf course, it could earn up to P50 million a month, Carolina said.
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