45 families face EVMC eviction

TACLOBAN CITY — At least 45 indigent families face losing their homes to make way for the expansion of the Eastern Visayas Medical Center (EVMC), the region’s apex hospital run by the Department of Health (DoH).

Tacloban City Councilor Jerry Uy said the families have received demand letters ordering them to vacate the area and offering P35,000 in financial assistance each.

The families, who include laborers, farmers and small-time vendors, have been assessed and certified as indigent by the City Social Welfare and Development Office.

The affected area is across the existing EVMC, where the DoH plans to build the 12-story EVMC Legacy Building. The facility will house expanded laboratories, a dialysis center, MRI and CT scan services, training rooms and an auditorium.

The project aims to expand regional healthcare capacity and transform EVMC into a specialized medical center, with completion targeted for 2028.

Uy said he supports the hospital expansion but stressed that the government must protect the welfare of families displaced by the project.

“We should not simply remove a poor family from one place and leave them homeless somewhere else,” Uy said during a privilege speech before the city council.

He proposed relocating the affected families to permanent housing communities built for victims of super typhoon “Yolanda.”

Uy said the urban development and housing law requires the government to provide relocation sites for families displaced by government projects.

“These families are not asking for special treatment. They are asking for a home because the government project requires them to give up the home they presently have,” he said.

Uy noted that hundreds of housing units built for “Yolanda” survivors remain vacant or have been abandoned because of their distance from the city center, lack of livelihood opportunities and inadequate basic services, including water and electricity.

“Instead of allowing these units to remain vacant, why not use them for families who have been identified by our own Social Welfare Office as indigent and who are now being displaced by a major government healthcare project?” Uy said.