BY BENJAMIN MOSES M. EBREO
BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya (June 9)—The various infrastructure projects funded through the provincial government’s P1 billion loan with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) are now showing full and partial completion.
“There are already projects that are completed while others are already 60-70 percent accomplished. These are expected to be fully completed by July 2022,” Governor Carlos Padilla said.
He said more than P360 million has been released through the provincial local government unit here and LBP based on the progressive billing scheme.
Padilla said the borrowed amount is intact through the LBP where the provincial government is paying two percent interest per annum while the remaining two percent interest is being paid by the national government.
He said the provincial government availed of the P1 billion loan last year with the encouragement of the national government among local government units through the Bayanihan Act to enable municipalities, cities and provinces economically recover from the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“With this loan, we are happy to report that our provincial government has incurred savings because we were able to roll out the projects before the Russia-Ukraine war started where much of the construction materials and fuel costs, among others, have gone up since it broke out,” Padilla said.
He said the P1 billion loan also served as an opportunity for the provincial government to realize its socio-economic, health and poverty alleviation programs, among others with the construction/concreting of provincial roads and upgrading of provincially-managed hospitals.
Road development projects include upgrading road network projects called the Cagayan Valley Road project.
These are the P33 million Kinacao-Kurasay-Kinalabsa road, P80 million Nagsabaran-Dabacan-Ampakleng road, P123 million Bonifacio-Dagupan-Palayan road, P41 million Difuday-Bonifacio road, P80 million Dupax del Sur-Liyo-Carolotan road, P260 million Palabotan-Caino-Anayo-Canarem road, and the P180 million Junction National Bua-Muta-Macabenga road.
Padilla said there is no doubt that the P1 billion loan will be beneficial to the province considering its low interest and its major impact on the socio-economic growth of the province.
“These projects will be realized earlier with the P1 billion loan compared to our usual sourcing of local funds. Without this, we will have 10 years or more to fund the projects with a higher cost of construction materials, fuel and others,” Padilla said.