Filed
First Reading
Second Reading — Committee
Second Reading — Plenary
Third Reading
Approved
EnactedNow
Bangsamoro Autonomy Act No. 26
In forceAn Act Upgrading the Existing Wao District Hospital in Lanao Del Sur from Its Present Level 1 with a 25-Bed Capacity into Level 1 with an Authorized 50-Bed Capacity and Appropriating Funds Therefor and for Other Purposes
The hospital's authorised capacity doubles. Its buildings, equipment, facilities, operating funds and personnel are upgraded to meet Level I standards at the larger size.
Filed
First Reading
Second Reading — Committee
Second Reading — Plenary
Third Reading
Approved
EnactedNow
Signed into law and operative unless later amended or repealed.
What this measure does
This doubles the Wao District Hospital in Lanao del Sur from twenty-five authorised beds to fifty, and upgrades the building, its landscaping, the medical and office equipment, the operating funds and the personnel to match — including whatever construction and procurement the national standards require at the larger size.
What it does not do is change the level. Wao stays a Level 1 hospital. It is the one act in the June 2022 hospital cluster that adds capacity without adding capability.
Why it was proposed
The same clause of the Organic Law that carries the rest of the region's hospital legislation — Section 22, Article IX, on comprehensive and integrated health service delivery and a general hospital system established by law.
Who it affects
- Residents of Wao and the surrounding parts of Lanao del Sur.
- Patients turned away or held for want of a bed.
- Hospital staff, whose establishment and funding are upgraded with the facility.
Who would implement it
- Ministry of Health – BARMM, which supervises the hospital and was to issue implementing rules within 60 days
- Bureau of Health Facilities and Services, Department of Health, whose standards define Level 1 requirements
Funding
Carries an appropriation. No amount stated. Funding is appropriated from the Bangsamoro General Appropriations for infrastructure, medical and office equipment, and the annual budget for personnel services, maintenance and operations.
What changes if it becomes law
- Authorised capacity doubles from 25 beds to 50.
- Staff, equipment and operating funds are upgraded alongside.
- Universal Health Care provisions are integrated into operations.
- The service level is unchanged — Level 1 before and after.
Raised during deliberations
No published record of the debate on this measure. Parliament’s journals cover sittings up to March 2023 only, and no committee report on it has been published.
What to notice
Read against its siblings, this act is the modest one. Datu Blah Sinsuat went from ten beds to a hundred and from Level I to Level II on the same day; Wao goes from twenty-five to fifty and stays where it is. Whether that reflects a considered judgement about what Wao's catchment needs, or simply what was asked for, the act does not say — none of these hospital acts carries a needs assessment or a population figure.
That is the structural weakness of legislating a hospital network one building at a time. Each act is drafted around a single facility, names no amount, sets no deadline, and is silent on how its target capacity was arrived at. The result is a network shaped by which measures were filed rather than by where the beds are most needed — and nothing in the text lets a reader test that either way.