METRO Pacific Hospital Holdings Inc. (MPHHI) has completed the share purchase agreement with the Santos, Vesagas, and Villareal families to acquire a minimum of 576,257 shares, representing at least 67 percent of Santos Clinic Inc., owner and operator of the Manuel J. Santos Hospital (MJSH) in Butuan, Mindanao.
The three families, scions of Founder Dr. Manuel J. Santos, collectively owned approximately 75 percent of Santos Clinic.
Metro Pacific Hospital also offered to purchase the shares of other clinic shareholders for P563.77 per share.
MJSH is a 100-bed Level 2 hospital located along Montilla Boulevard corner National Highway in Butuan City. It was founded in 1933 by the late Dr. Manuel J. Santos and his wife, the late Amparo Lopez, at the prodding of Santos’s brother, the late Cardinal Rufino J. Santos, the first Filipino priest to be elevated to Cardinal. MJSH started as a 12-bed hospital and has continually expanded and upgraded its service capabilities, serving not just Butuan but the whole of Agusan, thereby establishing itself as the premier hospital of Northeastern Mindanao.
“We, the scions of Dr. Manuel J. Santos, are very pleased and excited to partner with MPHHI, the largest private hospital network in the country, and we welcome the MVP Group to Butuan City,” said Dr. Terence “Ompet” S. Vesagas, one of the representatives of the partner families.
“We want to elevate further the health-care services provided by MJSH by partnering with no less than the Metro Pacific Hospital Group. We chose a partner that we know preserves and enhances the legacy of the hospitals in its portfolio. We appreciate their thrust to always work with local stakeholders, understanding that a hospital will always be a local community’s anchor service. We look forward to increasing our footprint in Northeastern Mindanao and further continuing the mission of my late grandfather.” Ompet said. Ompet will continue as a director in the Santos Clinic board, while the Metro Pacific Hospital’s business development head for Mindanao, Celso Bernard “Oslec” G. Lopez, will become president and CEO of Santos Clinic.
“We are confident that with Oslec and Dr. Ompet leading the management team, together with MJSH’s excellent doctors and staff, Butuan, Agusan and its surrounding communities will continue to have access to the best and most complete array of health-care services,” Metro Pacific President and CEO Augusto P. Palisoc Jr.