Incoming Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor Felipe M. Medalla lauds the development the Iloilo City has achieved in the past several years.

Medalla, now Monetary Board member, noted this in his message, during his visit in Iloilo City as he led the groundbreaking ceremony of the BSP Iloilo’s new and state-of-the-art building at Broadway St., Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao district on June 17.

He cited the very first time he went to the City in 1967 when he was doing ship work training for ROTC during his college days.

“Our second or third port of call was Iloilo and I was very impressed. The food was good and people were friendly. It also represented both the best of what is old and the best of what is new,” Medalla stated with awe.

His next visit happened, as he mentioned, 20 or 30 years later when he went to the University of the Philippines Visayas in Iloilo as the university’s Vice President for Planning and Finance then.

On the contrary, his third visit to the City turned out to be the most memorable for him.

“There is one thing I can never forget. We took the plane to Iloilo, travelled in the air for 30 minutes only to be told we’re going back to Manila. That was the longest trip that I have taken that after an hour, I’m exactly where I came from,” he said, citing the reason for such was due to the flooding in the airport.

In a peculiar situation, ten years after such an event, when he was part of the cabinet of then President Joseph E. Estrada, he supported the development project of that very airport pushed by Senator Franklin Drilon.

“Little did I know that the airport that we failed to land on that particular day will be this place. Talaga, destiny is destiny,” he added, referring to the site of the old Iloilo Airport where the new BSP Iloilo building will rise soon.

Being back in the city, he concluded that his old memories of what it looked like when he was 17 years old are very different from what they are now.

“I look around how different it is from the Iloilo I saw in 1967 or even the Iloilo that I saw in 1998,” Medalla said.

These developments he wishes to be pondered upon by his colleagues in the BSP, particularly the branch in this City as they are set to transfer to their new location.

Meanwhile, Iloilo City mayor Jerry Treñas recognized the change BSP will bring as it moves towards the now-considered business center of the metro – creating more employment opportunities and further prospering the local economy.

“Right on this site, a new building will rise that will pave the way for broad and convenient access to high-quality financial services and consider the interest of the general public,” Treñas said.AAL/FRG/PIA6