BY THE time this comes out, the Sanggunian may have already approved the loan agreement between Leonardia and the Veterans Bank shackling the City to another P250 million loan. This is on top of the P400 million it got from the Philippine National Bank (PNB) for its government center.

Whoever succeeds Leonardia in 2010 will carry the burden of this mountain of debts which will doom it to certain bankruptcy. By the time he takes over after the May, 2010 elections, Bacolod City will be hard put in meeting, much less satisfying the basic needs of its residents since it could hardly afford to pay its loan amortizations.

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The city’s P400-million loan with PNB will earn for Lucio Tan’s bank a minimum of P250 million on its interest alone, meaning that by the time the city pays this off, assuming that it does, the city would have bled P650 million. And only God knows how much compounded interest it incurs for every default. Again, assuming that it is able to, its Internal Revenue Allotment would have been bled dry, leaving a few pennies for the various services that its population needs.

Then this other loan from the Veterans Bank, is expected to earn an interest of at least 100 million by the time it is paid off, if at all.

And why is Leonardia in a rush to leave the city of Bacolod an inheritance of close to a billion? Some say it is because of the 2010 elections. But hasn’t the Leonardia administration looted enough from the multiple of graft-ridden deals it had already entered into? Is there no end and to its gluttony?

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While the administration, and perhaps, the people of Bacolod too, may take immense pride in having a new City Hall that can rival the Taj Majal, the question that Leonardia must satisfactorily answer is whether we really need it that bad that it thinks very little of the cost it imposes on the residents of the city?

We’ve had the old City Hall for decades, and, absolutely no resident of Bacolod can say that Bacolod City had served him less because of it. If at all, the Bacoleño had not been served well, not because its City Hall is small and old, but because some of its tenants are incompetent and corrupt. Do we need a sparkling new building just to satisfy the ego of the city officials who dream of putting their names in tablets of stone?

And now, this P250 million Veterans Bank loan allegedly for the city’s squatters. Do we really need to sink into a bottomless pit of debt because if we do not, the city’s squatters will disappear from the face of the earth? Or it is because our officials do not mind if we drown in this bottomless pit of debt just so they can have enough for their reelection bids?

According to Bacolod Housing Authority (BHA), those squatters in need of immediate relocation, meaning they are covered by court ejection orders, number about 2,000 homes. The rest can take their own sweet time as they are not even subject of ejection cases.

By the BHA’s own estimate, the Abada-Escay relocation site can still accommodate a minimum of 1,000 squatter families. Handumanan can also accommodate from 600 to 800 squatter families.

So, why rush to mortgage the city as if there were no tomorrow?