Manila, Jan. 12 -- The Ormoc City government has ordered the closure of the nearly century-old Ormoc Maternity and Children's Hospital, citing multiple violations of its memorandum of agreement with the local government, Mayor Lucy Torres Gomez said in a statement on Monday.

Gomez said the closure stemmed from the hospital's failure to fulfill its core obligation under the agreement: to serve indigent mothers and children of Ormoc as a civic and charitable institution.

In exchange for providing free or subsidized medical services to the city's poorest residents, the hospital was allowed to lease a city-owned space for a nominal fee of PHP1,000 per month.

"However, what effectively happened was a hospital using the space, almost for fre...