After failed loan bid, San Pablo trying again

SAN PEDRO, Laguna—The city government of San Pablo, Laguna, refuses to abandon its bid to borrow money for projects that critics questioned and tagged as a waste of public funds.

It is now trying to negotiate a P740-million loan after its first bid to borrow P900 million was stopped by the Court of Appeals.

Councilor Angelo Adriano said the city council received about three weeks ago a letter from the city mayor’s office, labeled urgent, requesting for an ordinance allowing the city government to borrow P740 million from the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP).

The city government last year negotiated a P900-million loan from the Philippine Veterans Bank but it was stopped in December by the appellate court which issued a one-year injunction against the deal.

Civil society groups here opposed the P900-million loan for projects that the groups said had no feasibility studies.

The Bureau of Local Government Finance, under the Department of Finance, also issued a certification saying the P900-million loan was beyond the city’s borrowing capacity of P500 million.

“Why the need for another loan, when the first one was not even approved?” said Councilor Adriano.

He said the purpose for the new loan was essentially the same as the one that the Court of Appeals stopped.

At least P140 million of the amount would be used to pay an existing loan with LBP, said the councilor. The rest of the money would be spent on several projects that critics said was being enforced without a feasibility study.