Land Bank Offers P5.5B Loan To Fund Baguio’s Makeover

March 9, 2020 Community Billboard

BAGUIO CITY (March 6, 2020) — Government bank Landbank of the Philippines (LBP) has made available a P5.5B loan facility for Baguio City’s makeover.
As Baguio City was left by the previous administration with no standing loan or debt, the City Government can avail of P5.5 billion stand-by credit facility for its ambitious rehabilitation.
LBP La Union Lending Group head Jesus Alegre, Jr. said one of the requisites of the opening of the credit facility with the government bank is an authorization from the Baguio City Council allowing Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong to enter into loan agreements.
He said the city government can draw the amount either to fund various projects of the city or a single project geared towards improving the city.
Under the proposed omnibus term loan facility, the duration of the loan will be 20 years with a 3-year grace period.
Magalong claims the stand-by credit facility will only be drawn if the city government needs the available funds for its priority development projects, particularly the construction of modular pay parking structures in strategic areas in the different parts of the city to help provide motorists with available parking spaces to help the ease the worsening traffic jams in the city.
The mayor added that the credit facility offer to the city government by and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) only shows the good financial standing of the city.
Earlier, Magalong signed a loan agreement with DBP amounting to over P4 billion as an additional source of funding for ambition to turn the city public market into a “state of the art public market”, the first in Southeast Asia from its supposed debilitating state from years of neglect by the past administrations.

Artemio A. Dumlao/ABN