House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez and his wife, Tingog Party-list Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez have praised the enactment of a law that will see the creation of the Samar Island Medical Center (SIMC) in Calbayog City, Samar.

President Duterte, on April 16, signed Republic Act (RA) 11703, which allowed for the construction of the SIMC in Calbayog City, Samar.
The newly-signed RA 11703 is one of four laws inked by the President on April 16 for the establishment and upgrade of local hospitals outside of the National Capital Region (NCR) to be managed by the Department of Health (DOH).
“With the passage of this law, we hope that patients and their families will no longer have to travel four to five hours from Northern Samar, three to four hours from Eastern Samar, and two to three hours from Samar just to get to the nearest government tertiary hospital located in Tacloban, Leyte,” said Tingog Rep. Romualdez.
She noted that in Eastern Visayas or Region VIII, there are 51 government-owned hospitals and 27 privately-owned hospitals. Only two of these are handled by the DOH: the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center in Tacloban City, Leyte; and the Schistosomiasis Research Hospital in Palo, Leyte.
“Level 3 or tertiary government hospitals are the largest types of hospitals and have a wider range of medical and surgical capacities compared to Level 1 or 2 hospital. They can provide more comprehensive patient care and can handle the more serious cases,” the lady solon explained.
Majority Leader Romualdez, one of the principal authors of the House version of the law alongside his wife, similarly lauded the enactment of the bill.
“As one of the principal authors of this measure, we earlier called on its swift passage for the benefit of our fellow Filipinos in Samar especially that we are still in a pandemic. We are confident that with the passage of this law and the allocation of funds for the hospital, the medical needs of Samarnons and residents of nearby provinces will be better served,” the Leyte 1st district congressman added.