Although it was already seen as a “lost cause”, the minority bloc gallantly attempted to prevent the hasty passage of a resolution ratifying the terms and conditions for an additional P50M loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines, part of the P450M loan application, where a P50M was already released late part of last year.

The proposed resolution (P.R. No. 08-10) was passed using the same mode, “division of the house”, which had four city council members opposing (Kagawad Bebiano Inting, Zenaido Rama, Anne Mariquit Oppus and Edgar Kapirig), while six, all identified as allies of Mayor Dan Lim, voted “yes”.

Lucio Balbin posted the lone “abstain” vote while Kagawads Edgar Bompat, Leonides Borja, Ramram Alturas (SK), Faroh Cabalit (ABC), Oscar Glovasa and Danilo Bantugan all voted “yes”.

City councilor Zenaido “Djingo” Rama reminded his colleagues about the required program of works that were requested earlier, to at least reveal where the money would be spent.

“In the previous loan, the council was not provided documents that were requested. Where are they? The council should be informed; at least for the sake of transparency. Now, we are here again, pushed to approve a resolution for another P50M loan. What is this?” Rama asked.

Kagawad Inting also questioned the monopoly of DBP to decide how much interest it imposes on the city.

“There should be mutual agreement. The borrower has also the right to be consulted, particularly on the interest they are going to pay,” Inting, a finance and accounting authority said.

Kapirig, on the other hand, questioned the timing of the additional loan.

“Why don’t we wait to decide on another loan after the elections,” he said.

Oppus also wanted to be clarified on how the money be spent; - since it appears that the projects funded are only for road rehabilitation.

Administration allies admitted that the P50M new loan will be spent for road rehabilitation, not concreting.

“Rehabilitation means patching and spreading of anapog on our roads. This makes the city a borrower of P100 million and still we have bad roads,” the minority bloc lamented.