Executive Director Ludovico Badoy of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines led the unveiling of the historical marker for the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital heritage building yesterday.

Badoy was joined by his deputy executive director Carminda Arevalo, Health OIC Assistant Regional Director Emilia Monicimpo, CLMMRH chief of hospital Dr. Julius Drilon, and business leader Roberto Montelibano, whose family donated the land on which the hospital stands.

The hospital that came into existence in 1926 was occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army in 1941 and was reopened as a medical facility in 1945, the historical marker states.

Badoy said the declaration of the CLMMRH heritage building is a reminder of the hospital’s significant role in Philippine heritage, and as a reflection of the province’s progress.

Its having been declared a national heritage building will make it easier to seek congressional funding for its preservation and improvement, he said.

Badoy also said he is very happy that Drilon is the head of the hospital because he has the political will to preserve its heritage building and at the same time develop other areas of the CLMMRH facility into a modern medical center for Region 6.

“Dr. Drilon has a timetable, he is a development-oriented chief of hospital and the people are very lucky have him here,” Badoy added.

Construction of the six-storey P210 million west tower of the CLMMRH has began and it is expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year, Drilon said.

The tower will have one of the most modern radiologic sciences imaging system in Negros and the whole of Western Visayas, two operating room suites, surgical intensive care, dialysis and pulmonary units, heart stations, and a capacity for 148 beds, Drilon said.

A second tower will also be built at the CLMMRH that will have a 250 to 300-bed capacity, to include private, semi private and charity wards, he said. It will cost about P200 million and his brother, Senator Franklin Drilon, has already allocated P100 million for it, he added.

The old heritage building of the CLMMRH is not hospital grade and will be turned into an administrative building, he said.

The aim is to make the CLMMRH a 600-bed modern hospital before the end of the term of President Benigno Aquino III in 2016, he said.

This will be the legacy of the president to Negros Island, Drilon said.

Montelibano, said, he was deeply honored that the CLMMRH named after his mother has been recognized as a heritage building.

Along with the site of the CLMMRH, he said, his family has donated 65 hectares in Bacolod City for hospitals, schools and churches, and recently another 12 hectares in Murcia town for an agriculture school as part of their corporate social responsibility.

Montelibano also said he appreciates the improvements being brought by Drilon to the CLMMRH.*CPG

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