The Cebu City Council’s nod is needed to pre-terminate the city’s loan balance of P2.4 billion for the South Road Properties (SRP).
Jose Daluz III, one of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama’s consultants, said the council’s concurrence is needed so other finance agencies can agree to the city’s plan to pay the loan balance.
“No, it’s not approval that we will be asking. It’s our right as a debtor to pre-terminate the loan. But agencies want both the mayor and the council to want to pay off the loan,” Daluz said in yesterday’s 888 News Forum.
A proposed resolution on the matter will be discussed in today’s regular session.
Councilor Margot Osmeña, who heads the committee on budget and finance, said there won’t be any problem approving this.
Cebu City allots about P500 million a year to pay the interest and principal balance of the Japanese loan for the SRP.
Agencies involved are the Department of Finance (DOF), Bureau of Local Government Finance, Land Bank of the Philippines , and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Daluz said the city also needs the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to waive the pre-termination penalty.
Land Bank vice president Elsie Tagupa said the city also needs LBP’s concurrence since it’s the conduit bank for the foreign loan which was granted by the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund of Japan which is now called JICA.