ANGELES City Mayor Carmelo Lazatin Jr. said he will preserve what has been completed of the P500-million city hall building, particularly its foundation, which construction was ordered stopped upon the new mayor’s assumption in office one month ago.

Lazatin said the foundation of the building needs to be preserved for development plans of future city mayors.

Some P80 million was already spent on the mobilization and preparatory works, including the building’s foundation, according to the mayor.

Lazatin stopped the construction of the city hall and the P300-million sports complex and asked the city council to divert the funds for the improvement of the Ospital Ning Angeles and the City College of Angeles.

The mayor said the city government may continue the construction of the new city hall if it gets surplus funds after the improvement of the city’s public hospital and community college.

“But as of now, the city hall and sports complex are not our priority because what the people need is a high category hospital with quality services and a good tertiary school with good quality education,” Lazatin said.

City Administrator Willie Rivera said they have already talked to the Development Bank of the Philippines executives regarding the stoppage of projects related to the P1.2-billion loan the city government forged during the last administration.

“First, there should be a resolution to defer or cancel the construction of the city hall, sports complex and all other projects related to the loan. Thereafter, we need to pass a resolution for the realignment of the loan,” Rivera said.

City Council Majority Floor Leader Arvin Suller said they are set to file the resolution canceling the project and realigning the funds intended for the construction of the new city hall and sports facility.

As presiding officer of the city council, Vice Mayor Vicky Vega-Cabigting expressed support to the mayor’s call, saying the people really need quality health care and education.

Cabigting and Suller are both allies of Lazatin. They ran under the same political party - Partido Federal ng Pilipinas.