City mulls one-time payment of Landbank loan
THE Dagupan City government is bent on paying the remaining balance of P30 million of the P280 million loan secured by the city in 2004 for the construction of the Malimgas Public Market.
Mayor Belen Fernandez said she will seek the advice of members of the city’s finance committee whether it is more advantageous for the city to pay the remaining balance of the loan at one time instead of paying it for 4 to 5 more years.
The P280 million loan was obtained by the city during the administration of then Mayor Benjamin Lim to finance the construction of the three-storey Malimgas Market payable, in payable in 15 years.
“I believe it is now about time to get by this loan that have tied the incomes of the city since mid 2000,” Ms. Fernandez told newsmen in an interview.
By paying Land Bank now, we can save on interest due us, the mayor said.
She added that before she took over, quarterly amortization to the loan had yet been coming from the city coffers, sacrificing some of the essential services of the city government.
It will be recalled that after the market was constructed, it never became self-sustaining as earlier projected in a study made by then Mayor Lim.
However, the situation at the Malimgas Public Market changed for the better since Mayor Fernandez took over the reins of the city government in 2013, said Market Administrator Aguedo Sta. Maria in an earlier interview.
She introduced renovations and repainted and provided better light at the public market, and taught vendors the art of merchandising, imparting to them her lifetime experience that made her succeed as a businesswoman and once head of their family-owned CSI Group of Companies.
In a matter of weeks, there was a complete turn-around in the revenues and activities at the Malimgas Public Market that elated stallholders.
Fernandez reported that the income from Malimgas Market paid by stallholders enabled the city government to pay the quarterly amortization of its loan with Land Bank. (Leonardo Micua)
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