Ilocos Norte seeks injunction to halt P350-M hospital loan

By Jun Guiang

LAOAG CITY — The provincial government of Ilocos Norte has filed a petition for permanent injunction to stop the city government’s plan to borrow P350 million from a bank to finance the proposed upgrading of the Laoag City General Hospital here.

Ilocos Norte Gov. Michael Keon, through the provincial legal office, filed the petition on Nov. 5 before the Regional Trial Court at the Marcos Hall of Justice here after the Sangguniang Panlalawigan passed an urgent resolution giving him the authority to initiate the petition for injunction.

The provincial board headed by Vice Gov. Windell Chua passed the resolution based on Keon’s argument that the city government’s borrowing plan does not conform with the rationalization plan of Ilocos Norte’s public health sector program as approved by the Department of Health.

Chua said Keon has supervisory powers over the city government since Laoag is a component city of the province.

Keon said he had talked recently with Health Secretary Francisco Duque III in Manila about the matter.

Duque reportedly told him the DOH rationalization plan allows the city government of Laoag to borrow only P74 million, not P350 million, to upgrade the old Laoag City General Hospital from a Level 1 to Level 2 category with a 50-bed capacity.

Keon also cited a DOH policy that prohibits the putting up of a new tertiary hospital in an area where there are existing ones within the radius of an hour’s travel.

The policy may apply to the proposed city hospital because of its proximity to the present Gov. Roque B. Ablan Sr. Memorial Hospital (provincial hospital) in Laoag and the Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center in Batac City, DOH officials said.