HOSPITAL REHAB. The Antique provincial board holds an inquiry relative to the rehabilitation of the President Diosdado Macapagal District Hospital in Tobias Fornier town, Antique province, on Oct. 9, 2023. Antique Provincial Engineer Inocencio Dajao Jr., in an interview Wednesday (Aug. 28, 2024), said the hospital rehabilitation is already 90 percent complete. (File photo courtesy of Antique Provincial Information Office)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The rehabilitation of the President Diosdado Macapagal District Hospital in Tobias Fornier town, Antique province, is nearing completion, with a 90 percent accomplishment as of Wednesday.
The rehabilitation, funded with PHP15 million from the Department of Health (DOH), resumed after the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) lifted its cease and desist order on March 20, 2024,
The NHCP issued the temporary stoppage on Sept. 6, 2023, for failure on the part of the Antique provincial government to seek approval for the rehabilitation plan because the hospital is considered an important cultural property and protected from any modification or renovation based on Republic Act 11961 or the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009.
“When the NHCP finally approved the building plan that we had submitted, the contractor immediately commenced the work,” Antique Provincial Engineer Inocencio Dajao Jr. said in an interview Wednesday.
He added that the NHCP set a condition to preserve the hospital facade in its original look.
The rehabilitation includes upgrading the hospital to 25-bed capacity from its current 15-bed capacity.
Dajao said that with the completion of the hospital rehabilitation, the patients confined in the hospital would already have more comfortable and safer rooms. (PNA)
