Mayor says purchase lot advantageous to city

ILOILO City Mayor Patrick Jed Mabilog defended the recent purchase of the city of three parcels of land along the Iloilo River at Muelle Loney intended for the construction of a new gym and grandstand worth P32 million.

Mabilog said the purchase of the 2,385 square meters property is most advantageous to the city as the land titles are already in the name of the City Government.

The property in question is owned by Panay Railways Inc. (PRI) a government owned and controlled corporation. PRI does not operate any trains any more but it leases property it owns or sells it to defray personnel and administrative cost incurred from looking after its assets.

Mabilog said the opposition possibly started because the reason for the purchase was not fully explained.

He said the city purchased the lots with the proper documents especially the execution of the Deed of Sale, and the Contract to Sell.

The city purchased the property through a Deed of Sale with Real Estate Mortgage, Mabilog asserted.

On March 22, the City Council confirmed the purchase of the property with a PRI Contract to Sell with certain conditions, written in fine print, through a government to government transaction. Two councilors have opposed the purchase.

With a downpayment of P12 million, the balance will be paid yearly at more than P7 million in three years at five percent interest.

The mayor said the city will still exact the payment of real property taxes for several years from PRI that could be negotiated through the yearly payment of the unpaid balance in the lot purchase.

The City Government purchased the property after the Bureau of Customs claimed the present site where the Iloilo Freedom Grandstand stood. Mabilog wanted the area to be the site of the new grandstand.

The Sunburst Park located within the site will remain, improved and expanded.

The Bureau of Fire Protection-Iloilo City office which is within the purchased PRI property will transfer in the city owned lot in Molo district. 

A considered prime lot, the property was used to be the depot and end station of trains plying from Iloilo to Roxas City more than 50 years ago.

The trains used to carry commuters between the provinces of Iloilo and Capiz including the transport of farm products such as coconuts, rootcrops, rice, fish and shellfish, fruits and vegetables and sugar canes and the finished product such as raw sugar and molasses from the sugar mills in central Iloilo and Capiz. (LCP)

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