On May 7, 1982 the Board of Trustees, governing body of West Visayas State College, through Referendum No. 1 s. 1982 unanimously approved the request for the acquisition of the Benito Lopez Memorial Hospital. Although the contract of sale was made between West Visayas State College through President Lilia V. Juele and Lopez family through former Vice President Fernando Lopez, however it was not realized due to unavailability of funds from the government. In the meantime, a lease contract was made, so that in January 1986 the Gov. Benito Lopez Memorial Hospital was utilized as the base hospital of the School of Medicine with Dr. Angel R. de Leon as Director.
