BAGUIO CITY — The city government needs around P27 million to rehabilitate the basement of the Maharlika Livelihood Center that was razed by an 8-hour fire in early September to allow displaced stallholders to resume their business activities.

City Budget officer Leticia O. Clemente, who chairs the Maharlika Livelihood Center to Transition Committee, said that the request for funding was already forwarded to the city council for approval so that the basement can be immediately rehabilitated for the resumption of the business operations in the said area.

She claimed that part of the work to be done in the basement is the installation of the sister and the rehabilitation of the electrical system to ensure that this conforms with the standards under the Philippine Electrical Code and National Building Code to prevent the occurrence of similar incidents in the future.

At the same time, the city budget officer stated that the city government also requested the Office of the President for financial assistance to implement the partial rehabilitation of the center after the facility was turned over to the city last May following the lapse of the 50-year lease agreement between the city and the Human Settlements Development Corporation (HSDC) under the agriculture department.

Earlier, the City Buildings and Architecture office estimated some PhP350 million will be needed by the city government to fully rehabilitate the Maharlika Livelihood Center to serve as one of the city’s major economic enterprises in the future.

However, Clemente stated that the city government will explore the possibility of accessing the financial assistance from the Office of the President and whatever available fund sources in the future to be able to implement the desired full rehabilitation of the facility to serve its purpose as a center of economic activities of the city’s micro-, small, and medium enterprises. (Baguio PIO)