Pay up: NHA to Cebu City

THE National Housing Authority (NHA) has asked Cebu City Hall to pay its loan amounting to at least P2 million.

The money was used to build 100 starter houses for the families affected by the construction of the subway at the South Road Properties (SRP).

In a letter to Mayor Michael Rama, NHA also asked the City to pay the interest worth P1.1 million.

MOA

Gavino Figuracion, who is the project manager of NHA 7, said the City Government has made no payment since it took out the loan in 2005.

Under the memorandum of agreement, the City is supposed to pay the NHA P153,752.29 semi-annually for a period of 10 years, with an interest rate of nine percent and a delinquency rate of 12 percent.

“(But) to date, the City is in arrears for 10 semi-annual amortizations due to the NHA in the amount of P1,924,978.67, which shall become due and demandable by the end of May 2011,” Figuracion said.

City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete, however, said the City cannot pay off the loan and interest right away because it has not appropriated funds for these.

Requests

“But definitely, we will pay it. We will set aside a budget for it in our next supplemental budget,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.

Poblete said they will ask the NHA to waive the interest, considering it is a government to government transaction.

“And we are hoping they will grant our requests,” he said.

In 2005, the City used the fund from the NHA to build starter houses in Barangay Budlaan, a mountain ba-rangay next to Talamban, to relocate 100 families affected by the construction of the subway at the SRP.

The project was implemented by former north district congressman Raul del Mar, while the developer was the Pagtambayayong Foundation Inc.