Del Mar, Cuenco donate P7.5M for legislative bldg

As the City Council scrambled for additional funding to finish the renovation of the city legislative building, Reps. Raul del Mar and Antonio Cuenco came to extend assistance in the amount of P7.5 million.

Cuenco donated a total of P3.5 million, the P2 million of which would be for floor finishing and the remainder for electrical fixtures.

Del Mar, for his part, donated P4 million for floor and wall finishes and for structured cabling, with the P2-million worth of items already delivered.

The City Council has been rushing the renovation of the legislative building so that the councilors and other departments of the City Hall would be able to move there before the year ends.

Vice Mayor Michael Rama earlier said councilors will start transferring to their renovated offices starting on the first week of December. “We hope that almost all of that would be operational by the end of December,” he said.

As of November 12, work phases, costing between P10 million and P30.5 million, still did not have the fund needed for completion, councilor Nestor Archival said in his report during the council session on Wednesday.

The City Council earlier sought Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s approval for additional P72 million to finish the renovation but the mayor said the amount was already “too much.”

The council had reported before that the city government would spend P188.43 million to complete the renovation and install new fixtures and furniture. This amount was more than thrice the initial estimate of P55 million, before renovation started in 2003.

Archival, in the recent session, explained that Phase 1 of the project is 83.52 percent done but nothing more had changed since September 10 due to Suspension Order No. 4 in connection with the still pending power supply application at the Visayas Electric Company.

VECO has only started to install electric posts last Wednesday, and hi-pot testing will follow only after the final installation of wires and cables from the transformer to the post.

Archival’s report explained that the testing of elevator and pumps for fire protection will also depend on the outcome of the application for power supply from VECO. - Wenna A. Berondo/RAE