ILOILO City – Inside the Iloilo City Hall, Dr. Joseph Dean Nicolo is celebrated as a hospital hero. The Iloilo City Council has passed a resolution commending his leadership of the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC), crediting him with lifting standards and steering its ambitious expansion.
Yet the recognition comes with irony. Just as his work is being lauded, there has been an attempt to reassign Nicolo to Zamboanga — a move casting a long shadow of politics, contractors, and profit over the region’s flagship government hospital.
Councilor Alan Zaldivar, who authored the resolution, defended the gesture, but Councilor Sheen Marie Mabilog abstained, cautioning that it could unduly influence Nicolo’s pending cases before the Ombudsman and Civil Service Commission.
Meanwhile, the political blame game intensified. Three Iloilo congresswomen — Kathryn Joyce Gorriceta, Janette Garin, and Binky April Tupas — swiftly distanced themselves. Gorriceta stressed she was still a private doctor when WVMC’s expansion began; Garin, a former Health secretary, dismissed involvement but hinted she knew more than she can say; Tupas shrugged off the matter, saying her focus is squarely on her district.
Iloilo City Lone District’s Cong. Julienne Baronda issued the fiercest denial. Though not directly named, she pointed to “trolls” for pinning the controversy on her.
“I have nothing to do with his reassignment. That is an internal matter of the DOH (Department of Health) and WVMC. The trolls spreading these accusations are peddling lies,” she said, shifting attention instead toward contractors.
But contractors, too, are scrambling to clear their names. F. Gurrea Construction, Inc., linked in online chatter, issued a statement categorically denying any role in alleged kickback schemes tied to WVMC’s billion-peso projects.
Behind the denials looms the real question: was Nicolo’s transfer a matter of routine bureaucracy — or payback for refusing alleged demands tied to the P350-million Cancer Center and P449-million Heart and Lung Center?
For now, Iloilo City honors Nicolo as a leader. But the deeper battle may not be about recognition at all — it may be about whether the city’s premier hospital is run for patients, or for profits.
The DOH has withdrawn Nicolo’s reassignment. Still, the embattled hospital chief is now facing a sudden resurgence of old cases against him — as if someone is just as determined to see him go./PN
