It won't be long that Tagbilaran's City Hall will be habitable again after it was allocated P114.47 million out of the P2.3 billion that President Noynoy Aquino has earmarked for Bohol's recovery efforts as a result of the 7.2 magnitude earthquake last year. City Hall operations was virtually stopped after its building suffered cracks resulting from the earthquake. City Mayor John Geesnell Yap II gave a personal commitment to rehabilitate the city landmark by personally handing out a letter to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad. The city mayor has asked the DBM to facilitate the release of the budget allocation for Tagbilaran City amounting to P114.47 million for the city's recovery and rehabilitation efforts. In fact, Sec. Abad personally visited the city mayor's residence and discussed the initiative over lunch with Gov. Edgar Chatto. Yap made this move in reference to the letter which was furnished to the office of Gov. Chatto last February 20, 2014 by Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Austere Panadero concerning the completed revalidation of the partially/totally damaged infrastructure in the Province of Bohol conducted last October and November last year.

The revalidation process was a collaborative effort of the DILG, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Provincial Rehabilitation and Recovery Plan of Bohol and the Local Government Units of the province. A budget matrix amounting to approximately P2.390 billion which contains details on rehabilitation and reconstruction costs of partially/totally damaged structures with breakdown by municipality and type of infrastructure was formulated as a result of this initiative. Last week, Aquino approved the P2.3 billion budget for the rehabilitation and restoration of the damaged city and municipal halls and public markets and other local government edifices in Bohol. This rehabilitation includes the P80-million budget for the restoration of the City Hall Building. City Planning and Development Officer engineer Estela Margate said the rehabilitation efforts have already started, with refurbishing the building's roof last May 20. She said the department offices stationed at the Agricultural Promotion Center (APC) will transfer to the would-be-refurbished City Hall next year.