Ormocanons were treated to a surprise recently as the Local Government Unit published in its various social media platforms that, under the able leadership of the Gomez administration, it has secured a couple of hefty budget from national government offices for the construction of a new city hospital and the rehabilitation of the local waterworks system.
On both occasions, the said posts disclosed that the LGU managed to secure 100M from the Department of Public Works and Highways and another 100M from an undisclosed national government office for the rehabilitation and upgrade of the Ormoc Waterworks and Sewerage Administration (ORWASA).
For starters, the city hospital and the local waterworks have been the subject of political discourse and bickering, especially in the social media.
The LGU has been on hot seat after an article and a feasibility study of a possible Public-Private Partnership venture on the ORWASA came out. The said PPP venture was followed by an investors’ conference and a timetable of the next activities much to the shock of the common Ormocanon.
The possibility of having ORWASA in a PPP venture, as the feasibility study revealed, in the next forty (40) years didn’t sit well with its consumers even though the city’s media relations bureau constantly denied such.
Moreover, even before the PPP venture came out in the open, the LGU has already increased the rate of consumption to a P100.00 monthly minimum, a far cry from the P35.00 original rate. Such leap of rates castigated the consumers who were already reeling with the economic constraints of the coronavirus pandemic. And one could only imagine the shock to discover that a PPP venture has already been explored.
This doesn’t bode well for the administration as the voting populace turned their attention to the opposition in dire hope that the latter could offer contingency measures to alleviate their dealings and possibly block that PPP venture.
Such that when the LGU recently announced that it secured 100M to further reinforce that no privatization was looming, Ormocanons suspect its veracity. Some already had enough.
It can be recalled that during the initial rate increase, the ORWASA has been explaining of losses and that the LGU has been subsidizing its operations. The rate increase went unperturbed yet the services and water quality didn’t improve laterally. Add up the PPP venture being explored and you can’t fault an Ormocanon to start thinking and doubting the capacity of the ORWASA to deliver basic water services to its consumers.
On the other hand, the LGU also reportedly got assurance that the DPWH is already in the process of securing and allocating 100M for the Phase 1 of the construction of a new city hospital.
Like ORWASA, the LGU has also been on the hot seat following their dithering on the city hospital which edifice lie uselessly at Brgy. San Pablo. The LGU has been firm and resolved on its claims that the edifice was just a maternal and child – cum – birthing center and never qualified the standard to be called a hospital. Such that the Gomez administration will erect another edifice that will fit with the standards to qualify as a hospital and had the DPWH for that project.
Ormocanons now awaits for the next episodes of these developments while contemplating whether both are concrete projects or just political posturing aimed to pacify the issues now inside the boiling cauldron of politics.
While the budget has been announced, Ormocanons now waits for the go-signal from the Department of Health for the construction of another city hospital. The permit-to-construct (PTC) from the DOH will further solidify the veracity of the project.
Ormocanons also waits for the scheduled contract awarding and signing of the joint venture agreement stipulated at the PPP website for the waterworks. While the LGU has been denying relentlessly, documents prove otherwise. Such that Ormocanons will play the wait-and-see scheme to further verify who’s telling the truth.
Both projects will be very beneficial to the lives of every Ormocanon. Unfortunately, the past six years has been very challenging for both ORWASA and the city hospital as they have faced uncalled friction and the scrutiny has already encroached mockery. These are basic services that the government should cater to his people without burning their pockets.
Furthermore, both projects seems not to reflect on the Annual Investment Plan for 2022 as both tend to be nationally-funded. Just so, it remains to be seen if this Richest City in Eastern Visayas will have counterpart allocations for these projects.
For six years, the administration had every opportunity to act on these matters but chose to decide on it on the last minute. Now, it’s their turn to prove implementing these projects be better late than never.
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