P-NOY LEADS AURORA DAY, INAUGURATES P594 MILLION HOSPITAL

President Benigno Simeon Aquino III led the 33rd Foundation Day of the province of Aurora today, February 19, which is highlighted by the inauguration of the new Aurora Memorial Hospital.

Aurora's 70-year-old main public general hospital has been transformed into a fully equipped 50-bed hospital through the generous support of the government of Japan, which provided a grant of P509 million through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The province of Aurora provided a counterpart of P85 million.

The President also laid a wreath to honor Doña Aurora Aragon Quezon, the province's beloved matriarch whose 124th birth anniversary is also being commemorated today. She was the wife of Baler's most famous son President Manuel Luis Quezon.

"The hospital's inauguration is a dream fulfilled for the people of Aurora," said Senator Edgardo J. Angara, who initiated the project together with Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara and Gov. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo.

The new 50-bed hospital has the capacity to confine 800 more patients every year. It is fully equipped with an operation theater, delivery room, X-ray room and laboratory which, when coupled with the deployment of specialist doctors in all clinical departments, will greatly boost Aurora's capabilities in diagnostics, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology.

The state-of-the-art hospital, which stands on a 40,000-square-meter land, will also serve as the training institution for the midwifery, nursing, and medicine programs of the University of the Philippines School of Health Sciences (UP-SHS) in Baler, only its second satellite branch in the country to date. As a teaching hospital, it bolsters the objective of the UP-SHS to develop a pool of health workers to serve the community rather than migrate to Metro Manila or abroad.

"With upgraded facilities and equipment, there will no longer be any need to transfer patients to other hospitals in other provinces. The Aurora Memorial Hospital can even accommodate patients from the neighboring provinces of Quirino and Nueva Vizcaya," added Angara.

"This milestone also gives Aurorans the rare opportunity to welcome P-Noy, as well as officials from the Japanese government whose support affirms that the province's development is on the right track," said Angara. These guests were Japanese Ambassador Toshinao Urabe, JICA Chief Representative Takahiro Sasaki, Japanese Health Attache Dr. Syoko Ogawa, and JICA Health Program Coordinator Nubuku Yamagishi.