Duterte approves law expanding hospital in conflict-wracked Marawi

LANAO DEL SUR -Health services for conflict-stricken Marawi City residents got a big boost with the expansion by Congress of the Amai Pakpak Medical Center (APMC) that Islamic militants attacked last year.Physician Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., health secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said Friday he received early this week a copy of the Republic Act 11103 that doubled the 200-bed capacity of the hospital. It was made a 400-bed medical facility by that law that President Rodrigo Duterte signed last October 30, Sinolinding said.Sinolinding said the law that provided for the upgrade of the APMC was proposed by Rep. Ansaruddin Alonto Adiong of the first congressional district of Lanao del Sur.The RA 11103 also mandated the Department of Health to oversee the infrastructure works for the expansion of the APMC.It also provided for the enlistment of more medical workers to run the APMC, the only tertiary-level hospital in the autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao,The ARMM covers Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao, both in mainland Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.In an emailed statement, ARMM’s chief executive, Gov. Mujiv Hataman, said Friday he is thankful to Adiong, the provincial government of Lanao del Sur, the office of Marawi City Mayor Majul Gandamra, the Integrated Provincial Health Office and the Marawi City Health Office for helping each other improve the APMC via an act of Congress.Adiong started as a member of the 24-seat ARMM Legislative Assembly, touted as the Little Congress of the autonomous region, and had served as regional vice governor prior to his election in 2013 as congressional representative of the first district of Lanao del Sur that also covers Marawi City. We ought to thank Congressman Adiong and all those who helped him workout the expansion of that hospital, whose services the people in Lanao del Sur and in Marawi City badly need, said Hataman, now a candidate for the congressional seat in the lone district of Basilan.The APMC was one of the government facilities affected by the May 23 to October 16, 2017 siege of Marawi City by combined Maute and Abu Sayyaf terrorists.Gunfights immediately ensued within its immediate premises on the first day of the attack, causing panic and dislocation of dozens of patients, among them children and elderly Muslims.The five-month conflict resulted in the deaths of no fewer than a thousand people, among them more than a hundred soldiers and police personnel, displaced some 300,000 innocent villagers and left historic, centuries-old Meranao dwelling enclaves in Marawi City in ruins.