The Davao City government will clear its outstanding loan balance of P70 million by the second half of 2022. That means, the city will be debt-free in 2023.
“For 2022, good news for Davao City, this will be the last year nga magbayad ta og utang (that we will pay debts). After the second half of 2022, Davao City will be debt-free,” Mayor Inday Sara Dutetre said during her Special Hours program via 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR) on Monday.
She said the City Government of Davao usually pays over P200 million a year for loans.
“After that, in the annual budget of 2023, wala na tay bayaran nga interest or principal sa atong mga loans (we won’t be paying interests or principal in our loans) so that approximately P200 to P300 million will be free for use,” the mayor said.
Mayor Sara said that she will discuss this in her next State of the City Address (SOCA) set on January 24, 2022. The mayor was supposed to deliver her on December 20, 2021, but moved it early next year to sympathize with the people affected by Typhoon Odette.
A clean bill from loans is just one of the good developments amid the coronavirus pandemic. Recently, Davao City ranked eighth richest city in the Philippines, according to the consolidated 2020 Annual Financial Report for Local Government Units (LGUs) of the Commission on Audit (COA).
“That is very factual, based on Davao City records,” Mayor Sara said.
COA reported that Davao City’s wealth was at P23.664 billion with current assets (CA) of P14.172 billion and non-current assets (NCA) of P9.493 billion.
Quezon City was the richest city with P452.333 billion followed by Makati City (P238.464B) in second, Manila (P76.548B) third, Pasig (49.510B) fourth, Cebu (P34.754B) fifth, Mandaue (P32.570B) sixth, Taguig (P30.682B) seventh, Davao City (P23.664B) eighth, Caloocan (P22.203B) ninth, and Zamboanga (P19,775B) 10th. CIO
