PB: It’s a go to sell CICC to Mandaue gov’t for P300M

The once proud Cebu International Convention Center is now an abandoned, decrepit building and its grounds a temporary relocation site for Mandaue City’s fire victims.
CDN FILE

AT P300 million, the Provincial Board (PB) authorized Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III to sell the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) to the Mandaue City government during its regular session yesterday afternoon.

The approval to sell CICC to the Mandaue City government also meant that the mutual agreement entered between the province represented by former governor and now Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia of Cebu’s 3rd district and the late Mandaue City mayor Thadeo Ouano last 2006 is immediately terminated.

The joint venture agreement between the province and Mandaue City then was for Cebu province to own the structure while the Mandaue City government owns the lot on which the CICC stood.

PB Member Celestino Martinez III, the sponsor of the resolution, said yesterday that they would be expecting Davide and incumbent Mandaue City Mayor Gabriel Luis Quisumbing to sign the new agreement anytime soon.

The new agreement will make the Mandaue City the sole owner of the CICC.

Mandaue City will then be obliged to pay the P300 million until 2019 to the Cebu provincial government for the CICC.

The new deal will also require the Mandaue City government to pay a P75 million down payment before the year ends.

“The mode of payment will be staggered. The entire P300 million will be divided into four, so that’s around P75 million for the LGU of Mandaue to pay in two or three years,” Martinez said.

He also clarified that Mandaue City could only fully own the CICC after it would completely pay the P300 million to the province.

Mayor Quisumbing, in earlier reports, initially offered P350 million for the purchase of the CICC, but Martinez said during yesterday’s session that it was re-negotiated to P300 million.

When it opened in 2006, the CICC was the venue for the 12th Asean Summit and in 2007, the 2nd East Asia Summit was also held there.

But it was deemed inoperative following the damage the CICC structure sustained from the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that hit Bohol and Cebu and super typhoon Yolanda in 2013.

This was a year after the Ombudsman recommended the filing of graft cases for alleged irregularities in the construction of the CICC against former governor Garcia and six other Capitol officials.

Davide, then, said in 2013 that the province would not rehabilitate the CICC until the issue against the Capitol officials for alleged irregularities in the building of the CICC would be resolved.

Since then, no repairs had been done to the CICC. At present, its grounds are made into a temporary relocation site for fire victims in Mandaue City.