THE residents of Manila will each have to pay more than P7,000 per month for the next 20 years, so as to cover the P17.8 billion debt left behind by ex-Mayor Isko Moreno.
Atty. Princess Abante, spokesperson for Mayor Honey Lacuna and chief of the Manila Public Information Office (MPIO), bared this at the ‘MACHRA Balitaan,” a news forum mounted by the Manila City Hall Reporters’ Association and held at the Harbour View Restaurant.
There, Abante said that the Lacuna administration has allotted P2 billion every year just to pay off the said debt to the two banks that granted the loan.
Abante also clarified that even if Lacuna was the Vice Mayor when the loans were secured, her role as Presiding Officer of the Manila City Council (MCC) was limited to carrying out the decision of the majority when they voted to give Moreno the authority to get the loans.
Lacuna, she said, was not even allowed to participate in the voting, unless there was a tie, adding that at that time, the city had a P25 billion credit line but that the amount was supposed to have been used for the next nine years. Abante notes that the previous administration used up P17.8 billion in just two and a half years.
When the MCC at that time gave the authority for Moreno to obtain the loans, Abante said they were clueless that he actually had plans to run for President, stressing how they believed that he will not leave Manila, during his repeated declaration to them and the media.
Abante stressed that when Moreno lost, Lacuna never complained when she was left to take care of and finish the projects that were hastily begun and thus fix their defects, while finding ways to pay the huge debt she inherited from her predecessor.
“It is highly commendable that she (Lacuna) was still able to carry out social programs despite the tight budget caused by the city’s huge debt and without having to incur any additional debts,” Abante said.
The mayor’s spokesperson cited Lacuna for having been able to raise the senior citizens’ allowance from P500 to P1,000 a month and provide P2,000 graduation gift to graduating students from the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila and the Universidad de Manila, while continuously providing basic social services to the communities, all through effective fiscal management which earned for the city its Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG), the first in the long history of Manila.
The city was also able to include minors with disability in the provision of monthly allowance for persons with disability (PWDs), she added.
From then until now, Abante said that Lacuna abhors incurring additional debts for the city, despite the budgetary constraints caused by the huge debt left by Moreno.
The present administration, according to Abante, is relying only on good fiscal management to fund programs that redound to the benefit of Manilans, as well as on the support of five of the six Congressmen who stayed with Lacuna.
