Antique: The provincial government will pay for the power consumption of eight province-owned hospitals and other qualified provincial government facilities until the end of the year. The eight hospitals include Angel Salazar Memorial General Hospital, Ramon Maza Sr. Memorial District Hospital, Culasi District Hospital, Justice Calixto O. Zaldivar Memorial Hospital, Pres. Diosdado Macapagal District Hospital, Bugasong Medicare Community Hospital, Pedro L. Gindap Municipal Hospital, and Valderrama Municipal Hospital.
According to Philippines News Agency, the ordinance providing for the full subsidy was approved during the regular session of the provincial board on Monday, as stated by Board Member Alfie Jay Niquia in an interview on Tuesday. The initiative allows these hospitals to use funds initially intended for power consumption to purchase medicines instead.
The ordinance is based on a request from Governor Paolo Everardo Javier to support the implementation of zero-balance billing for the hospitals. Ordinance 2026-465 states that the subsidy will be sourced from Antique's share of taxes paid by Caluya-based Semirara Mining and Power Corporation, the largest coal producer in the country. A Department of Energy legal opinion dated September 10, 2025, affirmed that the province's share could be used as subsidies for public hospitals, government offices, and other public buildings.
The ordinance emphasizes the need to reduce electricity expenses for province-owned hospitals and provincial government facilities to optimize public resource utilization and strengthen essential government services. Based on electricity expenditure data and projected subsidy requirements, the full subsidy program from May to December is expected to generate savings of approximately PHP40 million for the hospitals, subject to actual electricity consumption and prevailing electricity rates.
The Office of the Provincial Planning and Development Coordinator will gather and validate the necessary data for subsidy computation and allocation, integrating it into the province's planning and budgeting documents.
