LUCENA CITY, Quezon—The Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) of Quezon last Thursday approved the P2-billion loan agreement between the provincial government and Land Bank of the Phililippines (Land Bank) to fund various development projects of the province.
Meeting almost as a committee of the whole, SP board member Sonny Ubana, chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, banged the gavel declaring the ratification of the omnibus term-loan facility agreement with the Land Bank will be raised during the plenary regular session on Monday for final approval.
“As the chief planning officer in charge of the development of the whole province, would the P2-billion loan with the LandBank benefit the province?” Ubana, also SP majority floor leader, directly asked Provincial Planning and Development Coordinator Maria Odessa Perez early on at the start of the committee hearing, which was also attended by fellow board members Ferdinand Talabong, Dominic Reyes, Aileen Buan, Hermilando Alcala Jr., Elizabeth Sio, Claro Talaga Jr., Rhodora Tan, Raquel Mendoza and Jose Erwin Esguerra.
Perez, who sat across the SP members and beside provincial government officials, including treasurer Marilou Rosario Uy, Engr. Johnny Pasatiempo, budget officer Jerry Micor and provincial attorney Anna Marie Charisse Bajas, said, “Yes, definitely, in terms of socioeconomic development of the province.”
She went on to enumerate the various priority projects to be funded by the loan such as the construction of the Quezon Medical Center West Annex and the maternity ward extension, restoration of the capitol building, construction of additional school buildings and facilities at SLSU in Catanauan, construction of concrete fence of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in Barangay Talipan, Pagbilao, among others along with counterpart funding of the provincial government for national government assisted projects under the Philippine Rural Development Program.
On July 13 Gov. David Suarez urged the SP members, through Vice Gov. and presiding officer Sam Nantes, to pass an ordinance certified as urgent ratifying the omnibus term-loan facility agreement.
The loan will be utilised for the social services sector worth P565 million; institutional sector, P345 million; economic service sector, P1.065 billion; environment sector, P40 million; and other infrastructure projects worth P25 million, which includes the improvement of SP building and the construction of the SP Secretariat building.