THE Negros Occidental Provincial Board unanimously approved during its regular session on Wednesday the Supplemental Budget No. 4 amounting to P339.4 million, which includes the P200-million allocation for land banking.
Second District Board Member Salvador Escalante Jr., chairman of committee on finance, budget and appropriations, said this is probably the last supplemental budget and the biggest this year.
About P337 million was sourced from proceeds of the payment made by Ayala Land Inc. for lease of the property at the back of the Provincial Capitol in Bacolod City.
The remaining amount of more than P2 million was the province’s retained earnings, reversion of accounts payable, and Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) receipts from sale of bidding documents.
Escalante said that aside from the P200-million property in Talisay City, the provincial government is also eyeing a land at the boundary of Barangay Mansilingan in Bacolod City and Murcia town.
“This property will be developed as one of the possible housing projects for the provincial government employees in the future,” he said.
He added that this will be swapped with the properties bought by employees in an area near the Mambukal Mountain Resort in Murcia.
About 15 years ago, the province sold a property near Mambukal to its employees at a very reasonable price.
Instead of buying back the property which gained some resistance from the employees, he said the province resorted to looking for a new property that is much accessible to public transportation for swapping.
“The province is currently considering the area in Talisay City or in the boundary of Mansilingan and Murcia, or both,” Escalante said.
He said that 70 percent of the employees who own the Murcia lots are willing to swap.
After the approval of the budget, the BAC can now start accepting proposals from interested land sellers, he said.
Meanwhile, the remaining P139.4 million allocation in Supplemental Budget No. 4 is intended for various projects. The biggest is for the province’s counterpart for the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) for the construction of farm to market roads at P27 million.