Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso on Friday inaugurated the President Corazon C. Aquino General Hospital, declaring the facility a symbol of “freedom from hardship” for one of the city’s most vulnerable communities.

The hospital — also known as Baseco Hospital — is the seventh public hospital funded and operated by the Manila city government.

“This is the only barangay in the entire Philippines that has its own hospital,” Domagoso said during the ceremony. “This hospital may serve at least 80,000 people from Intraport to Baseco.”

The three-story, P100-million hospital is located inside Baseco Compound, a dense urban poor settlement in Barangay 649 that has long been geographically isolated and underserved.

Home to an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 residents, many of whom are informal settlers, the area has one of the city’s highest poverty rates.

The new 50-bed hospital is equipped with an emergency room, a digital x-ray, a centralized oxygen supply and full departments for maternity, pediatrics, surgery and internal medicine.

Domagoso said the hospital’s opening was an act of social justice, adding that the local government was making a deliberate choice to invest in its poorest residents.

He also stressed that naming the hospital after the late President Corazon C. Aquino honored her legacy as a symbol of the nation’s democracy.

“To honor former President Corazon C. Aquino, in our own little way, no matter what, with no politics involved, we always give credit where it’s due,” he said.

Domagoso appealed for public understanding regarding public health workers, noting that their perceived attitudes often stem from a lack of supplies and support, not from the workers themselves.

He reiterated his administration’s focus on providing “minimum basic needs” such as housing, education, healthcare and jobs, stating that these projects are the true measure of a government’s success.