BAGUIO CITY – Three Manila-based doctors groups are eyeing the put up of a state-of-the-art private hospital within an open space in Scout Barrio barangay based on the testimonies gathered by barangay officials and residents from those who previously visited the proposed site.
Scout Barrio punong barangay Manolo Llaneta said they came to know about the plan to put up a hospital in the football field when a group of doctors allegedly visited the site and the barangay hall informing them of the proposal to put up a private hospital in the area.
However, he said that from the start, he informed the group of doctors that the proposed site where the hospital is to be erected is an open space for the barangay which could not be used for the said purpose considering that it has already been noted in the title that it will remain an open space and development in the area will have to pass through the consent of the residents aside from the fact that there is an overwhelming opposition to the proposed project.
Councilor Edgar M. Avila noted that the three groups of Manila-based doctors were accompanied by their counterparts in the city when they conducted separate ocular inspections in the proposed site.
He claimed that the proposals of the groups of doctors were merely proposals which have yet to be approved by the State-owned Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).
Llaneta informed members of the local legislative body the resolution adopted by the barangay council opposing the hospital project in the open space area of Scout Barrio was furnished Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan who had earlier sought their stand on the matter so he could convey to the proponents the stand of the barangay officials and residents on the project.
According to him, the groups of doctors reportedly conducted slight diggings in the site purposely for the supposed soil test to ascertain the carrying capacity of the areas in relation to their proposal to put up a hospital in the said barangay, one of the 14 barangays situated within the Camp John |Hay watershed reservation.
Some of the residents who appeared during the local legislative body’s regular session to air their sentiments on the project expressed their vehement opposition to the put up of the hospital in the open space but they support the put up of a hospital within suitable portions of Camp John Hay for their easier access to basic health services while some of them expressed their objection to the establishment of a hospital in any part of the former American rest and recreation center.
The concerned residents who expressed their opposition to the put up of the hospital in any part of the watershed reservation claimed the operation of a private medical facility will definitely result to the further depletion of their water supply as presently, they are deprived of water supply from the reservation which is allegedly being supplied to the big establishments with lesser priority given to the residents in Scout Barrio, a violation of the 19 conditions imposed by the local government for the development of the former American military air station.
By Dexter A. See
