Discayas face new scrutiny over alleged ‘ghost’ hospitals

National

SENATE Finance Chair Sherwin Gatchalian has again flagged the involvement of contractors Curlee and Sarah Discaya in alleged "ghost" hospitals after new findings emerged during the Department of Health's Budget hearing

A new wave of controversy has hit the Department of Health (DOH) after the Senate revealed that several health facilities under government funding were either delayed, unused, or entirely missing — with a contractor allegedly tied to the Discayas at the center of the issue.

In a report by Philstar, Gatchalian pointed to a pattern of incomplete projects supposedly handled by St. Gerrard Construction, a firm long associated with the Discaya couple.

The senator said more than P11.5 billion worth of infrastructure under the Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) remains either idle or unimplemented, depriving communities of much-needed access to healthcare.

“Imagine hospitals built on paper, paid in full, but not helping anyone. That’s not just inefficiency — that’s negligence,” Gatchalian said during the hearing.

One case involved a nearly completed sanitarium in Zamboanga, now gathering dust despite being 98% finished. Another facility in Zamboanga del Norte — supposedly a health center — was instead repurposed by a local university into a classroom. Both projects were handled by St. Gerrard.

Health Secretary Ted Herbosa did not hold back, admitting that the department is now reviewing all contracts tied to the firm and is investigating possible collusion between

DOH personnel and contractors. He said inspection reports were signed off even before some facilities were fully completed — a red flag that suggests deeper issues within the agency.

“We can no longer tolerate this kind of waste. These are health facilities that should be serving real people, especially in rural and underserved areas,” Herbosa said.(Victoria Diana USJ-R Comm Intern)