The City Government would use a P100 million loan to cover the unfinished projects funded by the stalled release of Malampaya gas proceeds.

The amount, which would be used mainly for the city’s infrastructure projects, was the city’s alternative to the still unreleased share of Palawan and Puerto Princesa from the natural gas operations.

“Because of our portion from Malampaya still not released, we had to find other source of funds, and this is what we had seen,” Councilor Roger Castro, in an interview, said.

The city had allocated most of its Malampaya share to infrastructure projects such as road constructions, and to finish these projects, the city government had to look for other sources, Castro added.

Malampaya-funded projects in the city were the reclamation of the Baywalk area, construction of roads leading to Sabang as well as the southern barangay roads, and barangay electrification project, among others.

Castro said Puerto Princesa’s internal revenue allotment (IRA) would be used as collateral for the loan which would be from the Landbank. He added that the city still has unreleased IRA.

“It was like using our IRA in advance to maintain the projects,” Castro said.

The councilor also clarified that the P100 million was the same negotiated price between the city government and the Landbank.

“This was the previous negotiation authority that we have given and we are just ratifying it now,” Castro explained.

He added that the council was sure that the loan has an allowable interest. However, Castro said that he did not know how much the percentage of the interest would be.

“I’m not particular with that (interest) but I’m sure that this would not be passed if the interest given by the bank was not the lowest,” he told the local media.