ILOILO CITY, Iloilo, Philippines — Turning two Iloilo government hospitals into government-owned-and-controlled corporations (GOCCs) is not privatization, declared an Iloilo solon.

“There is a big difference between privatization and corporatization,” pointed out Iloilo First District Representative Janette Garin, author of House Bill No. 103 seeking to change the status of Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) and its subsidiary San Joaquin Municipal Hospital (SJMH) into GOCCs.

Garin, who sponsored the bill, clarified allegations by the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW-Iloilo) that the GOCC scheme would create a private corporation out of said two hospitals.

The bill stipulates a public corporation setup where the Board of Trustees will include the Department of Health (DoH) secretary, the PhilHealth president, the chairman of the House committee on health, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) secretary, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director general, WVMC director, and WVMC employees association.

Garin also answered the AHW-Iloilo’s claim that turning the hospitals into GOCCs would make medical services more expensive and is an anti-poor move.

The bill, she said, seeks to “institute reforms in the organization, administration, and financial management of WVMC as a means of reducing the cost and improving the quality of public health care.”

Garin explained that the WVMC and its subsidiary, the SJMH cannot fully function as efficient public hospitals due to lack of equipment, facilities and full-time personnel as their respective funding is highly dependent on the DoH.

The GOCC scheme, she argued, will allow the WVMC to enter into loans for its expansion and thus, it can give the underprivileged a chance to avail of medical services at par with private hospitals but at a cheaper cost.

According to hospital chief, Dr. Jose Mari Fermin, the WVMC currently functions with a P164-million annual funding from the DoH that serves less than 100,000 patients.