ITOGON, Benguet – The proposed rehabilitation of the municipal building in barangay Poblacion will cost around P160 million to help in providing adequate spaces for concerned offices and contribute in efforts to decongest the present structure.
Mayor Bernard S. Waclin said that the initial plan for the rehabilitation of the municipal building by the previous administration was to obtain a P70 million loan but the said project was actually shelved to date.
Luckily, Mayor Waclin claimed that upon learning of the local government’s plan to obtain a loan for the rehabilitation of the municipal building, he immediately advised him to forego of the said plan as he will try to source out the necessary funds to realize the long overdue project of the local government.
For this year, the lawmaker was able to source out an initial amount of P80 million to start the implementation of the project while the balance of P80 million will be provided in next year’s annual national budget to complete the said project.
“We are lucky that Congressman Yap was able to source out the initial funds for the proposed rehabilitation, repair and upgrading of our municipal building as we were spared from obtaining a loan that might impact on our existing resources in the future. We hope that the conduct of the bidding process for the project will go on smoothly so that its implementation will start before the scheduled election ban on the implementation of public works projects,” Mayor Waclin stressed.
According to him, the timely intervention of the congressman in providing the necessary funds for the said project will allow the local government to allocate its local development funds for numerous meaningful impact projects in the different schools and barangays that will contribute in spurring rural development beneficial in uplifting the welfare of the greater majority of the populace.
He explained that if the local government opted to avail of the loan to implement the initial phase of the project, a portion of the local government’s local development fund will be put on hold as collateral for the said loan but the same was already negated by the action of Congressman yap in providing the funds for the said rehabilitation and upgrading of the municipal building.
Waclin added that part of the structure will be earmarked for parking while the rest of the floors of the structure will be occupied by concerned offices of the local government and the topmost floor will be used as a multipurpose facility where various gatherings will be conducted.
The mayor appealed to the officials and employees of the local government and the transacting public to bear with the inconveniences that will be caused to them when the implementation of the first phase of the project will start because they will experience far more convenience for a longer period of time once the project will be completed within the next several years.
Itogon is one of the first-class towns in Benguet and among the three municipalities that heavily rely on its share from mining operations as the source of majority of its internally generated sources being used to enhance the delivery of basic services and implement impactful development projects in the town’s nine barangays. By Dexter A. See
