Mindanaotoday.com | Oro council gives Klarex green light to negotiate P2.7B city hall complex loan
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Voting 11-4 with one abstention, the 20th City Council passed Monday, Oct. 23, an ordinance authorizing Mayor Rolando “Klarex” Uy to negotiate a P2.7 billion loan for the City Hall building complex with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP).
Ordinance No. 2023-326 stated that the bulk of the P2.7 billion amounting to P1.530 billion will go to acquire a 299,043 square meter property at Upper Dagong, barangay Carmen owned by Susan Cid-Española, Joseph M. Cid and Christine Cid-Tan where the City Hall building complex will be built.
About P250 million will fund land development, including the nearby Eco-Park also in Upper Dagong while P920 million will fund construction of the new City Hall building complex.
Councilor Edgar Cabanlas, principal proponent of the City Hall transfer, disclosed that a separate allocation worth P500 million to P1 billion was pledged by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri to fund construction of the City Council legislative building at the same site.
However, Councilor Jose Pepe Abbu Jr., one of four who voted against the ordinance, said any plans to transfer “the seat of power” of any local government to a new location requires a public hearing and a resolution voted by two-thirds of the local council that would support the transfer as mandated by the Local Government Code.
But in an Oct. 10 episode of the program “Ang Inyong Konseho Karon” hosted by the City Information Office, Councilor James Judith II clarified that City Hall’s seat of power won’t transfer anytime soon and that the building complex will house various City Hall offices along with regional offices of national government agencies.
“(The process of transferring the seat of power) as mandated under the Local Government Code will be a long, protracted process…what we’re after is to build a city government center that will also house regional offices of national government agencies in order to serve as a one-stop shop (for the public),” Judith said in Visayan.
In explaining her decision to abstain from voting for the ordinance, Councilor Imee Moreno said while she supports the Klarex administration’s move to build a City Hall complex, she wished that some issues which she declined to elaborate “would be addressed in the near future.”
When asked by Judith whether the proposed loan contract was included in the attachments of the proposed ordinance, Cabanlas explained that the attachments were the proposed loan contract’s “salient points” that would still be subject for negotiations between the city and the Land Bank. (Stephen Capillas | City Information Office)
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