Marcos pledges veterans hospitals in VisMin
President Marcos pledged to build hospitals for military veterans in the Visayas and Mindanao and expand health-care access for retired servicemen who for decades have relied on just a single dedicated medical facility located in Luzon.
Mr. Marcos made the commitment on Thursday in a speech during the 84th Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) ceremony in Bataan, before an audience that included World War II veterans.
“The story of Bataan is a cornerstone of our national identity and a guiding light for the generations that follow. And in honoring our heroes who made all of these possible, we must ensure that they receive the care and support that they deserve,” he said in his speech at the Mt. Samat National Shrine in Pilar town.
“This is why we continue to work closely with the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) to establish veterans hospitals in the Visayas and in Mindanao, making health care more accessible to those who have long served our nation,” he added.
The country has only one veterans’ hospital, the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City, which was inaugurated in 1955 and handles around 260,000 outpatient cases annually.
Wards for veterans
The VMMC is a tertiary-level government hospital with a 766-bed capacity and about 1,500 personnel. It operates under the PVAO, an office under the Department of National Defense.
The President said he wanted to ensure that veterans were provided with available and efficient health-care services.
PVAO earlier said it was coordinating with the Department of Health to establish wards especially for veterans in regional hospitals, for the benefit of those unable to go to the VMMC for assistance.
According to PVAO deputy administrator Assistant Secretary Restituto Aguilar, they have set up only six veterans’ wards so far out of the 36 the agency plans to build.
Each ward has been allotted a P25-million budget, inclusive of beds and amenities.
In September last year, Sen. Mark Villar filed Senate Bill No. 1325, or the draft Veterans Hospital Act, to establish such facilities in the Visayas and Mindanao. The bill remains pending at the committee level.
Expanded services
In June last year, the President led the inauguration of the first Veterans Access to Lifetime Optimized Healthcare (Valor) Clinic at the Fernando Air Base Hospital in Lipa, Batangas.
The Valor Clinics were set up to serve the country’s more than 400,000 military veterans, retirees, and their dependents, and supplement the other public health programs.
According to the VMMC, a 2024 study showed that the hospital had managed to serve an average of about 26,500 patients each year, or just around 7 percent of its target population.
