For Cyber Center: Negros Occ PB approves P157M loan

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — A reduced loan of P157.5 million for the completion of the NEGROS FIRST Cyber Center was unanimously approved by the Negros Occidental Provincial Board in its last regular session this week.

The PB has given Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. authority to enter into a loan for the amount from the Development Bank of the Philippines.

Marañon earlier proposed for a P180-million loan for the second phase or completion of the Cyber Center, a three-storey facility at the Paglaum Sports Complex in Bacolod, but the PB, headed by Vice Governor Eugenio Lacson, settled with the governor for a lower amount of loan.

The total cost of P180-million for the Cyber Center completion will however be the same, and the PB said the deficit of P22.5 million will have to be sourced out from the unrestricted funds of the provincial government's general fund.

In the summary of items for the completion of the project, electrical works will cost P89.5 million, air-conditioning and ventilation system (P38.5 million), Integrated Building System (P14.64 million), site development (P2.35 million), water treatment facilities (P5.5 million) and passenger elevators (P14 million).

Lacson said works on the IBS (including telecommunication lines), perimeter fence and waste water treatment plant advance oxidation, at a cost of P22.5 million, can proceed at an earlier time without waiting for the loan release from DBP.

He assured Negrenses that the P22.5 milion unrestricted funds being channeled to the Cyber Center would not affect the projects and programs of the provincial government that are using the General Fund.

The provincial government had loaned P450 million for the first phase of the Cyber Center. But without the additional P180-million loan, the center could not be operational, the governor earlier said.

The spaces in three-storey building will translate to a gross rental income of about P90 million annually, and will generate about 6,000 direct jobs and 20,000 indirect jobs in the next five years, Marañon added. (FREEMAN)