Foes insecure on Dagupan’s Classy New City Hall – Mayor Zaplan

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – The mayor of Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan cited that the group who opposed the transfer of the city hall here to the Lucao-Pantal  Growth Area were insecure of their political future thus they played politics.

Mayor Carlito Zaplan saw that the present city hall is small, dilapidated, flood prone, and uncomfortable to its workers.

Upon seeing the perspective plan of the new government building here he said he was impressed by its world class design.

“World class ang design ng city hall ng Dagupan. Dapat maging proud kayo,” he quipped.

Zaplan knew what he was talking because he brainchild the construction of the P40 million municipal hall funded by government loan and his personal monies.

                                       VISIONARY LEADERS – Dagupan City Mayor Belen T.

Fernandez and Sta. Barbara Mayor Lito S. Zaplan

The design of the edifice awed commuters and motorists from and to Manila who used the nearby national highway.

“When I saw it was only 32 meters in width, I told contractor Tammy Velasco to add four more meters to each of the two sides of the building to make it 40 meters in width. I personally used my monies to buy the materials like hollow blocks, tiles, irons just to have that eight meters built,” Zaplan, a long reigning mayor, told Northern Watch in Tagalog.

Many experts said Zaplan construction of the town hall was far superior than those municipal halls smaller in sizes in other towns in Pangasinan that where funded twice the amount the government of Sta. Barbara spent.

When asked about the criticism of Vice Mayor Brian Lim, the opposition, and others that the city residents would be  burdened to pay a loan of up to P2 billion because the filling alone of the donated 1.2 hectares fishpond as situs of the new city hall would be massive and expensive, Zaplan disagreed.

“Tama ang appropriation ng Dagupan sa budget sa filling,” the mayor, whose family is into big construction business, estimated.

He said his assessment of a meter of each of the 1,200 square meters multiplied by P1000  was P12 million.

Department of Public Works in Highway District Engineer Rodolfo Dion assessed the back filling of the fishpond would cost the public coffer here by P7 million.

Soil test, Dion cited, showed that it needs four meters deep of materials through 2,000 truckloads of backfill.

An expert who asked anonymity said this city could afford easily the amortization of the loan as it has a yearly capacity of almost P200 million as based on its P948 million budgets next year and P1 billion in 2019.

If the loan would be contracted by local government unit here for 20 years that would be P50,000,000 yearly sans the interest that would be between four to eight percent on the remaining principal loan as it declines every year.

The Local Government Code of 1991 states in Section 324 that the amount of appropriation for debt servicing shall not exceed twenty percent of the regular income of the local government unit concerned.

Department of Finance said that regular income includes the yearly internal revenue allotment from the national government and the local taxes collected.

Mayor Belen T. Fernandez and the members of the majority of the City Legislative Body did not say yet how much the edifice would cost as the local government unit is still studying it.

 Fernandez however said that its construction would be secured from funds through the intercession of District Congressman Christopher de Venecia and other entities that would intervene in behalf of this burgeoning city.

“The national government like the DPWH, Congressman de Venecia would help us,” she told reporters late last month.

She cited that there was already P150 million in the pipeline at the national government for this project.