With the approval by the National Economic and Development Authority Board of the UP-PGH Cancer Center, bidding would now be opened to project proponents.
Rep. Elizaldy Co of AKO Bicol Partylist, who chairs the House appropriations committee, called on bidders for the building of the UP-Philippine General Hospital Cancer Center, which was recently approved by the board of the National Economic and Development Authority.
The center, which was supposed to be approved by the NEDA Board in July 2021 but because of the pandemic it was stalled and finally got greenlighted in February 2023.
We are elated that the UP-PGH Cancer Center PPP Project has finally moved forward into Phase 2 after the NEDA Board gave its approval. This project was among the many activities delayed by the COVID pandemic. NEDA approval was supposed to happen in July 2021 but finally happened in February 2023.
But now that the state of calamity was not extended beyond yearend 2022 and now that the economy is well on its way to make up for lost time, we are confident the UP-PGH Cancer Center Public Private Partnership (PPP) project will advance at the proper pace.
We want the Filipino people to know that the UP-PGH Cancer Center is designed to have up to 300 beds capacity, of which 150 beds will be for charity patients while at least 50 beds will be for paying patients.
The Cancer Center building will be located near the corner across Padre Faura Street from the DOJ compound and near the shopping mall there. The Cancer Center will be 20 storeys tall, including the roof terrace level, the ground level, three levels for parking, 4 levels for patient rooms, 4 levels for patient wards, and 6 levels for medical facilities. The building will also have bunker accommodations for patients’ watchers and for PGH personnel.
The UP-PGH Cancer Center PPP Project has a 30-year Build-Transfer-Operate timeline and has an estimated project cost of up to P6 billion.
To support UP-PGH this year, Congress appropriated P500 million for completion of a multi-specialty building on the UP-PGH grounds, P700 million for repair and rehabilitation of buildings, nearly P127 million for hazard pay of healthcare frontliners there, P828.27 million for medical assistance for indigent patients, P114 million to increase the carrying capacity of the College of Medicine and P12.9 million for increasing the carrying capacity of the School of Health Sciences.
All that are on top of the UP-PGH budget for medical services at P5.412 billion. The total UP System budget is P24.263 billion.
Tags: #UP-PGHCancerCenter, #PPP, #appropriationscommittee, #biddingopen