Labella wants council to consider loan offer

CEBU, Philippines —  Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella wants the City Council to seriously look into the P5-billion standby loan facility that the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) has offered the city.

“In so far as I am concerned, there's nothing wrong, but I would rather that the other stakeholders like the council, like the Local Finance Committee would take a very serious look on this,” said Labella.

“Because if you say a local government unit avails of the loan, they might say bankrupt na siguro,” he added.

The mayor explained that bankruptcy is out of the question. He said there are very encouraging terms and conditions like very minimal interest that is very hard to refuse.

“We tried to compute, it's only about two percent interest,” Labella said.

In fact, many other local government units in the National Capital Region have availed of the loan facility because of the interest rate.

The City Council has already invited the LBP officials to appear before them on the first week of February to explain the bank’s offer.

Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia has also proposed a resolution to authorize Labella to apply and negotiate for a loan with the bank even before the LBP officials’ appearance in the council.

Garcia earlier said the amount can be used to finance the projects under the city’s Annual Investment Plan. These include the upgrading of the traffic system; COVID-19 response---rehabilitation and recovery; construction of two to three medium-rise buildings for displaced informal settlers; establishment of the Cebu City College; flood control system, among others.

Garcia admitted that he is personally in favor of availing the loan facility.

“I cannot say for sure nga ato gyud na siya’ng dawaton. But if you ask me personally, there is really no harm in availing of that loan. Why? Because that loan is a standby loan facility,” Garcia earlier said.

He explained that the city will only pay interest of whatever amount drawn against the P5-billion credit line.

Garcia said the city has not obtained a loan since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak and does not need one, but since LBP made an offer they will listen to the proposal. — FPL (FREEMAN)