Loan mulled for market dev’t / Panagbenga flower contest

CITY HALL BEAT 

Aileen P. Refuerzo

                

BAGUIO CITY – City officials are rethinking the loan option to finance the P6 billion city market modernization plan after noting downsides to the scheme.

Mayor Benjamin Magalong Jan. 28 said the city has to reconsider and look for a better scheme like a joint venture with the private sector which will not require the city to shell out monetary investment and at the same time will ensure the welfare of the market vendors.

He said the city will not be wanting in offers under the private-public partnership scheme as large investment companies have sent feelers for the market venture.

“There is no need for us to avail of loans since a number of big investors had signified intention to this project and all we have to do is select the best deal, evaluate and have a third party help us evaluate to make sure that we are on the right track,” the mayor told the department heads.

He said the market cooperative will not be taken out of the picture as their involvement can be worked up in the deal with the investor.

Upon the mayor’s order, the City Budget Office under City Budget Officer Leticia Clemente and Asst. Budget Officer Severina De Leon conducted an analysis of the financial feasibility of the city market’s master redevelopment plan done by a private company engaged by the technical working group on market development.

In the report to the Management Committee (Mancom), De Leon said they found out that the financial aspect of the plan was not viable owing to the high cost of the building design pegged at P48,000 per square meter vis-à-vis the expected income.

The financial feasibility was anchored on the loan availment-city level operation option being considered by the city at the outset.

However, De Leon said their analysis provided recommendations for adjustments in the design and costing and in other components intended to make the project tenable should the city still opt for the loan scheme.

Apart from downgrading the design and lowering the cost, it was also suggested that the operation of the existing market lessors be confined to just two storeys while the rest of the floors be leased out mall-style to enable the city to raise seed money and lessen the amount to be borrowed.   

De Leon said loan availment remains as an option of the city government but it needs to be studied carefully especially since the market project is a huge undertaking and the city’s available budget is limited.

“We cannot risk tying up a big chunk of our budget to this single venture,” she said.

De Leon said that as far as she can recall, the city has not availed of any loan to fund a project placing it in a good financial standing which she said could qualify the city to avail of lower credit interest rates.

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This year’s carpet of flowers landscaping exhibition and competition of the Baguio Flower Festival will take on an innovation to beautify choice traffic islands and medians at the central business district.

City Environment and Parks Management Office assistant head Rhenan Diwas said the idea hatched by the members of the Baguio Flower Festival Foundation Inc. and Mayor Benjamin Magalong was to tap the traditional Panagbenga activity to help the city government realize its aim to refurbish the center islands.

After the contest, the landscape design and materials used will not be removed and will instead be donated by the BFFFI and the participants to the city government through the CEPMO which will assume the task of maintaining the landscaped areas.

Those covered by the agreement will be the Session Road rotonda, the traffic islands at the Lower Session Road where the big and small Norfolk pine tree are, the rotonda near the University of the Philippines Baguio and the center island near the old PRC building.

A traditional feature of the Panagbenga, the Landscaping Exhibition and Competition used to be held at one location usually at Burnham Park but this time the venues are spread out to various locations like the center islands and medians and small parks.             

The exhibition will run from Feb. 1 to March 8 this year and apart from the carpet of flowers category will also consist of the open category where eight entries will be displayed at the City Hall Park, four at Burnham Park, four at the Baguio Convention Center where entries for the vertical category will also be placed.

Diwas said the Keystones of Baguio at the top of Session Road which is among the areas to be spruced up were temporary transferred to the Dominican Hill Retreat House for safekeeping last Jan. 26 to give way for the landscaping display and to also refurbish the area and clean up the stones.

“The city government recognizes the historical value of this landmark (the boulders symbolize the eight members of the Second Philippine Commission that staged its sessions in Baguio –then a municipality of the Province of Benguet - from April 22 to June 11, 1904) and values the genius of the local artists who worked on the installation and thus assures that it will be restored in the same exact location and in spiffy condition after the festival on March 9, 2020,” Diwas said.

Diwas also clarified that the ongoing remodeling of the center island near the Baguio General Hospital is not part of the Panagbenga contest but is a project of the Dept. of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to revise the designs of these traffic islands to conform to standards set under national and local traffic rules and regulations.

The present design of the said rotonda does not meet the standards as it blocks the view of motorists passing the area necessitating reconstruction.