Mindanaotoday.com | The historical beginning of CdeO’s J.R. Borja General Hospital
RAI Bollozos Sanchez | Historyahe!
HI there!
The City Council of Cagayan de Oro held its final session for 2022 last December 5.
Councilor James Judith delivered a special report on the Northern Mindanao Medical Center’s failure to immediately respond to a patient who came from the JR Borja General Hospital but was referred to NMMC.
Thus, resulting in the death of a one-year-old child.
Councilor Malvern Esparcia, in response to Councilor Judith’s special report, wants to call the attention of NMMC’s administrators to check how the hospital prioritizes patients referred from the J.R. Borja General Hospital.
Well, this is not hard news.
I am writing for but perhaps write down the history of J.R. Borja General Hospital, which has an exciting story that part then the Provincial Hospital a contribution to the construction of the City Hospital in 1962.
During the 1950s, there was only one public hospital in the thriving City of Cagayan de Oro, the Misamis Provincial Hospital, constructed at the compound near the Provincial Capitol during the 1930s.
On the other hand, from 1950 to 1960, Cagayan de Oro City ushered in her population growth.
In fact, in 1960, according to microtrends.net, the City’s population reached 70,000 inhabitants with an annual growth rate of 1.52%, far higher than the approximate 55,000 inhabitants during its cityhood on June 15, 1950.
The blossoming population, however, threatens the City with damaging endemics like cholera, dysentery, influenza, and other common diseases.
Still, indigent patients from the east and west of Misamis Oriental would cramp out in a provincial hospital leaving the residents of Cagayan de Oro, perhaps, least prioritized.
Conversely, an incident occurred during the late 1950s when Mayor Justiniano Borja wrote a letter addressed to the Provincial Hospital administrators to treat a Cagayan de Oro resident for a medical ailment.
Unfortunately, the person whom Mayor Borja endorsed was sent back to the Mayor’s office because they prioritized catering to patients from the province.
The denial of the Kagay-anon pushed Mayor Borja to proactively propose to the City Council to construct a city-owned hospital to provide adequate medical services for the Kagay-anons.
The move did not come easy for the City Council and Mayor Borja.
The construction of a City Hospital is the responsibility of the national government, and such a proposal would take time to materialize – how would they convince the national government to allocate the construction budget.
For the city officials, the construction of a City Hospital was unstoppable.
Despite budget allocations, the City Council, with the persistent persuasion of Mayor Borja, unanimously voted to build an emergency hospital from donated land in the Carmen Valley.
To realize the construction, the Municipal Council of Cagayan de Oro passed Resolution 381, reverting the sum of P100,000 for the construction of the City Emergency Hospital.
At the same time, P85,000 from the proposed budget should be allocated for the immediate construction of the City Emergency Hospital, and the remaining P15,000 is for its maintenance and operation.
The construction of the City Emergency Hospital took place in 1962.
On July 1, 1963, the City Emergency Hospital became operational. In the next six months after its inception, the Municipal Government of Cagayan spent P117,000 for operating expenses.
In 1964, Resolution 11 provided an additional P20,000 as extra aid to the City Emergency Hospital.
Thus, giving free medicine and hospitalization to Kagay-anon residents. To provide a better medical service.
Even though constructing a City Hospital was the duty of the national government, the local government made sure that they had to be able to provide the medical necessity of the Kagay-anons.
Thus, the humble beginning of the JR Borja General Hospital is a fitting example of how “dire situations” motivated proactive policy-making from the local officials of Cagayan de Oro led by the ‘maverick’ Mayor Justiniano Borja.
Going back to the special report by Councilor James Judith and the death of a one-year-old may shed light for our local legislators to provide adequate legislation on improving our medical and health services in Cagayan de Oro City, which I am pretty optimistic about.
Cagayan de Oro’s development is inescapable. As the City expands beyond its horizon, it becomes more socially demanding to satisfy the needs of its residents.
Hence, policy-making is crucial to her social evolution progress, and history is one of the keys to providing the necessity of the future. (MT)
(Ryan Albert Ignacius “RAI” Bollozos Sanchez, 40, is a native of Cagayan de Oro City. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History and currently finishing his Master of Arts in History at Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan. He is currently a full-time faculty in the Department of General Education and Interdisciplinary Studies in Xavier Ateneo – teaching Readings in Philippine History, The Life, Works and Writings of Jose Rizal, and Interdisciplinary Studies subjects. He taught part-time at the Liceo de Cagayan University teaching Southeast Asian History and Government, and U.S. Government and Foreign Policy. You may reach him at rsanchez@xu.edu.ph.)