OPINION: Renaming a hospital after a mayor is a waste of public funds

It does nothing to address complaints on public healthcare.

There are at least a thousand better uses for public funds than renaming a public hospital, particularly after a former mayor whose family still has a political presence in the city.

The Manila city government recently drew flak for renaming the Ospital ng Sampaloc, a public health facility, to the Mayor Ramon Bagatsing General Hospital on August 25.

While many consider Bagatsing worthy of the recognition as an anti-corruption figure, renaming a public hospital is certainly not the best way to go about that, especially when many Manila residents complain of long wait times and substandard service at understaffed and overwhelmed city-funded health facilities.

The city government approved an annual budget of ₱26 billion for 2026. While it has not been publicly specified how much was earmarked for overall health facilities, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno said the budget focused on addressing healthcare, housing, education, and employment.

The Manila Health Department and seven city hospitals reportedly received the largest allocation, at ₱2.39 billion, to improve operations and medical services.

So if such is the case, why do health facilities still fall short?

A complaint about the Tondo Medical Center public health facility also went viral recently, detailing a netizen’s experience of waiting eight hours to receive medical attention, only to be berated by staff.

The experience speaks to a familiar pain shared by all of us. Not the pain of illness or physical ailments, but that of enduring a broken system that forces ordinary citizens to either give up their life savings for quality, urgent medical care or sacrifice their dignity by enduring subpar facilities.

Health workers, too, are subject to the injustices of this system, expected to simply deal with shortages and overwhelmed facilities while preserving the lives of patients.

The move to rename the facility also comes across as suspiciously strategic, as Bagatsing’s descendants still have a political presence within the city. Grandson Raymond Bagatsing, better known as an actor, unsuccessfully ran for vice mayor in 2022 and mayor in 2025. Granddaughter Cristal Bagatsing also works in the city tourism office and is a former congressional representative like her father, Amado Bagatsing. DJ Bagatsing, another son of the former mayor, also held a city council position until 2019.

There are certainly changes to be made to the grossly lackluster and profit-driven health system in the country, and local governments can only do so much to improve their facilities. But a self-serving renaming of a key public hospital amid mounting complaints about city-funded medical care does not at all help.

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