Pangasinan still not heavily in debt, say
WITH ITS P1.67-BILLION LOAN
LINGAYEN— Even with a P1.167-billion loan it secured from the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), the provincial treasurer said the province is “not heavily in debt”.
“Based on our records, our outstanding loan with the LBP is only P409-million,” Marilou Utanes said in an interview.
A drawdown of P758, 149, 708 loan from LBP (as part of the P1-billion that the province availed of last year from the bank) is again ready to be released soon as details of specific projects are submitted.
The provincial board approved on June 22 the ordinance authorizing the drawdown for the amount to fund submitted local infrastructure and other socio-economic development projects.
This makes a combined amount of P1.167 billion loan Pangasinan has but Utanes maintained the provincial government is not “baon sa utang (in deep debt)”.
The requested drawdown will be released partially and will be based on accomplishment of infrastructure projects, i.e., asphalting/ blocktopping / concreting of provincial roads, reconstruction/replacement of damaged/old provincial/barangay bridges, purchase of hospital/heavy equipment.
Utanes said the bank still has not specified the rate of monthly amortization but the ordinance specified an interest rate of 5.5 percent for three years subject to quarterly repricing from 4th year onwards (based on prevailing prime rate plus minimum spread of one percent). The term of the loan is 10 years, the arrears to be paid quarterly with the assignment of the Internal Revenue Allotment of the province as its collateral/guarantee/security.
Sixth District Board Member Alfonso Bince Jr. said the monetary board approved a term loan of P1-billion for the province. When this was forwarded to the Land Bank, it approved P850-million so there’s a reserve of about P150 million more, he said.
Explaining the process, Mr. Bince said: “We approved (the ordinance), they (provincial government) applied, they (monetary board) approved (the loan) on the basis of their studies in so far as the financial capability of the province.”
Bince said the province could not implement the projects without the loan.
He vehemently denied insinuations that it was “a midnight loan.”—(Tita Roces)
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