Fil-Am donates land for hospital for the poor in N. Samar town

The newly built St. Scholastica Mission Hospital in Northern Samar. FACEBOOK

CHICAGO — Indigent families in Northern Samar who can barely afford medical care need not worry, thanks in part to a land donation from Fil-Am Chicago resident Rose Co-Salazar.

The construction of the St. Scholastica Missionary Hospital in Barangay Cababtoan, Pambujan, Northern Samar was completed in 2016. The facility fully opened its doors to local residents in July 2016. The hospital was officially turned over to the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing (Manila Priory) on July 26, 2016.

Rose Co-Salazar donated land for the construction of St. Scholastica Missionary Hospital in Barangay Cababtoan, Pambujan, Northern Samar . EVERETT ICAO

“Rosalina Co-Salazar was approached to donate land in Pambujan, which she very generously did. The donation is indeed a blessing, for without it we cannot afford to start this hospital,” said Sr. Adelaida Ygrubay, Prioress of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters.

In March 2016, the hospital was inaugurated, and Salazar attended with her son, Ronald, and a niece. “The inauguration was well attended by the people of the town, including representatives of the Church and local politicians,” Ygrubay said.

Inadequate

Residents of Cababtoan often had to travel a great distance for medical assistance.

“The people expressed their hope that the hospital can provide them the services they need right where they are, without going to Tacloban or Cebu or Manila.  They are grateful that this hospital is in their town,” Ygrubay added.

She explained that Pamubjan is a good choice because it connects the main town of Catarman to the interior towns, where medical services are shockingly inadequate, if not inexistent.

The idea to build a hospital began when Bishop Emmanuel Celeste Trance of Catarman invited Sr. Mary John Mananzan, former Benedictine Missionary Prioress, to partake in the project. She accepted the invitation and began the process of looking for a good location for the hospital.

Sr. Manzanan met with St. Scholastica College Alumna Fe Perez-Agudo for construction funding, and she had agreed to donate funds. Agudo is the CEO of Hyundai Asia Resources Inc.

The Benedictine sisters were able to reach Rose Salazar through her attorney friend Mila Ladiao of northern Samar, who called Salazar on her birthday. Mila had informed her that the Sisters were looking for land to build the hospital on.

In 2012, Salazar agreed to donate 3.5 hectares of her 10-hectare land to the Missionary Benedictine Sisters after it was deemed fit for a hospital.

Salazar traveled back home to personally present the land deed to the missionary sisters. “The hospital is really needed in my area and offering the land is the only thing that I can do to help the people there,” Salazar said.

According to the Missionary Benedictine web site, the hospital is “one that the poor and the almost poor can proudly claim as their hospital because it serves their needs well at little or no cost.”

The Missionary Benedictine Sisters would like the hospital to be open especially to the poor, who likely will not be able to support the hospital through fees, Ygrubay explained.

The St. Scholastica Hospital and Dialysis Center is equipped with 25 beds, an automated laboratory, X-Ray, Ultrasound,  and Birthing Clinic. It also has 24-hour care from resident doctors and nurses. There will be 7-10 staff members with additional volunteers.

Also located within St. Scholastica’s Mission Hospital is the Dentist for Every Clinic (D4EVF) headed by its President, Ed de la Vega, DDS, who officially turned over the clinic built for the indigent people of Pambujan and its neighboring communities on April 30, 2016.

‘Blessing from God’

Salazar is happy with her donation. “It was a big opportunity and a blessing from God,” she said.

She does not want to give the impression that she is wealthy. “We [my husband and I] only had enough money to raise four children and send them all to college.” She now lives modestly on her pension.

“So many people wanted to buy my land, but I never thought of selling it. Now I realize that God had a plan for it,” she said.

An endowment campaign fund of P100 million is being put together for the hospital’s long-term viability.

The Sisters hope that endowment fund would be able to provide salaries to doctors, nurses and other personnel even if the income of the hospital remains low.

“Giving good salaries that are competitive to that given by the government hospitals is one way we hope to attract doctors and other medical workers to Pambujan, said Ygrubay.

At the moment, the endowment fund is insufficient. Sr. Ygrubay said that she and the sisters would be grateful for additional donations to beef up their endowment fund.

In the Philippines, Salazar initially worked as an accountant. She taught Economics at University of Eastern Philippines for 15 years. When she immigrated to the U.S., she worked with a family business and at various banks and retired from Northern Trust Bank.

Bahay Kubo

Her late husband, Faustino M. Salazar, immigrated to the U.S. on a professional visa in 1975 as an architect. She followed two years later with their four children: Rey (deceased), Ron (recently deceased), Rod and Rochelle.

Salazar says she still has more plans for the remainder of her property.

“The Sisters would like to develop the remainder of the property I donated into an organic farm with a bahay kubo and perhaps some cottages to house the medical staff and volunteers,” she said.

She would also like to develop the rest of the adjoining property she still owns to complement what the sisters plan to do in the future.