MANILA, Philippines—Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila, owner of the Cardinal Santos Medical Center, announced Thursday that MPIC would manage and operate the hospital for an initial six months.

Cardinal Santos Medical is a 212-bed hospital on a three-hectare property in Metro Manila’s San Juan City.

In August 1988, the Manila archdiocese entered into a Joint Apostolate Agreement with Hospital Managers Inc., owned by a close associate of the tobacco tycoon Lucio Tan, to operate the Cardinal Santos Medical. The agreement ended Thursday.

To prepare for selection of the next operator, the archdiocese asked MPIC and its affiliate, Medical Doctors Inc., owner and operator of Makati Medical Center, to operate Cardinal Santos Medical in the meantime.

“MPIC’s involvement in Cardinal Santos Medical is another step in achieving its vision of establishing the first nationwide chain of premiere hospitals in the Philippines,” company president Jose Maria K. Lim said in a statement to the stock exchange.

MPIC is the single largest shareholder of both Medical Doctors and Davao Doctors Hospital (Clinica Hilario) Inc., one of the largest hospitals in Mindanao. Elizabeth Sanchez-Lacson; edited by INQUIRER.net