Councilor walks out of session hall

COUNCILOR Jerry Uy walked out of the session hall Wednesday while the City Council was still discussing the proposed loan agreement with the Philippine Veterans Bank (PVB).

“I don’t want to be part of this illegal proceeding,” Uy said.

Mayor Alfred Romualdez forwarded for the fourth time a letter to the City Council asking it to authorize him to enter into a loan agreement of more than P622 million, bigger than the previous proposed loan of P400 million with PVB.

In a voting, Councilors Edwin Chua, Eden Chua Pineda, Frederick Chua, Willy Domingo, Jeric Dane Granados and Bianco Mate favored the loan agreement, while Councilor Jerry Yaokasin opposed. Councilors Neil Glova and Robert Andrade did not cast their votes, while Councilor Cristina Romualdez, wife of the city mayor, was absent in the session.

“There is no way that we can study the documents, that is why I left the session hall,” Uy said, noting the documents were given to them about an hour before the session started and the font used was too small for him to clearly read.

Uy said that based on their internal rules, items on the agenda should have been given to them a day before the session.

Yaokasin, when asked why he opposed the proposed loan, said that several documents have not yet been given to them by the office of Romualdez and that there was no mention of how much the City Government would pay to the bank in terms of interest.

The documents include the feasibility study of the projects to be implemented like the abattoir and the program of work of the infrastructure projects that are to be implemented.

The borrowing loan capacity of the City Government presented was based on the Bureau of Local Government Finance as of July 2011 and not its present borrowing loan capacity.

Based on the new circular of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, only those with Seal of Good Housekeeping (SGH) award are to be allowed to enter into loan agreement with any bank and other lending institutions. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)