There are some pros and cons in the provincial government’s decision to sell the badly damaged Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) to the Mandaue City government, but don’t tell that to both the Capitol and Mandaue City Hall which had been pressing for the sale for some time.
Negotiations for the sale of the CICC proceeded in earnest after former Cebu governor Gwendolyn Garcia left the Capitol for the halls of Congress when she replaced her brother Pablo John Garcia and got elected as the Third District representative of Cebu in 2013.
It was expedited in the wake of the devastation wrought on the structure by the October 15 earthquake and the November 8 Super Typhoon Yolanda that both happened in 2013.
The severe damage sustained by the structure that was built in a compressed deadline in time for the 2007 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit didn’t reflect the nearly P1 billion spent for its construction.
Chief among the concerns in the CICC sale is how it would impact the graft case filed by the Ombudsman against Garcia and six other officials after 2013.
As of this writing, Garcia has not voiced her sentiments for or against the sale even with the case filed against her in relation to the construction, which her accusers claimed was anomalous and highly irregular.
The former governor had taken pride in the CICC as one of the big-ticket projects of her administration and had even castigated Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III for refusing to rebuild the structure.
Whether or not Governor Davide factored in the graft case against Garcia in his decision to sell the structure, it has yet to be known, but his willingness to sell the building makes it appear that he considers the CICC more as a liability than an asset.
Even if the CICC grounds have long been occupied by fire victims in Mandaue City, it has yet to be known if the province has settled the power and light bills the structure has accumulated over the years.
The province didn’t even settle with the firm that supposedly managed the operations of the CICC, whose maintenance costs exceeded the revenues it generated for the province.
And what about the contractor WT Construction that is charging the province P257 million for additional repairs it did on the CICC that was affirmed by the Supreme Court two years ago?
At the end of the day, the CICC sale is a small victory for Mandaue City Hall, which got the short end of the stick on the CICC deal with the province even if it owned the lot where the structure now stands.
We hope the sale will benefit Mandaue City residents in the form of a new building that will soon rise in the location, or whatever it is that their officials plan for the lot in the future.
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