BAGUIO CITY – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announced that its branch located in the city will be operation by the first quarter of next year to bring closer to the people of the Cordillera its services and programs.
BSP La Union regional office officer-in-charge Beta Cervantes revealed that to date, the BSP building being constructed along Loakan road that will house its Baguio branch office is around 70 percent complete wherein the remaining works are expected to be done within the exit several months to ensure its full operation early next year.
“We want to make sure that the currencies being circulated in the region will be fit unlike in the present situation where the currencies available in the Cordillera are over used,” Cervantes stressed.
The BSP official claimed that the on-going construction of its building is closely being monitored so that it will be completed in time for the Baguio branch’s proposed operation early next year to allow people from the different parts of the Cordillera to have the ease of transacting business with the BSP branch office that will be established in the city.
According to her, the BSP understands the eagerness of Cordillerans to avail of the services and programs offered to the public by the BSP, thus, it is doing its best to ensure that the completion of its building will be done the soonest that could result to the BSP’s operation earlier than scheduled.
Cervantes disclosed that BSP has some 22 regional and branch offices in the different parts of the country and that the upcoming operation of the BSP Baguio branch will increase the said number of local offices to 23.
She said that the BSP La Union regional office will continue to service the needs of the Cordillera until such time that the Baguio branch office will be operational next year so that there will be no untoward delays in the availment of their available services and programs relative to the supply of currencies and coins among other related interventions.
Earlier, the Cordillera Regional Development Council (RDC-CAR) and local governments around the region petitioned the BSP to open a regional office or local branch in the region to cater to the growing transactions of individuals and groups with the BSP considering that the nearest BSP office in La Union is too far from other parts of the region that result to delays in transactions.
Cervantes assured the people of the Cordillera that all available services of the institution related to financial transactions will be made available to the Baguio branch office so that its services and programs will now be closer to the people that the government-owned and controlled corporation oughts to serve.
Officials from the different parts of the region expressed confidence that the operation of the BSP Baguio branch will allow local governments and private institutions to avail of whatever available services that will contribute in improving the financial condition of entities for them to be able to cascade to the grassroots level better development projects and improved delivery of services necessary for their constituents The construction of the BSP Baguio branch building started over a year ago but its completion was delayed due to unforeseen events and circumstances over the past several months. By Dexter A. See
