Corro: Council authority needed to avail WB grant

CEBU, Philippines - Daanbantayan Mayor Augusto Corro has clarified that what he is asking from the municipal council is just an authority to manifest interest to avail of the financial grant offered by the World Bank.

 Corro wrote a letter explaining to the councilors after the needed authority to avail of the World Bank Funded Support for Strategic Local Development and Investment Project (S2LDIP) was turned down by the Council.

 In his letter dated December 10, 2014 to the Sangguniang Bayan Members, Corro clarified that the grant still requires compliance with voluminous documentations that will have to go back to the council for a specific ordinance for the release of the funds intended for the identified projects under the S2LDIP Grant Agreement.

 Corro’s letter was supposed to be taken up last Friday’s SB session but seven of the nine councilors failed to show up, during which more than a thousand residents protested against them outside the municipal hall.

 The WB funding grant was offered to 16 local government units in northern Cebu that were badly devastated by super typhoon Yolanda.

 All LGUs except for Daanbantayan reportedly accepted the offer through the granting of the required authority to their respective mayors.

 “It is only our town which declined this grant. As the project specified, it is a grant, and as such, it will be grossly disadvantageous and inexplicable if our town will decline this offer,” Corro said.

 The Municipal Development Council has endorsed P885 million worth of projects to WB which include construction of drainage system, purchase of heavy equipment, relocation of municipal hall, relocation of wet market, solid waste management building and equipment, rehabilitation of bus terminal, storage facilities, water treatment facilities, rehabilitation of old public market and the modernization of rural health unit.

 The municipality needs to avail of a loan facility through the Land Bank of the Philippines equivalent to 10 percent of the total amount to be granted by WB.

 Corro assured that he will not stop from seeking funding from other sources such as from the national and provincial government, and through public-private partnership to augment the budget for these projects. —FPL (FREEMAN)