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KIDAPAWAN CITY, Cotabato—The Asian Development Bank (ADB)
and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC)
may agree to finance the $100 million needed to expand
to the entire country the Philippine Basic Urban Service
under which transport terminals, public markets, water
service and the like are provided to towns and cities
toward enhancing their economies.
The
Department of the Interior and Local Government had
proposed to the ADB that it finance $62 million, and to
the JBIC to finance the balance of $38 million to be
available by 2009.
Undersecretary Austere Panadero said, “We are going
nationwide because many LGUs [local government units]
are asking about the Mindanao Basic Urban Services
Sector Project. But this is still in the pipeline.” He
was speaking at the MBUSS-funded Kidapawan City
Transport Terminal’s inauguration Monday.
Most
probably he said the other areas where the urban service
program will be expanded first are in
Eastern Visayas—Leyte, Southern Leyte, Biliran,
Eastern Samar,
Western Samar and
Northern Samar;
Cagayan
Valley—Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya and
Quirino; and Mimaropa—Occidental Mindoro, Oriental
Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and
Palawan.
One of
the projects under the MBUSS, which is directed by the
Land Bank and the DILG, is the
Panabo City terminal
built with a P38-million concessionary ADB loan.
The
terminal is another source of income for Panabo, with
the local government charging buses P30 per stay to wait
for passengers and jeepneys P20 to pick up passengers. A
local ordinance passed by the city early this year
requires all public transport to stop at the terminal.
Another
project is the terminal in Mahayag, Zamboanga del Norte
that also helped the town increase its revenues and
clean up its act, so to speak. “From being the dirtiest
municipality in
Mindanao in 1997, with a 1960s-built municipal town hall, Mahayag has
turned around its image to become the second- cleanest
municipality in the province last year,” the ADB said in
a statement.
Another
terminal in Mahayag, Zamboanga del Norte funded by the
MBUSS also helped the LGU increase its revenues. The
terminal, which was built together with the Mahayag
Municipal Hall, was funded through a P14 million-worth
loan from MBUSS.
“From
being the dirtiest municipality in
Mindanao in 1997, with a 1960’s-built municipal town hall, Mahayag
has turned around its image to become the second
cleanest municipality in the province last year,” the
ADB said in a statement.
Currently, the MBUSS has a number of subprojects in
Mindanao which are under construction. The MBUSS intends
to complete these projects by the end of the year. |
