New Tagum city hall to rise next year
by JMD Abangan
TAGUM CITY, Davao del Norte (15 February) -- The P200 million worth new Tagum City Hall is expected to rise next year after its ground-breaking yesterday (February 14).
Tagum City Mayor Rey T. Uy wanted it inaugurated on a day as memorable as its groundbreaking which fell on a Valentine's Day.
He marked September 9, 2009 as the day the new Tagum City would be opened and blessed. "It's 999," he said during the Valentine's Day groundbreaking ceremony.
Standing at a 15-hectare donated lot from Davao business magnate Jesus V. Ayala, the new Tagum City Hall building will occupy an 8-hectare lot while its added amenities such as children's park, employees' mess hall and lounge, parking lots and roads will eat up the rest of the donated land.
Four-storey, state-of-the-art and modern, it is designed to accommodate about 2,000 persons by Greenlande Australia-Asia whose designing director, Sol Uy Flores, is a Tagumeņo now based in Australia.
In an interview, he described the building as modestly designed suited with the budget of the city government.
However, it features modern architecture first seen among government and public buildings, Flores said.
Not only does the edifice made modern but also its electronic services; take for particular instance its air-condition systems which would be set to automatically turn off at 11:45 a.m., giving a signal to employees to leave their working stations to transfer to the employees' hall for their lunch-break.
The air-condition system of the employees' hall at an adjacent building, will also be set to turn off at 12:45 noon, giving a go for city hall workers to proceed to their offices.
"The city hall will be made for the comfort of our employees and the transacting public," Mayor Uy said.
Meanwhile, Uy expected to save as much as P60 million to P80 million from the P200 million that the city government had loaned from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) for the building construction.
The city hall will be built through city administration to prevent wasting of funds to "kickbacks," Uy said.
Wanting its completion fast-tracked, Uy was looking at hiring some 500 workers for its construction. (PIA) [top]
