- CHERYL G. CRUZ
Bacolod Mayor Alfredo “Albee” Benitez said Monday he hopes the Sangguniang Panlungsod will authorize him to sign the proposed P5.5 billion loan agreement with the Land Bank of the Philippines.
The ball is in the SP, Benitez said in a press briefing and expressed optimism that the sanggunian will grant him the authority to sign the Omnibus Term Loan Facility (OTLF) agreement.
He recalled that during the executive-legislative caucus in January, most of the SP members agreed with him on the need to pump-prime the economy. “I asked them, do we wait for our income to come in, or do we spend it now and borrow from the bank…most agreed; we want to be ahead, we have to have economic development.”
“Now is the time to actually move, to make sure that there is economic development, that there’s pump-priming of the economy to create jobs and activities,” he added.
Benitez said after the press conference that among the projects to be funded from the P5.5 billion loan would be the five mini-hospitals to be constructed in strategic areas around Bacolod.
In his first 100 Days Report Oct. 8, he said the “mini hospitals or super health centers” are eyed for construction at the Arao relocation site in Vista Alegre, another in Cabug, in barangays Mandalagan and Alijis, and at the Bacolod reclamation area.
The mayor had said the mini hospitals will be equipped with ultrasound facility, minor surgical rooms, wards, and laboratories, with doctors on standby to serve Bacolodnons.
Benitez, meanwhile, said the Department of Finance actually gave the highly-urbanized city a P5.7 billion loan capacity, but the local government decided to borrow P5.5 billion only. He said the final list of projects to be funded will also be submitted to the SP for appropriate action.
The SP did not act on the urgent request of the mayor during its regular session March 22, after the committees on Laws, Ordinances and Good Government, and on Appropriation and Finance decided to call for a committee conference with bank officials first.
Land Bank Negros Occidental Lending Center, AVP Ma. Luisita Chiu, in her letter to Benitez dated March 21, informed him of the approval of the loan application, subject to the bank’s standard terms and conditions, and with an interest rate of 3.70 percent per annum fixed for three years…to finance various projects listed in the approved development/investment plan…”/CGC
