CEBU CITY—President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the distribution of land titles for socialized housing to some 900 former leprosy patients living inside the compound of the Eversley Child’s Sanitarium in Barangay Jagobiao in Mandaue City.
Rev. Edwin Bacaltos, former chaplain of the Eversley Sanitarium, said he raised the matter with Duterte, his former Ateneo de Davao classmate, when they met during a reunion last Jan. 21 at the Marco Polo Hotel in Davao City.
Bacaltos said he flew with Duterte and Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino to Cebu City last Wednesday night to talk about the distribution of the land titles for socialized housing at the Mactan Benito Ebuen Air Base and an 11.8-hectare parcel was allocated for housing projects.
The property is within the compound of the Eversley Child’s Sanitarium, which used to be a facility that treated leprosy patients, and where the beneficiaries are also currently living.
The Eversley Child’s Sanitarium “is special government hospital in Barangay Jagobiao, Mandaue City mandated to administer care and treatment of Hansen’s disease or leprosy cases.”
It also serves other regions, Region 8 or Eastern Visayas and Region 10 or Northern Mindanao and also provides basic health services for non-leprosy cases.
