The Antique provincial board has approved a supplemental budget of PHP970 million for the construction of a government center that will house all provincial offices in one building.
Antique provincial board member Noel Alamis said in an interview on Monday said they approved the request of the Office of Governor Rhodora Cadiao for Supplemental Budget No. 1 for this year after provincial administrator Nery Duremdes and other members of the local finance committee attended the session to enlighten them about the budget.
“The provincial board has decided to finally approve the supplemental budget even though it is still on second reading since they had already been satisfied with the answers by the local finance committee,” Alamis said.
During the session, Duremdes presented the letter of Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Napoleon Galit dated March 27, 2023 citing that there is no more need to obtain the DAR’s approval to convert or reclassify the agricultural land that it has acquired to non-agricultural land before it could be used for public purposes such as for the construction of a government center.
“We can proceed with the project even without the Sangguniang Bayan of San Jose de Buenavista’s action,” Duremdes said.
He then referred to the resolution of the Sangguniang Bayan of San Jose de Buenavista on Feb. 27 disapproving the request of Cadiao for the reclassification of a total of 6.4 hectares of lot that it had purchased last year on the basis that it still needed to secure the DAR, Department of Agriculture (DA) and the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) approval for lot reclassification.
Duremdes said that with the opinion of the DAR, which has jurisdiction over the agricultural land, the construction of the government center could now proceed without securing the opinions of the Department of Agriculture and the National Irrigation Administration anymore.
Antique provincial engineer Inocencio Dajao, during the session, said that the PHP970-million budget will be allocated for the construction of the three-story building that will house all provincial government offices except the engineering motor pool and the Binirayan Sports Complex that will remain on its present site in San Jose de Buenavista.
“The government center will be constructed on a design and build scheme,” Dajao said. (PNA)
