THE Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday said a super health facility in Antipolo has been “hastily opened” after being idle for months. Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa made this observation after visiting the Tanza II Super Health Center, where he discovered that, due to delays in securing additional equipment and hiring the necessary staff, it was only partially operational. His visit followed the inspection of the Concepcion Dos Super Health Center in Marikina on Wednesday, where he said there were 297 “ghost” or nonoperational super health centers in the country. “There is a big difference from the ‘ghost’ issue yesterday; this has been completed, it has been turned over. So its cost to the DOH was P19.5 million. It has a building, it has equipment, and luckily, today is the first day of their operations, the city health officer told me,” Herbosa said, emphasizing the contrast with other delayed projects. Completed in 2024, the health center had remained unused since its completion, he said. A city officer in Antipolo debunked the claims that the Tanza II Super Health Center was “hastily opened.” “We find it unfair,” said the department head of the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, Enrilito Bernardo Jr. Dr. Lat Concepcion, the city health officer, told The Manila Times that the opening for Oct. 16 was planned. “We already planned the opening since September; it was planned to open today,” Lat said. She said the lack of staff contributed to its delayed opening. The Tanza II Super Health Center was reported to have a total budget of P11.4 million for its construction, with an additional P7 million allocated for medical equipment. The total project cost aligns with the standard P12-million budget for a medium-sized health center, but the final figure reached P19.5 million due to the need for full equipment and expanded services. According to a report submitted by DOH Region 4A to the central office, the Antipolo City government had requested funding from the DOH in 2022 for the construction of the super health center. Herbosa discovered that the main reason for the delay was the need to procure additional equipment and hire more staff, responsibilities that fell to the city government. “They bought their own equipment. They will still hire more [staff] because the facility is bigger now,” Herbosa said in Filipino.