TACLOBAN CITY- Leyte Vice Governor Carlo Loreto revealed that a possible transfer of the provincial capitol building is now being considered by provincial government.
However, it may take some time considering that the plan, which include construction of other buildings and facilities, has a price tag of whopping P50 billion.
The amount is by far higher than the P39.5 billion needed by the province to rehabilitate Leyte from the massive devastation it suffered from super typhoon Yolanda more than nine months ago.
Based on the plan, the identified site for the transfer of the historic capitol building will be in village of Campetic, Palo.
At present, the building which was constructed in 1917 and finished in 1924, is located along Senator Enage Street in Tacloban.
After the conversion of Tacloban as a highly urbanized city in 2008, the provincial government lost its administrative control and supervision over the city.
Vice Governor Loreto, who is a cousin of Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla, said that considering of the huge amount needed for this plan, it would be undertaken under the Private Public Program scheme.
He said that a Malaysian consortium has sounded their interest to do the project. Loreto, however, did not disclose the details of the project pending signing of an agreement between the provincial government and the company which he did not named.
But initially, aside from constructing a new provincial capitol building, where Gov. Petilla holds office, also being planned are buildings of different national line agencies which are presently housed at the Government Center in Barangay Baras, Palo.
Loreto said that an evacuation center is also part of the complex that is soon to rise inside the more than 70,000 square meters.
A helipad and health facilities are also being planned to be constructed in the area as well as a commercial center.
Loreto could not say yet when the plan would actually start.
Earlier, former governor and now Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla, brother of the incumbent governor, had expressed his reservation over the transfer of the provincial capitol building after Tacloban ceased to be administratively controlled by the province.
Huge amount of money to carry out the ambitious plan was the reason cited by the former governor.
