The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has granted the Bacolod City government an environmental compliance certificate for the Bacolod City Government Center project Monday.

The ECC, which was received by the city only yesterday, will be forwarded to the Office of the Building Official for issuance of a building permit, Bacolod City Legal Officer Allan Zamora said. Zamora said once the building permit is issued, the construction of the project will go on full swing, especially because Hilmarc's Construction Corp. has already delivered P30 million worth of materials at the site.

HCC vice president Antonio Garcia in an interview over DYRL said that if they could get the building permit today, they will resume their operations right away.

He said there are still documents being required of them and once these are signed by him the building permit will be issued.

Garcia said there are pre-fabricated materials already at the site which they could put up right away.

Garcia said once the building permit is issued, they expect to hire an initial 100 workers to help in the construction work.

Ben Solilapsi, one of the complainants in the case seeking the declaration of the nullity of the contract between HCC and the city, said he believes the Philippine National Bank will not release the loan for the project.

In case the court rules in our favor, who will pay for the loan? He asked.

Zamora said the PNB is secured because if it extends the city a loan, the collateral to be used will be the Internal Revenue Allotment of the local government.

He said they will study what possible charges to file against the complainants. They are just waiting for the outcome of the case at the Regional Trial Court, he added.

Garcia said the pending cases are between the city and the complainants and are none of their concern at the moment. They have referred these matters to their Legal Department, he also said.

Meanwhile, the investigating team tasked by Zamora to probe the information technology package bought from the Priority Development Fund of Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella, had visited 10 public schools as of yesterday and have received almost the same complaints from the recipients.

Some of the IT package distributed to several elementary and high schools in Bacolod have no UPS, no printer, no program and in one school the mouse could not be used since it was grounded.

The investigation was conducted because of the complaint of RGMA anchorman Donard Nojas who said that records from the Department of Budget and Management show that 38 public schools in 2004 and 33 in 2005 each received a package consisting of only two computer units and accessories worth P400,000 respectively.

A teacher in one of the schools said that if they had been given the money, they could have bought several computers for their students.

Zamora said Puentevella should give an accounting of his Country Wide Development Fund or pork barrel for six years and have his accomplishments published as what other solons have done.*CGS

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