After seven years, the multipurpose commercial building near the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Post is nearing its completion.
Mayor Romeo Salda said the Department of Agriculture is set to complete the funding for the two-story commercial center, which was built to accommodate displaced traders from the vegetable trading post.
The municipality received the P14 million balance of DA for the building with only P2M remaining from the funds.
Based on the memorandum of agreement between the DA and the municipality signed in 2016, the DA was set to fund the building with P30M. The municipality then only received two tranches of funds totaling P14M as of 2019.
Last year, Salda said the municipality planned to scrap the MOA with the DA due to the lack of funding from the agency’s central office. The municipality has been following up the funding every year since the signing of the MOA.
He said the first floor of the commercial building will cater to local traders with priority given to the 17 displaced stall owners. The earlier proposal for the second floor was that it would be used for souvenir shops but Salda said after the construction, it would be submitted to the municipal council to determine its use.
“The building would be purely managed by the municipal government but we would have to report to the DA depending on the information they need from us,” Salda said.
Former Mayor Edna Tabanda originally intended the commercial building to be a cut-flower toll-packing center and multipurpose center, which will feature the champion products of the town.
The building would be part of the income generating establishments of the municipality.
The area where the building was constructed was originally a one-story structure that housed 17 vegetable traders near the LTVTP.
Salda said the commercial center is expected to be finished by the second quarter next year. – Ofelia C. Empian
