THE Bohol Bankers Association (BBA) is seeking the establishment in Tagbilaran City of a cash unit of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. This after the deposit volume in the province has breached the P10-billion mark. In their Resolution No. 2, the bankers headed by Manager Rodney Lumuthang of Chinabank asked President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo through Gov. Erico Aumentado for the “immediate establishment” of the cash unit as the banks need to maintain certain cash levels in any given day to meet the requirements of depositors and the business community and at the same time, bring down the carrying cost of excess cash.

In order to rationalize the cash positions of every bank, there is a need to put in place a cash unit of the BSP in Tagbilaran City , the resolution read. To note, Bohol now enjoys high economic growth fueled by the parallel growth of the tourism industry, rapid implementation of infrastructure projects and the rise in overseas Filipino worker (OFW) remittances, the bankers observed. As such, the service sector particularly the banking industry directly benefited from this continued upbeat. The multi-billion projects now obtaining, and those soon to be implemented in the immediate term will engender even more the vibrant banking industry, the BBA said, hence the resolution.

The BBA had invited Aumentado to their Christmas gathering at the Harbor View of the Bohol Tropics Resort to give an inspirational message and his policy directions for them to fit their respective programs. Aumentado asked them to make available – or expand – their windows for investors to avail of loans at very low interest rates for tourism- and agriculture-oriented projects that are Bohol 's two economic drivers. “You are all aware that we are now in the threshold of realizing the Panglao Bohol International Airport Development Project [PBIADP]. In putting up its milestones, President Arroyo has insisted that it be completed and inaugurated on April 5, 2010 – her birthday – within her and my term of office,” the governor said.

As such, the Panglao Island Tourism Estate Inter-Agency Task Force (PITE-IATF) that Aumentado chairs moved the bidding to an earlier date – the early part of the first quarter of 2008 so that the civil works can start as early as July or at least within the third quarter of the same year. “The airport will be the magnet of development and investment in this part of the country. This early several resort and hotel chains have targeted building resorts, hotels, spas and convention centers here like the Bohol Regency Resort that plans to pour in P1.2 billion,” he said. “The owner of the Regency chain said he will tap local sources to fund his project, like banks in the country,” he explained, hence the request to the bankers to expand their tourism windows.