WILL the provincial government lose millions worth of assets if its land is transferred to Bohol Island State University (BISU)?
This puzzles some keen observers as the Capitol tenants are preparing to do the transfer as mandated by law, Republic Act No. 9732, or the law that converts the then Central Visayas State College of Agriculture, Fishery and Technology (CVSCAFT) into BISU.
Section 19 of the said law provides, “All assets, real and personal, personnel and records of the CVSCAFT, its units and satellite campuses in the City of Tagbilaran and in the municipalities of Bilar, Candijay, Clarin, Calape and Balilihan, all located in the Province of Bohol, as well as liabilities or obligations, are hereby transferred to the University. The positions, rights and security of tenure of faculty members and personnel therein employed under existing laws prior to the conversion into a University shall be respected.”
“All parcels of land belonging to the government and occupied by the CVSCAFT, its units and satellite campuses are hereby declared to be property of the University, and shall be titled under that name: Provided, that should the University cease to exist or be abolished or should such parcels of land aforementioned be no longer needed by the University, the same shall revert to the LGUs concerned.”
BISU main campus in this city occupies some 1.4 hectares of land along the prime area President Carlos P. Garcia avenue.
If, for instance, the worth or prevailing price of lot in the said area is P30,000.00/sq.m., then, it’s worth some P420,000,000.00. What, if the price of lot is higher than P30,000/sq.m., it would seem the province would lose over half a billion pesos worth of its assets, observers ask.
Some pose the question, would the asset transfer would have an adverse effect on the provincial government as first class province?
BISU is composed of the main campus and satellites in the towns of Bilar, Candijay, Calape, Clarin and Balilihan.
The Bohol provincial government overly dependent on the yearly National Tax Allocation (NTA) share, the former Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of over P3 billion from the national government.
Last year, it suffered an NTA cut of over P400 million as a result of the short of target of tax collection during the years of pandemic. (rvo)
