Fire victims from Barangays Guizo and Mantuyong continue to take shelter in makeshift shanties built on the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) grounds.
CDN file PHOTO/LITO TECSON
The Mandaue City government is now working overtime to find a suitable relocation site for over 1,000 individuals who have made the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) grounds their home for over a year, with barely a week before Mayor Gabriel Luis Quisumbing signs a contract to acquire the said property.
The signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III and Quisumbing to terminate a joint venture agreement for co-management of the CICC signed in 2006, and the contract to sell the property to Mandaue City is already scheduled on Tuesday, August 22.
“We are now prioritizing our efforts in seeking a relocation area intended for the evacuees. In the meantime, we are still determining further concrete plans. We will find out everything after the MOA signing,” said lawyer Elaine Bathan, Quisumbing’s chief of staff.
Mandaue City made an offer to pay P300 million for the already dilapidated CICC building that was built for the 12th Asean Summit which Cebu hosted in 2006.
The structure sits on a 3.8-hectare property owned by the Mandaue City government.
Bathan said that half of the purchase price will be paid shortly after the signing of the contract to sell on Tuesday while the P150-million balance will be paid in two years.
“As soon as we are able to sign the agreement, we will immediately process the release of the checks,” she added.
Bathan said the two local government units (LGUs) are now doing a joint inventory of the structure and existing equipment while they also decide what to do with these.
“We met with Provincial Administrator Mark Tolentino to identify which of the items found in (the) CICC are movable and immovable. We have to clear everything out before we can develop it, and we are targeting to transfer all movable items out of there within the first quarter of 2018,” said Bathan.
Quisumbing said in an earlier interview that he intends to tap the help of a private investor partner to have the CICC demolished so this can be replaced with a commercial building.
“We are aiming for the CICC to be a prime property in which jobs will be generated and (one that) can promote tourism,” Bathan said.