Discayas flagged anew, this time for ‘ghost' hospitals

Senate finance chair Sherwin Gatchalian flagged the involvement of flood control contractors Curlee and Sarah Discaya in the anomalous construction of hospital facilities during the Department of Health (DOH)'s budget deliberation yesterday.

- By MARC JAYSON CAYABYAB

Gatchalian lamented the wasted public funds in uncompleted or idle hospital facilities, citing a 2024 Commission on Audit (COA) report about 123 DOH contracts worth P11.5 billion not completed on time due to poor coordination, approval delays and changes in site locations, among others.

He said the average P100-million budget for the graft-tainted flood control projects could have been used for the construction of a new building for the children's hospital.

"This is P11.5 billion that we cannot use and got stuck, because of poor planning, lack of coordination and poor execution. We really need to spend our budget wisely," Gatchalian said."

Health Secretary Ted Herbosa mentioned the DOH's "flood control version" of the scandal, with 400 of their 600 health centers under its health facilities enhancement program left idle because of lack of health care personnel and delayed construction due to contractors' lapses.