- MITCH M. LIPA
The Department of Budget and Management has approved the request of Bacolod City for financial assistance of P150 million for the improvement and rehabilitation of the three major public markets in the city.
Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia said DMB Secretary Wendel Avisado personally informed him that he already approved the mayor’s request in order to start the rehabilitation and improvement works at the North Public Market, Central Market, and the Libertad Market.
Leonardia said this is, by far, the biggest single Local Government Support Fund that the city will ever receive. The assistance will be equally allocated to the three markets at P50 million each.
Those in charge of the markets had meetings with the officers of the market vendors associations and the City Engineer’s Office to how to prepare the Program of Works.
Leonardia said the P150-million assistance will be a substantial investment in the three major markets to counter the unprecedented devastating health and economic consequences or impacts of COVID-19.
The primary purposes of this project are, among others, to meet sanitation standards, protect public health, and restore economic prosperity. “This is part of the economic recovery program and will give a positive trajectory to the economic outlook,” he added. – MML
