Councilors demand public hearing on city hall new loan

TWO Iloilo City councilors called for another public hearing on the revised plan of the new City Hall by Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog.

City Councilors David Jamora and Jeffrey Ganzon questioned the additional P260-million bank loan of Mabilog from the Land Bank of the Philippines.

The amount, Mabilog said, will be used to fund the revisions of the design; purchase of furnishing, furniture, floor tiles, generator set, cable system, solar panels and other equipment; and the construction of elevators.

Mabilog said the City Council already approved the additional loan and there is no need to go back to zero now that the construction of the new City Hall is slated for completion by end of June.

He said he could not understand why Jamora and Ganzon still want another public consultation when they have already approved the amount.

In their letter dated April 28, 2011 to Vice Mayor Jose Espinosa III, both Jamora and Ganzon said the P260-million additional loan for the completion of the City Hall is unnecessary because the original loan of P455 million was more than enough to complete the building.

Both believed that a public hearing or consultation with the Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers, United Architect of the Philippines, Integrated Institute of Electrical Engineers, Philippine Society of Mechanical Engineers and Electronic and Communication Engineers of the Philippines is needed, considering the huge amount involved in the additional loan.

During the special session last April 19, there were no technical men to explain the details of the revisions. However, chairman of the committees on ways and means and appropriations City Councilor Perla Zulueta discussed in details where the additional loan would go and the first loan of P445 million that covers the contract bid price of P368 million for the building shell.

Mabilog maintained that the construction of the new building is not overpriced, saying the new City Hall, at estimates, will only cost P25,000 per square meter compared to P27,000 per square meter of the new Provincial Capitol. (Lydia C. Pendon)