President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. vowed on Tuesday to fully restore the Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP), over two decades after a fire gutted down a substantial portion of the facility in 1998.
“We will be coming to you again so that we can complete, we can complete the rebuilding,” President Marcos said, referring to Sen. Sonny Angara who significantly contributed in supporting the establishment of the lung transplant program.
President Marcos and Senator Angara were present during the launching of the country’s first lung transplant program of the LCP and the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) along with other government officials.
“I was a little sad to hear that the damage that was caused by the fire of 1998 has not yet been completely rehabilitated, and I think that’s the first thing that we have to look to,” President Marcos said.
“And, it seems like it has been too long delay to wait since 1998 to bring us back to the standards, or at least the capacity that we had in 1998 to now, which is already 2024. So, we are playing catch-up, but we will do all that we can,” he added.
The 1998 fire eviscerated about half of the LCP, affecting the nearby NKTI Annex building housing.
The five-year LCP-NKTI Lung Transplant Program, initiated in November 2022, aims to develop a lung transplant manual that addresses barriers such as lack of infrastructure and organ donation and allocation system, limited access to trained personnel, and financial constraints.
As part of the program, the LCP has been improving its infrastructure capacity including the renovation of its post-anesthesia care unit worth PhP4.2 million, and surgical intensive care unit amounting to PhP1.8 million to be funded through the 2024 General Appropriations Act and private sector donations.
The LCP was created in 1981 by virtue of Presidential Decree No. 1823 as a tertiary level state-owned hospital that aims to address the respiratory health problems in the country.
The NKTI (formerly the National Kidney Foundation of the Philippines), on the other hand, is a tertiary medical specialty center created in 1981 through PD No. 1832.
Its mission is to serve, train personnel, and conduct research for the benefit of Filipinos afflicted with kidney and similar diseases. PND
